William Windham got his start in cannabis cultivation in year one of Colorado’s adult-use sales, riding out the tumultuous early years when producers and retailers were figuring everything out on the fly and rules were changing constantly.
“As a result, the market matured naturally from a crawl to a walk to a run,” he says.
By the time he made the move to Massachusetts and took on the role as vice president of cultivation for Root & Bloom, Windham was uniquely qualified to handle the accelerated pace of growth.
“In comparison, the adult-use market in Massachusetts feels like it was shot out of a cannon as a baby,” he says.
After working through numerous cultivation styles and methods, Windham focuses on cleanliness above all else to keep Root & Bloom producing top-quality cannabis and passing the microbial and pesticide tests that haunt many growers in the Bay State.
“Our team spends roughly half their time cleaning, and we refuse to spray anything on plants after they start forming flowers,” he says. “We rely heavily on scouting and we build in the ability to cull without impacting yield. Environmentally, we focus on airflow and filtration which costs more in materials and labor up front, but it results in a product that we are proud to offer the community and thrilled to consume, ourselves.”