What is Light Dep?

WHAT IS LIGHT DEP?

Light Dep (formally known as light deprivation) originated in the late 1980’s in Humboldt County, California. It hasn’t been until the early 2000s that it started trending throughout the cannabis industry. Light Dep is a technique used for growers wanting the benefits of an outdoor grow blended with the consistency and quality of an indoor grow—the best of both worlds.

It’s all in the name—this technique deprives plants of sunlight to trick them into flowering early. Sounds cruel. It’s not. Growers have it down to a science. They reduce the daily amount of light produced by natural sunlight by using black out tarps. The tarps are pulled and placed in twelve hour intervals. At Rogue Origin, the blackout tarps were pulled off at 7am and placed back on at 7pm. It’s a tedious and tough job, pulling and placing the giant tarps over a handful of greenhouses every day of the week at the same exact time in the heat of summer. It really pins the growers to the ground.

But the tough work is worth the payout— since the tarps are placed at 7pm in the middle of summer (where the sun still lingers close to 9pm) , the plants are eventually triggered into believing it’s fall and will begin to flower early. This is beneficial for all parties involved—for the growers, it means high quality product will hit the market well before a typical harvest season, and for the consumers, it means fresh flower in their hands sooner than expected. A win for all.

It’s a cool process to watch—the plants are still grown in the ground and benefit from the sun, yet they are offered a little more protection from the elements and from pests by being in the greenhouses. They are grown in a controlled environment which yields amazing quality flower. The flower is frosty and robust. True stunners all around. And they are coming soon to the site.