What is Croptober?
As fall comes quickly to the Northern hemisphere, cannabis suppliers excitedly wait for the arrival of Croptober. Croptober, or what you may know it as October, is the season where most outdoor cannabis crops have reached maturity and are eagerly waiting to be harvested.
Noticeably, the market has trended towards organic or sustainably grown products over the years and lower wholesale prices for outdoor grown cannabis. For the farmers cultivating cannabis this way, Croptober is the time of year that their hard work and effort pays off in one prosperous event.
Croptober is not a definitive time where all cannabis plants reach full maturity, but it is typical to see that the plants are ready for harvest in almost always the month of October. The plant’s genetics, climate conditions, latitude of the farm, and many more factors can determine when the harvest date is.
All the factors that go into the harvesting of outdoor grow are not only excitedly waited upon by farmers, but also the entire cannabis supply chain.
Croptober Helps the Market
In the famous Emerald Triangle, located in Northern California, the conditions are perfect for growing cannabis outdoors. Although, the majority of “Top-of-the-line” cannabis sold to retail consumers originates for indoor or green-house farms. Croptober is an example of balancing the various methods of cultivation for the market.
Indoor and greenhouse farms, alone, have proved to be unable to provide enough supply to feed the need of consumer demand. A cannabis “drought”, as it is commonly called, is a period of many months each year when top-shelf cannabis is hard to come by and as a result, prices rise. As the bottleneck of the market begins, Croptober hits and floods the market with fresh, healthy, well tested jars of cannabis joy. Allowing cannabis consumers to find products that fit their needs with a price that suits them.
As the popularity of cannabis has risen, so has the importance of educating the public about the many benefits of outdoor grown cannabis. Many retail dispensaries make sure to properly educate their staff on the unique benefits of outdoor grown and show their support of soil-based and sustainable farmers.
In the past, this shift in sales from indoor to outdoor grown cannabis can result in a bit of a clash between growers, but luckily everyone now seems to enjoy riding the waves of price shifts in the ocean which is the cannabis market.
Croptober Helps You, too!
The Emerald Cup – the world’s largest annual celebration of outdoor cannabis harvest – regularly occurs in December. This is deliberately planned to follow Croptober. Those eagerly awaited trees of happiness need time to dry and cure before their farmers can deliver optimal products to the market.
As a consumer, the joy of the holiday season (and the few months at the beginning of the following year) continue to provide gifts in the form of full-spectrum top shelf flowers. Since outdoor cannabis buds are typically grown in bulk, they provide the opportunity of sales at a lower wholesale price… which translates to lower price tags at the retail level as well.
Knowing that all outdoor cannabis sold on the regulated market has been properly lab tested for potency and purity, and is proudly labeled with the harvest date allows the consumer to know that the results of the farmer’s hard work during Croptober is beautifully resting in their care.
Obviously, the harvest season isn’t a magical button that transforms the plants into products. Farmers work long hard hours to trim, test, manufacture, and package all their products. Long hours and hard work go into providing the products we all rely upon. So next time you reach for you cannabis product of choice, appreciate the love and hard work every farmer has given to share the benefits of sustainable outdoor grown cannabis with you.