Construction is still underway at the Flowr cannabis facility in Kelowna, but there’s already plenty of growth happening inside.
“We’re seeing great harvest coming out of this facility,” Flowr director Lyle Oberg said.
Each room has about 5,000 plants, producing approximately $1 million per room, per harvest. And there are plans to build 20 grow rooms.
But the place that Flowr wants to show off is its clone room. That’s where cuts are taken from a mother plant to produce more cannabis plants. Flowr predicts the demand for clones is going to be huge.
“What you have are craft growers. We can supply other LPs (licensed producers) with clones and even individuals,” Oberg said.
Under legalization, Canadians are allowed to grow four cannabis plants.
Growing clones is a science and that’s where Dr. Deron Caplan comes in. The new Flowr employee has a PhD in horticulture, specializing in cannabis production — the first in Canada.
Caplan says bringing a PhD to a company like Flowr adds credibility to the cannabis industry.
“It brings scientific integrity and knowledge into our decisions and to try and make things systematic.”
Flowr now has more than 150 employees, most of them local. And when construction of its grow facility is complete, it will have 20 grow rooms in full production. Flowr says the future looks bright.
“The key things for those people in the Okanagan is that we will be here. This will be our grow campus. We will be growing in the Okanagan,” Oberg said.