Purpose-built equipment for cannabis cultivation and processing is essential to success in the marketplace.
You must have these products in your cannabis cultivation and processing facilities:
- LED lights
- Irrigation/fertigation systems
- Emergency power systems
- pH and TDS measuring equipment
- Personal protective equipment
- Trimming equipment
- Fertilizers
- Carbon filters
- Vertical growing mediums
- Cannabis batcher
- Gas detection/alarms
- Dehumidification and climate controls
- Bud bucker
- Trichome separator
- Racking stations
- Drying equipment
- Curing and storage containers
- Cannabis packaging
- Automated cannabis packaging machine
- Product counter
All-star games are reserved for truly unique athletes whose skills put them in a league of their own. And with each new season, a new all-star team is assembled to showcase top talent.
In that spirit, Green Vault Systems has chosen the 20 products every professional cannabis cultivation facility needs in 2023. Cannabis cultivation facilities include everything from grow rooms to end-product packaging equipment.
Green Vault Systems is one of the industry’s top packaging equipment manufacturers. As such, the products we selected for our all-star lineup are just as innovative and exceptional as our own equipment, some of which will appear on this list!
Cannabis cultivators and processors—this list will be invaluable to you going into 2023. Now, let’s get to it!
1. Grow Room Lights
When it’s time to talk about high-end lights for large, commercial cannabis grow rooms, the conversation has to start with LEDs. For seasoned indoor cannabis cultivation pros, LED lights are the be-all and end-all of artificial lighting. That’s because LEDs give growers the power to control what they’re doing much more accurately, while also being sustainable and cost-efficient.
Our Pick: Thrive Agritech
Pinnacle HP 840W LED Grow Light
Cannabis can’t grow without good light, and Thrive Agritech is an industry leader in LED lighting for grow rooms and greenhouses. This particular product is the ultimate solution for maximizing the plant production yields that drive your business.
The Pinnacle HP from Thrive Agritech:
- Offers high-intensity light for peak photosynthesis: Pinnacle HP delivers 2,350 µmols/sec without the need for active cooling such as water or fans.
- Satisfies needs with fewer lights: The Pinnacle HP boasts 840 watts, shining more than enough light onto the canopy with fewer fixtures than typical 600 watt LEDs.
- Covers the full light spectrum: HP Pinnacle has the full white light spectrum, including far-red wavelengths.
- Has a dependable track record: Known as one of the most reliable LED lights in the horticulture industry, the Pinnacle HP has a 5-year warranty and 50,000 hour lifetime.
- Is ETL Certified: The HP Pinnacle sets the standard with industry safety and performance certifications.
2. Irrigation/Fertigation Systems
Systems designed to auto-feed and irrigate are out there. Often referred to as “fertigation,” incorporating a nutrient feeding system into an automated irrigator is a popular practice in the commercial cannabis industry.
Our Pick: Agrowtek
Automation streamlines every aspect of fertigation and drip irrigation systems. These high-end systems calculate the optimal amount of nutrients and mix those crucial elements directly into the irrigation system. This results in more precise nutrient levels, more efficient nutrient delivery, less water consumption, and less manual labor.
The BDX BatchMatic Fertigation System:
- Handles commercial-sized operations: Batch-type nutrient mixing for multi-zone greenhouse irrigation and hydroponics facilities.
- Offers precision feeding system: Automatically mix recipes and correct pH according to your schedule and send the batches to the programmed zones.
- Keeps the growing operation moving: Use the system to directly feed up to 14 zones of plants or send recipes to holding tanks.
- Brings high-tech into feeding: Built-in color touchscreen display provides an easy to use interface for monitoring the sensor readings and configuring the dosing settings.
3. Emergency Power Systems
Like any other large-scale commercial effort, cannabis businesses need an industrial backup generator to ensure operations stay up and running no matter what. Grow rooms and greenhouses require a constant source of power to ensure plants receive light, nutrients, and water.
Our Pick: Global Power Supply
Generators, Power Plants, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Backup Systems, etc.
Unlike most emergency power system manufacturers, Global Power Supply isn’t afraid to explicitly mention the cannabis industry as one of its main customers. That goes a long way in developing trust within the industry. Commercial generators for greenhouses and indoor growing operations are a necessity because large scale cultivation requires consistent electricity loads to power processes such as:
- Climate controls
- Irrigation systems
- Dosing pumps
- Horticultural injector systems
- Fertigation systems
- Hydroponic systems
- Fans and air handling
- Indoor grow lightning
- Humidification and cooling systems
Global Power Supply powers cultivation with products including:
- Mobile diesel generators
- Natural gas or propane generators
- Power plants
- Precision humidity and cooling equipment
- UPS backup systems
4. pH and TDS Measuring Equipment
An expertly calibrated combination of nutrients and water pH levels is essential to strong plant growth. But simply dumping these elements into the cannabis growth medium isn’t enough; you have to measure pH and total dissolved solids (TDS) along the way. Luckily, there’s equipment for just such a task.
