Once upon a time, I started a cannabis company…
The year was 1999.
And already, for sixteen years, I’d been obsessed with discovering every way possible to maximize the potency and bud weight.
Genetics, temperature, light, humidity, CO2, timing, water quality, pH levels, and root medium all played a role.
But the area that held the most promise was nutrients.
At the hydroponic store I owned, we carried many fertilizer brands. But I didn’t use them in my gardens. Hadn’t for a long time.
You see, since I began growing in 1983, I’d scrutinize the ingredients on nutrient labels, wondering…
Is this really intended for cannabis?
Was it made by growers, for growers?
How much research had the company done on marijuana?
Where’s the science?
I called every hydroponic nutrient manufacturer in the US and Canada and asked if their products had been tested on cannabis.
Time and again, the response was some version of…
“Our products are NOT for growing marijuana! Marijuana is illegal!” Click.
I was actually yelled at for mentioning “marijuana.” Crazy, huh?
These companies did everything they could to distance themselves from the cannabis community.
Their ads displayed beautiful pictures of roses, tomatoes, and azaleas.
What they didn’t contain was a single cannabis plant.
In fact, not one reference to cannabis could be found anywhere in their literature or advertisements.
But their ads filled the pages of industry magazines such as High Times, because that’s where the money was.
They didn’t make it off tomato farmers.
They made it from cannabis growers.
Without us, they wouldn’t have been in business. We paid their bills, sent their kids to college, and bankrolled their lifestyle. Yet they treated us like shit.
If their products kicked ass, maybe I would’ve been able to forgive their attitude toward our community. Or at least used their products in spite of the way they treated us.
But their products did NOT kick ass.
Not even a little.
They made fertilizers for general gardening, like tomatoes and roses. NOT cannabis.
Regardless of what the nutrients companies wanted their customers to believe, different plants have different needs.
And…
Cannabis has VERY specific needs
Since my goal had always been to grow the best cannabis possible, why would I use nutrients for tomatoes?
Wouldn’t it make sense to use nutrients optimized for cannabis?
Growers know that cultivating the absolute best cannabis possible starts with the strain, of which there are thousands.
And each strain has a genetic ceiling—a limit to how much THC it can produce. A plant with a genetic ceiling of 9% THC will never produce buds with 33% THC, no matter how ideal the conditions.
But neither will a plant with a genetic potential of 33% THC if it’s grown in dry, compact, high alkaline clay and fed nutrients that aren’t made specifically for cannabis.
The best crops come from seeds—or clones—that have a DNA structure capable of producing high amounts of THC, and are grown in the optimal environment for THC production.
That environment must include the right combination of light, CO2, temperature, humidity level, root medium, quality water, pH levels, and macro and micronutrients.
While I was friends with many of the top growers in the world, I’d given so much of my life to fitting all the pieces together, that I’d come closer to unlocking cannabis’ genetic potential than anyone I knew.
My Buds Pulled $400-$1,000 More
Per Pound Than Anyone Else’s
And the central factor was nutrients.
But no matter how superior my cannabis, I wasn’t satisfied.
I KNEW there was still room for improvement.
That I (or ANYONE, for that matter) had yet to uncover the plant’s true potential.
I’d long been concocting nutrient mixes from raw ingredients and testing them on my crops.
I often ran dozens of experiments simultaneously. With each winning result, I upgraded my formulas and ran more tests.
I put my homemade nutrients up against every brand on the market and blew them all out of the water.
I shared my recipes and nutrients with fellow growers. Many urged me to get into the nutrient business.
Hmm…
Expanding my research and purchasing only the highest quality raw materials would be expensive, so I’d need to sell my nutrients for more than most brands.
But, with my nutes, growers would produce heavier yields of better cannabis than they could with my competitors’.
This meant they’d have more pounds to sell, and could sell each pound for more money.
CERTAINLY they’d be willing to pay more for nutrients that could increase their profit margins by so much.
I did the math and the opportunity made sense for me.
But more importantly…
I had a blast testing and tweaking my nutrient formulas.
Few experiences beat the thrill of discovering a new winner.
And with cannabis and business being my two passions, the idea of building a nutrient company was exhilarating.
Distributing my fertilizers to growers on a mass scale would also enable me to invest in more experiments, under stricter conditions, using superior methods.
All of which would move me closer and closer to my mission of realizing the plant’s full genetic potential, and in doing so, improve the quality of cannabis across the world.
Now THAT would be awesome.
Unlike the rest of the hydroponics industry, I wouldn’t hide behind tomatoes.
I’d be honest.
I’d advertise that my fertilizers were for growing the best damn cannabis possible.
