GARDEN
ZION GARDENS
SMALL-SCALE, RESEARCH-HEAVY CANNABIS CULTIVATION DEREK GUMIN
THE PEOPLE On the north side of Las Vegas, there’s an up-and-coming garden with a modest mentality taking an unconventional approach when it comes to cannabis farming. Zion Gardens has been licensed and operational for three years as an under-the-radar cultivation. Aaron McCrary, Zion’s director of cultivation, and his business partner, Judah Zakalik, took an intentionally non-traditional attitude in the way they entered Nevada’s booming marijuana market. “Many companies jump in head-first, with massive facilities and staff. We have a different mindset at Zion Gardens,” McCrary maintains. “We’re watching this market develop and keeping our team tight-knit until we’re ready to vertically integrate. We’re also looking at the different ways that this plant can evolve, and have been focusing on research development.” McCrary is a brain tumor survivor. In fact, he’s still living with one; a big part of his passion and dedication to growing quality cannabis stems from his medical experiences. His humble approach is to fine-tune Zion’s research in order to provide the most medically beneficial flower to patients looking to make cannabis a part of their lifestyle.
THE PLACE Inside their 6,000-square-foot facility, Zion Gardens actively cycles through about a dozen strains in different phases of growth inside retrofitted shipping containers. Developed inhouse, these modular growing spaces are used as microenvironments to research the varying effects different lights and watering cycles have on strains like Orange Fruity Pebbles and Forum Cut GSC. “Everything we do is small batch, similar to a microbrewery,” McRary says. “These are micromanaged plants that are hand-trimmed and hand-watered. Right now, we’re growing and researching in about a quarter of our space. We will eventually grow to utilize about 5,000 square feet for active canopy, and that’s when we plan to hit the marketplace with some serious vigor.”
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