Our Pick: Hanna Instruments
Portable pH/EC/TDS/Temperature Meter
Easy-to-use, water resistant, and portable, this model of GroChek from Hanna Instruments measures pH, conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), and temperature with a single probe. This pH and TDS measuring apparatus is crucial to understanding the below-the-surface health of your plants, guiding you to the sweet spot of pH and TDS so your plants have exactly what they need to thrive.
5. Cannabis PPE
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a must during all stages of production. That includes cultivation, extraction, and all manner of processing. PPE significantly reduces the risk of exposure to numerous hazards, while also preventing serious injury and protecting the product from contamination.
Our Pick: GrowShield
PPE for cannabis cultivation and lab work includes gloves, safety goggles, respirators, lab coats, and hearing protection, as well as face guards. The best option for cannabis companies is a source that offers one-stop shopping for all of that crucial gear. And that source is GrowShield.
GrowShield stocks all of the OSHA-approved cannabis PPE equipment you and your team need to guard against:
- Chemical hazards
- Biological hazards
- Physical hazards
This gear includes:
- Disposable gloves
- Disposable respirators
- Protective clothing
- Face and eye protection
- Hearing protection
6. Trimming Equipment
A cannabis trimming machine efficiently trims flower buds, removing plant material and leaving only the valuable parts of the flower. While hand-trimming is traditional and somewhat therapeutic, it is also incredibly time-consuming and cost-prohibitive. Automatic trimming equipment saves time and improves quality and efficiency for professional cannabis cultivators.
Our Pick: Mobius
Built for cannabis cultivators who expect a high-quality product without sacrificing throughput speed or production volume, the M108S Trimmer from Mobius is designed with next-generation technology. This advancement in trimming tech enables hand-trim quality buds with speed, precision, and minimal product loss.
- Trims wet or dry
- Great for any strain, no matter how delicate
- Custom-engineered for precision and efficiency
- Suits any end-product requirements
- Adjustable tumbler speed
- 4x faster than the competition
- Completely customizable
7. Cannabis Fertilizer Products
Cannabis buds bursting with healthy trichomes is the ultimate goal of any cultivator. To achieve this, you need three crucial elements: light, oxygen, and water. But as any professional grower knows, you also need fertilizer.
Fertilizer is a type of plant food consisting of natural or industrially produced substances that can be applied to soil and plants to optimize growth.
Our Pick: Advanced Nutrients
Advanced Nutrients Fertilizer Products
One of the forerunners in the cannabis industry, Advanced Nutrients develops complete growing systems for cannabis that optimize all phases of the vegetative and bloom cycles. Rated as the top source of cannabis nutrients by growers at Grow Diaries, Advanced Nutrients caters to the world’s largest grower community, including home growers, licensed commercial producers, and everything in between.
Their commercial products include:
- Water soluble powders
- Bud bulkers
- Early-phase bloom boosters
- Late-phase bloom boosters
- Taste and terpene enhancers
- Flushing solutions
- And much more
8. Carbon Filters
Growing cannabis on a commercial scale can be a smelly business. While cannabis buds often emit lovely aromas, some nosy neighbors have no appreciation for these olfactory delights. But there’s more to air filtration than controlling the smell of weed. A good carbon filtration system mitigates odors from exhaust air, while also removing volatile organic compounds (VOC), mold spores, and ultrafine particles.
Our Pick: Dynamic Air Quality Solutions
Dynamic Activated Carbon Matrix
Dynamic Air Quality Solutions has made great strides as the cannabis industry has expanded. The company’s Dynamic Activated Carbon Matrix (ACM) Systems can mitigate odors from exhaust air at large commercial marijuana growing operations to meet local codes and ordinances.
Using sustainable technology, Dynamic’s products protect people and plants from airborne pathogens including mold spores, bacteria, and fungi. Their products can also remove sub-micron particles without the high energy costs associated with HEPA filtration, saving energy dollars.
9. Growing Mediums
When cultivating cannabis on a commercial scale, the right growing medium makes all the difference. In today’s modern cannabis industry, the most efficient, optimized, and cost-effective grow rooms are far more complex than row after row of dirt-filled pots.
Our Pick: Agrify
Agrify brings data, science, and technology to the forefront of cannabis cultivation. The company uses a proprietary, micro-environment-controlled Vertical Farming Unit (VFU) that enables cultivators to produce the highest quality products with unmatched consistency, yield, and ROI at scale.
