Eagle Point, Ore. – Wildfire smoke in the Rogue Valley is having an impact on a local crop which relies on adequate sunlight.
At Butte Creek Farms in Eagle Point, marijuana plants span acres.
They have 20,000 marijuana plants growing.
Usually the peak time for those plants to blossom is in the summer sunshine here in the Rogue Valley.
But with the sun almost covered by smoke from fires across Oregon its affecting how their crop is being grown. And they estimate the financial damage could be huge.
The total financial hit could be well over a million dollars for a farm of this size,” said Butte Creek Farms Marketing Director Kevin Shlossman.
Butte Creek Farms opened just over a year ago, and already is one of the biggest marijuana farms in the entire state.
Their decision to be an outdoor farm–as opposed to a greenhouse farm–was intentional.
“We’re an outdoor farm because we get the free sunshine,” explained Shlossman.
And they rely on that free sunshine to keep their business afloat.
They need that spectrum to get all those nutrients to continue to grow and flourish like we want them to.
But the lack of sun from the thick smoke is affecting the plants growth.
“What helps the buds grow bigger is getting all the spectrum from the sun,” Shlossman said. “We’re missing out on so much of that right now that it’s really causing a damper in the plants growth cycle. The main visible affect is that they’re [the buds] not as large as they should be.”
Buds are Butte Creek’s biggest money maker. A pound of it costs nearly $1,200.
Multiply that by the bud they get from each of their 20,000 plants, and the potential financial loss could be massive.
Shlossman said despite being smaller, their first harvest’s potency and quality was normal.
However now, the ash, lack of sun and humidity are causing mold to form on some plants.
He’s hoping it won’t impact their next round of tests.
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