Leading national brand and top California producer gives an exclusive tour of its Los Angeles grow operations
STIIIZY took California by storm and is showing little signs of slowing down.
According to analytics firm BDSA, the privately owned multi-state operator was the No. 1 cannabis brand in the U.S. in terms of dollar sales, the top-selling brand in Arizona, California, Michigan and Nevada and the No. 1 vape brand across all its tracked markets in 2022.
“We are all about precision,” says STIIIZY head of cultivation Sean Oganesyan. “Innovate, inspire and influence — that’s what we do.”
While the brand has become immensely popular, the company has also focused on philanthropy, having donated more than $1 million to community nonprofits.
On the retail side, STIIIZY puts its highest priority on serving customers, pricing its top-shelf flower at $25 for an eighth.
“Every time we save on production, it goes back to the customer in some way,” Oganesyan says.
For the first time ever, Oganesyan allowed press into the company’s Los Angeles cultivation facilities, granting Marijuana Venture an exclusive, “Inside Look” at the equipment, processes and design powering California’s top producer.
- Lights
Oganesyan was a longtime believer in high-pressure sodium lights in his early growing days. However, he switched to Gavita LEDs because they were the first manufacturer to prove to him that the new technology was not only as efficient as HPS bulbs, but its infrared sensors would also keep the leaves at a set temperature and ultimately reduce growing costs by mitigating heat, all while providing more control inside the grow. Today, all STIIIZY’s plants at every stage are grown under LEDs.
- Media
In the grow room, plants start in Grodan rockwool cubes fixed atop larger VidaWool blocks and are fed with drippers that run directly into each cube. Once the plants develop a healthy root mass, the drippers are transferred into the larger VidaWool blocks so the plants’ root systems can continue developing uninterrupted. “Once we develop the roots in the small blocks, we don’t need to develop them anymore, they become our veins,” Oganesyan says.
- Sensors
These oddly shaped ivory boom mics hanging in every grow room are actually BAPI Sensors that are normally used in hospitals. Always looking for ways to improve on his grow rooms, Oganesyan incorporated the sensors to get the most precise environmental data possible from inside each room. In addition to the BAPI Sensors, Oganesyan also has several AROYA sensors inside each room to monitor the water content going into the plants and provide additional environmental data, such as heat and humidity readings.
- Nutrients on Demand
Early in his growing career, Oganesyan says he would regularly work with nutrient producers to feed his plants. But relying on a third party for nutrients was stifling. He wanted to start making the nutrient lines on his own, but learned that mixing rudimentary forms of the ingredients would create a chemical reaction and that he would need a compartmentalized factory inside his grow. So he built a specialized room where every ingredient needed in his nutrient concoctions could be mixed safely and accurately on demand and as needed. “I have this designed with several individual lines so that no nutrients touch each other until they hit the tank,” he says.
- Dialing in the Nutrients
Every strain has its own standard operating procedure, or recipe, to guide employees on what combination of nutrients should be sent through the drippers. During research and development, the recipes are constantly tweaked based on the data collected inside the grow rooms, and even the strains in commercial production are subject to refinements based on the collected data. While assembling precise nutrient cocktails may seem like a daunting task, Oganesyan streamlined the process to a simple control box inside the irrigation room. The gray breaker box has a series of switches that can be programmed to feed each strain by pressing a simple combination of buttons.
- Pumps
Not happy with the amount of control he was finding in typical ag pumps, Oganesyan reached out to Grundfos, a company that provides pump solutions for residential, industrial, medical and agricultural industries, and asked them to build a pump for his operation that had an agricultural output but maintained a medical standard for accuracy. He says it took nine months, but in the end, the pumps were critical in providing STIIIZY precise control for its nutrient lines, which deliver within 0.012 parts per million of the targeted amount of nutrient inside every gallon fed through the drippers. “No one has built anything that is as efficient as the pharmaceutical industry because in ag they don’t need to be as precise,” Oganesyan says. “But with cannabis you have to be this precise because just being a little off can screw it up.”
- Highly Structured
Oganesyan and STIIIZY CEO James Kim both served in the U.S. military, along with about 50 other veterans currently working for the company, and that experience has informed several processes and the hierarchy inside the cultivation. Oganesyan, a former Marine, streamlined the processes at the grow facilities to remove any need for cultivation specialists, allowing employees to learn all the facets of the operation and find a place where they can thrive. “We want them to concentrate on the plants and for it to be soothing work,” Oganesyan says. “It shouldn’t feel (like) it’s beating down on them.” As employees show aptitude in certain areas, they can begin transitioning into supervisory roles at their current site or at one of the several new facilities the company is building across the country.