It doesn’t get much more advanced than an Agrify grow system, which includes:
- Vertical farming
- LED grow lights
- Crop protection
- Turnkey solutions
- Data-driven insights
10. Cannabis Batcher
As your commercial operation scales up, the process of packaging cannabis gets more time-consuming and complicated. All batchers allow you to determine the volume of cannabis you want packaged, but the best cannabis batchers also preserve the attractive look of the dried plant and protect the precious trichomes from damage.
Our Pick: Green Vault Systems
The Green Vault Systems Precision Batcher is an industry-leading cannabis packaging machine, essential to preserving the quality of dried flower. Some batching machines use vibration to move product through the machine, and this jostling can cause severe damage to buds, leading to a subpar product.
Instead, we use gentle puffs of air, known as Air Kush Technology. The process preserves the trichomes on your flower, leading to a higher end-potency, better market price, and a consumer experience that lives up to your brand’s high standards.
11. Gas Detection and Alarms
If not properly monitored, grow rooms and extraction labs can become overrun with hazardous gasses and fumes, leading to an unsafe work environment and an inevitable shutdown by authorities. Carbon dioxide and other combustible gasses must always be kept in check. As a pro in the industry, it is essential that you keep your team members and the surrounding community safe from these dangers at all times.
Our Pick: Macurco Gas Detection
Macurco Gas Detection equipment doesn’t just detect gas and provide visual and audible alarms; it can also control appliances to mitigate gas before it reaches hazardous levels. Equipment often includes ventilation systems and mechanical interlocks that shut down the flow of dangerous gasses. Additional audible and visual alarms can also be controlled to alert occupants of unsafe levels.
Used in grow rooms and extraction labs, Macurco products include:
- Commercial gas detectors
- Control panels
- Industrial gas detectors
- Portable gas detectors
- Various accessories
12. Dehumidifier and Climate Controls
The health and wellbeing of your indoor crop relies on the climate inside of the grow room. Commercial cannabis cultivators cannot afford a misstep in this area, as anything less than an ideal climate can decimate your crops and destroy any chance of turning a profit. And a huge part of climate control is dehumidification of the grow room.
Our Pick: Cultiva Systems
HVAC and Dehumidification System
Cultiva Systems air quality control system goes beyond humidity. The company offers commercial cannabis HVAC and dehumidification systems that regulate air quality, humidity, and temperature in large-scale growing operations. These impressive units are capable of handling loads up to a 45-ton capacity.
- Streamline the process: Program your system to operate on its own, without any stops and starts.
- Solve problems quickly: If the system shuts down, you won’t have to search for the source of the problem. The system itself will tell you.
- Save time, money, and energy: A system with independent, smart controllers can monitor itself and self-diagnose problems without a human technician.
13. Bud Bucker
A cannabis bucking machine quickly and gently removes cannabis and hemp buds from the stem, utilizing rollers that grab and pull the branch through various hole sizes. These machines free up bottlenecks and amp up your efficiency, taking mere moments to do what would take a human worker hours to accomplish.
Our Pick: EZ Trim Harvesting
The Bud Bucker from EZ Trim Harvesting shines above the competition in price, speed, and quality of cut. With two sets of four entry holes, two operators can work simultaneously, giving you the benefit of two machines for the price of one. What’s more, the entry holes help guide the buds away from the center to avoid being smashed by oncoming buds further down the stem.
- Bucks wet and dry product
- Picks buds from stem without damaging the the product
- Completes the bucking process in half the time with half the staff
We all remember playing trivia games in elementary school. Classmates would face off, answer questions, and rack up points until there was an ultimate winner.
It was plenty of fun and a nice break from the typical lectures and lessons. In fact, it was often so thrilling that we completely forgot we were exercising our knowledge of a specific subject and actually learning. In our minds, we were simply playing a game—and soundly defeating our friends in the process.
That same concept has made its way into the world of work and careers. Managers across industries are incorporating gamification to drive engagement, improve performance, and help team members level up. Cannabis industry leaders have even begun to implement gamification in grow facility and processing settings, using the approach as a cheat code to ensure employees are well-versed in all aspects of cultivation and processing.
In this blog, we’ll flip open the gamification strategy book and find out how this relatively new phenomenon has grown in the adult-use cannabis industry.
14. Trichome Separator
When you want to separate trichomes from plant material using a solventless method (that is, without chemical solvents like butane or propane), you must look for a trichome separator. These machines use mechanical separation technology to separate cannabinoids and trichomes from the plant biomass, allowing you to infuse these compounds into an array of cannabis products.
Our Pick: PurePressure
One of the biggest complaints of solventless extractors is that washing the plant material complicates the agitation process. PurePressure’s Axis equipment is uniquely designed so that the washing vessel is separate from the source of agitation. This enables extractors to wash in one vessel while the next one is being filled, pre-soaked, or filtered.
