The Smell of Cannabis... Farming

[Ben]

Outside city limits here means who is controlling the zoning. Yes, we have county (non city limit) areas that resemble what you would find in a city/town area.

There is a ton of the latter in CA. I don't see that so much (so far) in ID, but in CA, "city limits" is mostly a legal demarcation these days, and city structure might be twice the size of the city boundary.

[Ben]

I might buy $150k install costs, but not $15k/month ongoing expense.  That is probably a worst case overkill system.

I guarantee it's an overkill system, but it's Santa Barbara. You simply have to have lived there to really understand the crazy regulations. Obviously it will partly depend on the size of the operation and how many greenhouses they have.

Plus the electricity cost to run them is going to be more outrageous than you can imagine. "high usage" tiers can run around $0.50/kwh. While solar is popular and workable there, I'm not sure that greenhouses could use it. With land costs there, every square inch is going to be utilized, so you really can't put an array on the ground, and I doubt it would work well to cover part of a greenhouse with solar panels.

[Perd Hapley]

I've driven past hemp fields once or twice, and didn't notice a smell. Then again, my nose barely works, and I never smelled anything when people smoked weed in my barracks room. Do hemp fields have the same smell?

[Ben]

I've driven past hemp fields once or twice, and didn't notice a smell. Then again, my nose barely works, and I never smelled anything when people smoked weed in my barracks room. Do hemp fields have the same smell?

I was thinking they don't, but was unsure and curious as well. Waiting for the APS pot experts to weigh in. 

[Perd Hapley]

I was thinking they don't, but was unsure and curious as well. Waiting for the APS pot experts to weigh in. 

I wonder if cannabis is one of those things, like guns, where everyone thinks they're an expert.

[Jamisjockey]

I guarantee it's an overkill system, but it's Santa Barbara. You simply have to have lived there to really understand the crazy regulations. Obviously it will partly depend on the size of the operation and how many greenhouses they have.

Plus the electricity cost to run them is going to be more outrageous than you can imagine. "high usage" tiers can run around $0.50/kwh. While solar is popular and workable there, I'm not sure that greenhouses could use it. With land costs there, every square inch is going to be utilized, so you really can't put an array on the ground, and I doubt it would work well to cover part of a greenhouse with solar panels.

CA residents:  Legalize weed, we want our freedom to toke!
CA Government they voted for: Okay, so it's legal but we're regulating the *expletive deleted*it out of it so it's too expensive for small farmers to go legal
CA Pot farmers:  We'll just grow anyways
CA Government: Got a permit? 

Typical jack booted government fashion is going to ruin the small farmers and make it so only large operations can run at a profit.
Won't be long and Bayer or RJ Reynolds will get weed subsidies passed.

[MillCreek]

I can think of at least four commercial grow operations within about six miles of the house. A couple of them are in greenhouses, albeit they are behind high walls with barbed wire and cameras, and the others are in business parks in the usual concrete tilt-up buildings.  I ride my bicycle by them all the time, and I do not smell anything, so perhaps the state/county/city require some sort of odor control, since I have been inside two of them and the smell inside was very noticeable. 

[Ben]

I can think of at least four commercial grow operations within about six miles of the house. A couple of them are in greenhouses, albeit they are behind high walls with barbed wire and cameras, and the others are in business parks in the usual concrete tilt-up buildings.  I ride my bicycle by them all the time, and I do not smell anything, so perhaps the state/county/city require some sort of odor control, since I have been inside two of them and the smell inside was very noticeable. 

Geography and climate could certainly play a roll. The area in the OP has the wind (generally) coming in from the ocean, and high mountains directly behind it, plus is subject to strong marine inversions. That all contributes to lack of dispersion.

[Ben]

An update on the smells, the anti-smell device, and, apparently, Armenian mobsters. 

https://www.independent.com/2019/06/07/cannabis-farm-passes-a-smell-test/

[WLJ]

Can not stand the smell of cannabis, smells like really bad foot odor to me.

[BobR]

We have been getting a "skunky" odor every time we drive down one particular road in a small town close by. It finally dawned on me it isn't a skunk in the area (industrial area) but could be an indoor grow. I pulled up the map of where stuff is in WA and sure enough there is a "processing" facility in one of the buildings. More eye opening was the number of grow operations and retailers in the state for such a young industry.

https://data.lcb.wa.gov/stories/s/WSLCB-Marijuana-Dashboard/hbnp-ia6v/


bob

[MillCreek]

^^^And I recently read in the papers that Oregon has something like a six year supply on hand right now.  The growers have far outstripped the demand.

[MillCreek]

An update on the smells, the anti-smell device, and, apparently, Armenian mobsters. 

https://www.independent.com/2019/06/07/cannabis-farm-passes-a-smell-test/

The article actually used the phrase 'nip such issues in the bud'.

[Ben]

We have been getting a "skunky" odor every time we drive down one particular road in a small town close by.

Driving down the road this morning, I smelled an actual roadkill skunk, and it reminded me that  I think I prefer that smell to skunkweed. 

[WLJ]

^^^And I recently read in the papers that Oregon has something like a six year supply on hand right now.  The growers have far outstripped the demand.

Here comes The Great 2019 Pot Crash

[Ben]

^^^And I recently read in the papers that Oregon has something like a six year supply on hand right now.  The growers have far outstripped the demand.

Other than the supply and demand problem from the grower side (from the profit viewpoint), OR seems to have handled pot legalization way better than the other West Coast states. Seems like they are not over-regulating, which certainly seems to be the big problem in CA that is even bringing in the Russian and Armenian mobs and other black market solutions.

I wonder if they have some of the same smell complaints as CA, or if growers there are staying well outside populated areas?

[Ben]

It appears the LA Times has picked up on this and more. Apparently Santa Barbara county, with 2% of the state's land area, holds 35% of the pot permits. No wonder it stinks so bad there (in more ways than one).


https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-santa-barbara-pot-grows-20190612-htmlstory.html

[WLJ]

It appears the LA Times has picked up on this and more. Apparently Santa Barbara county, with 2% of the state's land area, holds 35% of the pot permits. No wonder it stinks so bad there (in more ways than one).


https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-santa-barbara-pot-grows-20190612-htmlstory.html

Frito Lay can't keep up with the demand there