- Economical, Vertical and Mobile
The giant colas and massive cannabis plants that are commonly shared on Instagram simply don’t make economical sense at larger commercial operations like STIIIZY, Oganesyan says. Instead, Oganesyan aims to keep plants under four feet tall, well-pruned for easier harvests and encased in trellis to maximize both light penetration and the growing space. In order to maximize space inside the grow rooms, STIIIZY uses a rolling rack system to allow every row of plants some horizontal movement so workers can quickly tend to each row and put the plants back in place with little disruption. A somewhat recent addition to this system is incorporating Pipp Horticulture’s vertical growing systems onto the rolling racks to capitalize on the vertical space inside some of the grow rooms.
Special thanks to Sean Oganesyan, James Kim and the entire team at STIIIZY for providing an inside look at their cultivation operation.
Do you have a cutting edge or unique cannabis operation? We want to hear about it. Email Patrick@Marijuanaventure.com to be considered for a future Inside Look.
- Lights
Oganesyan was a longtime believer in high-pressure sodium lights in his early growing days. However, he switched to Gavita LEDs because they were the first manufacturer to prove to him that the new technology was not only as efficient as HPS bulbs, but its infrared sensors would also keep the leaves at a set temperature and ultimately reduce growing costs by mitigating heat, all while providing more control inside the grow. Today, all STIIIZY’s plants at every stage are grown under LEDs.
- Media
In the grow room, plants start in Grodan rockwool cubes fixed atop larger VidaWool blocks and are fed with drippers that run directly into each cube. Once the plants develop a healthy root mass, the drippers are transferred into the larger VidaWool blocks so the plants’ root systems can continue developing uninterrupted. “Once we develop the roots in the small blocks, we don’t need to develop them anymore, they become our veins,” Oganesyan says.
- Sensors
These oddly shaped ivory boom mics hanging in every grow room are actually BAPI Sensors that are normally used in hospitals. Always looking for ways to improve on his grow rooms, Oganesyan incorporated the sensors to get the most precise environmental data possible from inside each room. In addition to the BAPI Sensors, Oganesyan also has several AROYA sensors inside each room to monitor the water content going into the plants and provide additional environmental data, such as heat and humidity readings.
- Nutrients on Demand
Early in his growing career, Oganesyan says he would regularly work with nutrient producers to feed his plants. But relying on a third party for nutrients was stifling. He wanted to start making the nutrient lines on his own, but learned that mixing rudimentary forms of the ingredients would create a chemical reaction and that he would need a compartmentalized factory inside his grow. So he built a specialized room where every ingredient needed in his nutrient concoctions could be mixed safely and accurately on demand and as needed. “I have this designed with several individual lines so that no nutrients touch each other until they hit the tank,” he says.
- Dialing in the Nutrients
Every strain has its own standard operating procedure, or recipe, to guide employees on what combination of nutrients should be sent through the drippers. During research and development, the recipes are constantly tweaked based on the data collected inside the grow rooms, and even the strains in commercial production are subject to refinements based on the collected data. While assembling precise nutrient cocktails may seem like a daunting task, Oganesyan streamlined the process to a simple control box inside the irrigation room. The gray breaker box has a series of switches that can be programmed to feed each strain by pressing a simple combination of buttons.
- Pumps
Not happy with the amount of control he was finding in typical ag pumps, Oganesyan reached out to Grundfos, a company that provides pump solutions for residential, industrial, medical and agricultural industries, and asked them to build a pump for his operation that had an agricultural output but maintained a medical standard for accuracy. He says it took nine months, but in the end, the pumps were critical in providing STIIIZY precise control for its nutrient lines, which deliver within 0.012 parts per million of the targeted amount of nutrient inside every gallon fed through the drippers. “No one has built anything that is as efficient as the pharmaceutical industry because in ag they don’t need to be as precise,” Oganesyan says. “But with cannabis you have to be this precise because just being a little off can screw it up.”
- Highly Structured
Oganesyan and STIIIZY CEO James Kim both served in the U.S. military, along with about 50 other veterans currently working for the company, and that experience has informed several processes and the hierarchy inside the cultivation. Oganesyan, a former Marine, streamlined the processes at the grow facilities to remove any need for cultivation specialists, allowing employees to learn all the facets of the operation and find a place where they can thrive. “We want them to concentrate on the plants and for it to be soothing work,” Oganesyan says. “It shouldn’t feel (like) it’s beating down on them.” As employees show aptitude in certain areas, they can begin transitioning into supervisory roles at their current site or at one of the several new facilities the company is building across the country.
- Economical, Vertical and Mobile
The giant colas and massive cannabis plants that are commonly shared on Instagram simply don’t make economical sense at larger commercial operations like STIIIZY, Oganesyan says. Instead, Oganesyan aims to keep plants under four feet tall, well-pruned for easier harvests and encased in trellis to maximize both light penetration and the growing space. In order to maximize space inside the grow rooms, STIIIZY uses a rolling rack system to allow every row of plants some horizontal movement so workers can quickly tend to each row and put the plants back in place with little disruption. A somewhat recent addition to this system is incorporating Pipp Horticulture’s vertical growing systems onto the rolling racks to capitalize on the vertical space inside some of the grow rooms.