- Increases efficiency and throughput
- Mimics hand paddle agitation
- Wash, filter, and collect up to 132 lb or more of fresh frozen material per 9-hour shift
- Stainless steel housing allows for easy cleaning and sanitation
- Features a joystick that’s coupled with a touch screen control panel
15. Racking Stations
Racking stations are utilized by growers looking for the most efficient growing solution that can double storage capacity and also keep plants safe. This cutting-edge innovation for indoor growers eliminates wasted aisle space and gives each plant an equal opportunity to not only survive, but thrive.
Our Pick: Pipp Horticulture
Pipp produces the top choice for indoor vertical grow systems, with uprights pre-welded for fast assembly and strength. Beams incorporate a unique “tapered finger” design attachment that locks beams safely into the uprights. These vertical racks support a variety of grow trays, while easily integrating with an array of equipment such as LED lights, airflow, plumbing, and irrigation systems.
16. Drying Equipment
Drying is one of the essential final steps of cannabis cultivation. Wet and dry trim both require this crucial phase in order to help the flower rid itself of any residual moisture. More than that, drying preserves flavor and aroma and protects the buds from mold and mildew.
Our Pick: Cann Drying Systems
Cann dyers use a fully enclosed chamber and an energy-efficient heat pump dehumidification system to precisely control the process, resulting in consistent product quality. Air is set to the optimal drying temperature, depending on whether you’re drying for flower or extraction. Air is then circulated over the product to absorb moisture.
- Dry for flower and/or extraction
- Fine tune temp, humidity, and airflow
- Tablet/smartphone controls
- Safe from mold, bacteria, and insects
- Drys 40 to 50 percent faster than competition
- Energy-efficient
17. Curing and Storage Containers
Before packaging, curing maximizes the flavor, aroma, and overall potency of your buds. In order to cure cannabis, it should be loosely packed into airtight containers, separated by strain/cultivar. On a commercial scale, you need curing and storage containers up to the task of handling large batches of cannabis.
Our Pick: FreshStor
Available in escalating sizes for large-scale cultivation operations, FreshStor produces curing and storage solutions for both cultivated dry flower (CVaults) and extracts (EVaults). FreshStor products are made with high-quality stainless steel and are built to last for years with normal use. Even with “aggressive use,” the CVault and EVault will stand the test of time.
18. Cannabis Packaging
Cannabis consumers are deeply individualistic. Whether they consume for medicinal purposes or recreationally, customers are drawn to unique branding. That’s why your cannabis packaging must stand out from the competition. But more than that, your packaging must be practical, tamper-proof, and ideal for the type of cannabis product it contains.
Our Pick: Compliant Packaging
Compliant packaging has the number one thing you need in cannabis packaging: Options. Along with a wide range of options, Compliant Packaging produces child-safe packages that also present amazing branding opportunities to further your company’s visibility on crowded dispensary shelves.
Compliant Packaging offers:
- Vials
- Mylar bags
- Exit bags
- Glass jars
- Glass concentrate jars
- Push-and-turn jars
- Pre-roll containers
- Round tins
- Rectangular tins
- Pop tops
- Parchment
19. Automated Cannabis Packaging Machine
Automation is changing everything from cultivation to packaging. In fact, automated systems are becoming the norm, with many companies realizing the potential windfall that’s possible when you integrate set-it-and-forget-it technology into the many layers of the cannabis industry.
Automated packaging systems don’t just speed up the packaging process; they reduce manual labor costs, produce more accurate package weights, keep your product fresher longer, and better represent your brand.
Our Pick: Green Vault Systems
Green Vault’s automated packaging system boasts an intuitive layout. It’s also incredibly versatile; it can be used for jars, cans, bags, pre-rolls, and most other packaging options. Delivering on speed and precision, this automated packaging solution is fully scalable, cost-effective, and will help processing centers better compete in the crowded marketplace.
The Green Vault packaging operation is fully customizable, with options including:
- Feeding and indexing
- Weight and content verification
- Cap and lid application
- Modified atmosphere
- Tamper-evident sealing
- Labeling
- Carton filling (Robotics)
- Batch delivery systems
- Pouch filling
- Sealing
- Weight and content verification
- Printing
- Filling and forming
20. Product Counter
Knowing the precise amount of product you’re putting out into the retail world helps you keep track of inventory, fine-tune processing operations, and accurately predict profits. Employees often make mistakes when counting, and when that happens, they have to start all over again, causing a significant loss of time and money. Opt instead for a digital product counter.
Our Pick: Green Vault Systems
Accurately count products and packages with Green Vault’s high-speed product counter. Designed to count products of all shapes and sizes, the GVS product counter uses precise sensors and a digital display to eliminate labor and counting errors. As an operator feeds product into the machine at speeds of more than 100-plus pcs/min, this advanced equipment records an accurate count.
