See how medical marijuana is grown on Long Island

People may refer to it as weed, but marijuana sure doesn't grow like one.

The cannabis company Columbia Care painstakingly nurtures 30,000 square feet of medical marijuana plants at a greenhouse in Riverhead, Long Island's only commercial pot-growing operation.

Columbia Care, a Manhattan-based firm with operations in several states and the European Union, is one of 10 companies in New York authorized to sell medical marijuana, which is prescribed for a variety of ailments. The publicly traded firm began growing cannabis in Rochester seven years ago and then expanded its operations on Sound Avenue in Riverhead last September. 

Since the state legislature legalized recreational marijuana last spring, the state Office of Cannabis Management has been drafting rules for the industry, including license requirements for businesses involved in every part of the sector.  Last week, the agency awarded conditional licenses to three East End farms that may soon grow pot for the general market. Regulators plan to start accepting and reviewing applications for all types of licenses by the end of 2022, executive director Christopher Alexander has said.

Columbia Care wants to expand into the recreational market, and if licensed, could cater to new customers by quickly ramping up production in Riverhead, said Ngiste Abebe, vice president of public policy.

The company's current operations don't span all 34 acres of the greenhouse space Columbia Care bought for $42.5 million last April. But their output keeps the 17-member team on their toes.

Staff walk seven miles a day while tending to 6,000 to 8,000 plants, said Eric Semler, greenhouse cultivation supervisor at the time of Newsday's tour last month.  Tens of thousands of gallons of water nourish the crop. And 17,000 ladybugs protect it.

Each week, workers harvest  enough cannabis flower — the part of the plant with the highest concentration of the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) compound that produces a high — to fill thousands of small tubs for sale at dispensaries. 

"I'm never bored," said Semler. "It’s just like having an infant. You feed it right; you educate it, and you have a good child."

Here's a look at how Columbia Care produces cannabis for patients. 

The matriarchs move in

Semler said all the plants in the greenhouse descended from roughly 20 plants grown at Columbia Care’s cultivation center in Rochester. These so-called mother plants were driven more than 400 miles to Riverhead, following the state's medical cannabis security regulations. 

Staff trimmed short sections off the mother plants and spent three months nurturing them into plants that span three to four feet. Semler said this process, called cloning, is a more reliable path to quality product than planting seeds.

Mother plants age out of their role every three months and are diced up and disposed of, Semler said. A new generation of plants take their place.

New plants are incubated

Staff cut more than 1,000 clippings a week. Workers then anchor the shoots in small domes to begin rooting in a highly controlled environment, where the amount of light and water are carefully regulated to protect the delicate plants. 

The domes are kept in dim lighting for the first few weeks, because too much light at this stage could kill the plants. 

When roots poke through the domes, the young plants are ready to move out. 

Clones shoot up

The crop starts a multi-week trek across the vegetation or "veg" room, moving through a series of bags  and pots that gradually increase in size.

Sunlight streams in through the windows on the ceiling. LED lights illuminate the room at night.

Fans whir overhead, providing the airflow needed to prevent mildew and pests from taking up residence on the plants.

The team checks the moisture content and nutrient levels of the plants each day. The measurements indicate when workers should water and what nutrients to include. 

Columbia Care is installing an irrigation system that will automate some of this work, but workers initially used hoses to water the 6,000 to 8,000 plants in the facility, Semler said.

"Each one gets individual care, just like if we only had one plant," he said.

Near the end of the plants’ stint in the veg room, staff trim everything except nodes with the most promising buds. The pruning ensures that plants don't waste energy on leaves or flowers that get too little sunlight to flourish. Staff strive to set the stage for 25 to 60 colas — clusters of flower — per plant.

Flowers bloom

The plants spend the second half of their lives in the bloom room, which is similar to the veg room, except the lights are turned off overnight. Periodic darkness simulates autumn and pushes the plants to produce flowers.

Columbia Care uses ladybugs and other beneficial insects to protect the crop, instead of chemical pesticides.  Staff released more than 17,000 ladybugs into the greenhouse around the time production first came online. 

“We have a bug army that keeps our crop clean,” Semler said. “It’s organic.”

Workers conduct environmental checks at least three times a day, which contributes to the 6 to 7 miles Semler said he walks each shift. His team relies on sensors placed throughout the greenhouse to maintain a nurturing environment when they aren’t around.

Cannabis is cured 

Workers cut nodes with flowers off hundreds of plants a week and hang the trimmings upside down in the dry room.

The bouquets shrink and harden over the course of the two to three weeks they spend in the dry room. A pine smell permeates the entire greenhouse, but the scent takes on an herby note and grows particularly strong in this area.

Workers monitor and adjust the moisture level of the harvested flowers;  too damp of a flower may grow mold, and an overly dry bud may be too brittle to smoke, said Randy Chipman, facility operations manager.

The nodes are then placed in containers that must be “burped” or exposed to fresh air daily, which further regulates moisture levels, Chipman said.

X-rays purify the pot

In a process called bucking, workers pick off flowers and leaves close to the bud that are coated with THC. 

The bucked material is separated into flower and byproduct or trim. The trim is sent to Rochester, where it will be turned into an extract that goes into edibles, vape cartridges and other products, Chipman said.

 The cut cannabis flower is poured into cardboard tubes lined with black bags and placed in an X-ray machine the size of three refrigerators. The flower spends hours in the machine, which will kill microorganisms and sterilize or eradicate any contaminants, Chipman said.

"Why black [bags]?” Chipman said.  At this stage “you don't want the bud exposed to light because it will diminish the THC.”

Product gets packaged 

The flower is sorted, weighed and packaged using special automated equipment that places the right amount of cannabis into plastic tubs along with a packet that controls humidity levels. The weekly harvest fills thousands of 3.5-gram and 7-gram containers. 

Ten samples are sent to a lab that's not affiliated with Columbia Care for testing. The rest of the containers are kept in a climate-controlled environment until the analysis is done, which can take two weeks, Chipman said.

The lab reports the level of THC and cannabidiol (CBD) — a compound used in wellness products — in the batch. This information is printed on labels that are placed on the containers. 

Columbia Care drivers pick up the tubs and distribute them to the company's dispensaries as well as other licensed medical marijuana firms, Chipman said.

"Every week we clone, and we harvest — every week," Semler said. "It's perpetual."

By Sarina Trangle

sarina.trangle@newsday.comSarinaTrangle

Sarina Trangle covers affordability and cost of living issues and other business topics. She previously worked as an editor and reporter at amNewYork.