I’d give growers what they want.
Every grower I knew wished they could buy nutrients designed for their crops.
And, like me, they wanted to do business with companies that told the truth.
Our community deserved that.
But it simply wasn’t available to us.
I’d be the first to offer it.
I’d shoot straight and bond with my fellow growers over our shared love of cannabis.
Growers couldn’t relate to the CEOs of the big ag chemical companies. Those corporate fat cats lived in a different world.
They didn’t have the first clue what it was like to be a pot grower.
But I did.
Over the years, I’d encountered every challenge imaginable…
I’d been stalked by law enforcement and ripped off by thieves.
I’d battled diseases, pests, pH issues, and equipment and timer malfunctions.
I knew all the variables that could kill a crop.
I’d had my entire future hang on the success of one grow room (that almost burned down).
Every problem that plagued my fellow growers, I’d dealt with in spades.
And I had the solutions and loved and revered the community in ways the CEOs of the big ag chemical companies never would.
I’d do things differently.
Every team member at my nutrient company would treat growers with respect and appreciation.
We wouldn’t end calls with our customers at the first mention of marijuana or shame them for their principles and beliefs about cannabis.
Instead, we’d give them all the guidance they needed and answer all their questions.
The possibilities were endless.
It was so simple yet so groundbreaking because not one nutrient manufacturer was doing it.
The status quo was appalling.
Time to build the kind of company the cannabis community deserved.
Time to launch…
The World’s First Complete
Cannabis Growing System
Fast forward to 2021 and Advanced Nutrients has been around for 22 years.
And we’ve never once hidden behind a tomato.
From day one…
I made it clear Advanced Nutrients was developed by cannabis growers for cannabis growers.
Most important of all, our nutrients had to remain head and shoulders above the rest.
A little better wouldn’t cut it.
The fact that all the other nutrients available to growers were, at best, so-so, meant I had no excuse not to design fertilizers light-years ahead of every other product line on the market.
And the key was research.
As growers flocked through our doors from hundreds of miles around, buying all the Advanced Nutrients they could get their hands on…
I worked full-time researching and improving our line.
I spent fifty-plus hours a week in university reference libraries, scouring the pages of every book, magazine, and research paper on botany I could find.
I invested in hard-to-find research books with price tags in the thousands.
I dug up obscure Russian cannabis research papers from the early 1900s and had them translated into English.
I dissected the pages like a theologian dissects the Bible.
I ran extensive cannabis testing with the research departments of the British Columbia Institute of Technology and the University of British Columbia.
With the help of the universities, I submitted thousands of tissue samples from all parts of the cannabis plant for testing, enabling me to discover the many ways nutrients impacted factors such as growth, flavor, and cannabinoid production that not a single person on the planet was aware of.
I was driving the science of cannabis cultivation forward, and using the data to optimize the Advanced Nutrients line.
Instead of just selling nutrients, we were the only company in the hydroponics industry to offer a complete cannabis growing system that took care of all phases of cannabis development, from seed to senescence.
We’ve since made 53 breakthroughs that have revolutionized the industry and are the #1-selling line of cannabis-specific fertilizer in the world.
We have more cup wins under our belt than any other brand and growers in 107 countries rely on our nutrients to cultivate the safest, cleanest, sweetest, stickiest, strongest flowers possible
In fact, if you grow or consume cannabis, you’ve benefited from our innovations.
There’s not a cannabis grower or consumer in the modern world who hasn’t.
Today Advanced Nutrients does over a quarter-billion dollars in sales a year.
We’re the #1-selling cannabis fertilizer line and the most profitable company in cannabis.
And our success has enabled us to donate millions of dollars of cash and nutrients to help our community and the world at large, both directly and through our charity arm Humanity Heroes.
Because of YOU supporting our brand, we were able to …
Help growers impacted by the Saint Vincent volcano — We donated over $100,000 worth of nutrients to growers whose crops were destroyed in the recent eruption of the La Soufrière volcano in Saint Vincent (we were the first international cannabis aid that came forward to help).
We also helped growers who were victims of the Bear Fire — We donated $125,000 (monetary donation) and $125,000 worth of Advanced Nutrients products to growers impacted by the Bear Fire in Oroville, California.
We were are able to help because of YOU.
To learn more about Advanced Nutrients visit our official website HERE.
And to get help with your crop, call our unparalleled Grower Support at 1-800-640-9605. We will do everything we can to help you cultivate the largest yields of the most potent cannabis possible. (Read about one grower’s experience with our support HERE).
It’s what we’re here for.
Talk soon,
BigMike
