A marijuana cultivation company, which has been deemed the “Tesla of cannabis” by the investment community, is on the verge of bringing the benefits of indoor and outdoor horticulture to a single facility.
Tantalus Labs, which, according to Business Insider, just finished construction on a cultivation site that is designed to provide cannabis producers with the flexibility of farming through the near perfect conditions associated with indoor operations, while also giving them access to natural sunlight and water to expedite the growing process.
The product will be available in the early part of 2018.
The title “Tesla of cannabis” was given to the company by a Canadian angel investor named Shafin Diamond, because he believes Tantalus is pushing the same type of innovations for the cannabis industry as Tesla has done with its version of the automobile.
While the cannabis plant does not need all of the bells and whistles of indoor science to grow into the wonderful plant that it is, the regulations in most legal jurisdictions have forced growers to work primarily in this fashion, which is causing energy concerns.
It is for this reason that investors revere the Tantalus’ grow bunker as a game changer.
“Why is it that this industry was driven indoors? The core reason was stealth,” said Dan Sutton, founder and managing director of Tantalus Lab. “It’s a lot easier to hide plants in basements and in bunkers than to cultivate it in the light, because it is federally illegal.”
It has been five years since Tantalus Labs first began to explore advancements for how cannabis is grown. The design that has emerged is the result of a team of scientists and engineers digging into the argriculture industry to copycat some of the best methods for producing solid yields. The overall goal was to create a concept that provides growers with consistency across the board, while maintaining “a pharmacological standard,” Sutton said.
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Interestingly, these new facilities do more than just let in natural sunlight, they also come complete with a system that catches rain, filters it and then allows it to be pushed through the facility’s irrigation channel. And with so much focus lately on dangerous mold infecting products, the bunker comes with a unique ventilation system that cycles new air throughout the facility every seven minutes to lessen the risk of these types of contaminations.
Tantalus Labs says their product is really about bringing nature back to cannabis cultivation.
“Nature has done an excellent job of cultivating plants for the last billions of years. The closest we get to a natural strategy, the more effective we are,” Sutton said.
