California start-up becomes incubator of new hort technology
Now, 8 months later and having their commercial products available on the market for less than a year, Elite Garden Wholesale has seen nothing but growth. Ever since the introduction of their first product line, the group has been working on new innovations in order to help growers achieve better results with efficient and sustainable practices.
"We are big believers in constant innovation", said Graham Farrar, who founded Elite with partners Michael Grillo, Kelly Clenet and Ash Day. Farrar explained that Elite's ultimate vision is to rethink current growing practices in medical marijuana cultivation to develop new solutions. "We all have a background in technology and product development and try to analyze the pain points of present day cultivation. Many of the techniques growers use have been around for a while, but we believe that things have changed and that there are opportunities to do things in a different and much better way."
The founders of Elite: Kelly Clenet, Michael Grillo, Ash Day and Graham Farrar.
This vision may have been the driver behind their first coincidental success; the introduction of their own nutrients product line. While there were already plenty of other suppliers and nutrient manufacturers in the market, the group approached the subject differently from their own point of view. "Most of the products on the market are too complex and we saw a clear opportunity to create a simpler system", said Elite's Michael Grillo. "We developed a nutrient product line which consists of 4 base nutrients, plus a root igniter. The base nutrients give the plants the solid foundation they need to thrive, while they can also be scientifically optimized with the addition of our other products."
After the introduction at both commercial and retail level, Elite's nutrient product line appeared to fill a gap in the market. Many growers seemed to be searching for a simpler and efficient product, and soon Elite made it even more convenient with the introduction of their own iPhone and Android app to calculate nutrient schemes with even more precision.
But the team did not sit still after that. Driven by the vision that there must be a better way for more efficient growing and irrigation in cannabis cultivation, the entrepreneurs developed the Double PotSystem. "This 13 gallon grow system enables hydroponic growers to responsibly capture drain water and runoff in order to recirculate or dispose it properly", explained Farrar. "It's a solution that is developed especially for cannabis growers who were struggling to find a grow system tailored to their industry. We rethought the entire approach of irrigation and developed a growing system for this particular plant and today's growing methods."
Farrar added that the Double PotSystem is well received by both commercial and home growers. "The current regulation in California allows medical marijuana growers to grow a maximum of six mature and six immature plants per patient, hence it makes more sense to use a Double PotSystem, as it enables growth of bigger plants, with up to one full-grown canopy per square meter."
Elite at the booth of the Total Energy Group at the Cultivate show in Columbus, OH.
The introduction of two successful products within this year illustrates that Elite is an incubator of new technology. The company has their own R&D facility where they experiment with new ideas, and they have a close connection with the leading medical marijuana operations throughout California. They also work together with a number of other companies within their sphere; from suppliers of greenhouse technology to developers of large scale commercial marijuana growth operations; they won't exclude any business from their venture. "We focus on the plant and everything in the environment around the plant", concluded Grillo. "We enjoy working with other companies who add value to that."
For more information:
Elite Garden Wholesale
info@elitegardenwholesale.com
www.elitegardenwholesale.com