The secrets to making cannabis cultivation profitable

As the cannabis industry matures and competition stiffens, some operators yearning for bygone “good old days” have to face an uncomfortable truth: they were doing it wrong all along.

Despite years of experience and access to more sophisticated equipment such as efficient lighting, many cannabis cultivators are losing money due to preventable mistakes, including hiring the wrong vendors and purchasing clones stricken with hidden pathogens, panelists at MJBizCon’s “Cultivating Success: Building and Scaling a Profitable Grow” session said.

Hidden behind the nostalgia for higher prices and beefier margins is a creeping realization that errors in the grow room can no longer be hidden in mature, competitive markets.

“Fifteen years ago a lot of people built everything wrong,” said Cory Desloge, director of cultivation operations at Harbor House Collective in Massachusetts.

“Now we have vetted people who can help, but you still have to vet who you’re working with.”

Successful cannabis cultivators will exercise vendor discipline

Growers stressed the importance of treating vendor selection as a financial strategy, not a relationship obligation. In other words: hurt feelings matter a lot less than a hurt balance sheet.

“Don’t take it personally – it’s business. Get price quotes,” said Tony Flute, cultivation general manager and head grower at Native Nations Cannabis, a South Dakota medical marijuana operator.

“You’d be surprised how much money you can save that becomes backend revenue.”

Eden Williams, general manager at Vertical People Dispensary in Cairo, Illinois, said growers often overspend because they limit themselves when it comes to suppliers – and are stuck in a prohibition-era habit.

“Farmers shouldn’t be afraid of Big Ag,” she said. “You’ll find better prices there than specialty cannabis stores.”

The consequences of trusting the wrong partner can be far worse than just overspending, Williams added.

At a previous job, she had to figure out how to manage water flow in a facility with no floor drains. How does a cannabis cultivation operation turn out like that?

Turns out someone unqualified had “scammed their way into a job,” she said, underscoring the need to carefully select talent.

Pathogens and genetics remain silent profit killers

Even when cultivation facilities appear clean and well-managed, invisible plant health issues can wipe out entire cycles’ worth of production.

Devastating pathogens like highly contagious hop latent viroid can live inside plant tissues or seeds, making visual inspections unreliable.

Buying from vetted nurseries and conducting thorough intake checks are essential steps in preventing pathogens in a cultivation operation and avoiding monetary losses.

And operators must make sure the person running their grow actually understands how to cultivate their selected genetics within the specific environment, Williams said.

Many operators have run afoul making the leap from a smaller or hobby-scale grow to a massive commercial operation, and ensuring that a cultivator can adjust inputs to suit the strain is vital.

“Know who’s growing for you and whether they actually know how to grow in your environment,” she said.

“Genetics don’t perform the same everywhere.”

Compliance is the real bottom line

Of course, all the yield in the world is meaningless if the operation violates state rules.

“We’re in the business of profit and compliance,” Desloge said. “If you’re not compliant, it doesn’t matter how much weed you can grow.”

Panelists encouraged operators to treat compliance as an integrated workflow, not a final step. Ensuring a cultivation operation can be run without relying on excessive pesticides or produces product that will pass mold inspection is a shift that prevents costly remediation and protects long-term margins.

Key takeaways for 2026

Ultimately, panelists agreed that profitable cultivation in 2026 isn’t about cutting corners or chasing trends, it’s about tightening fundamentals.

From vetting vendors to validating genetics and integrating compliance into daily operations, growers say the businesses that succeed will be the ones that treat cultivation like a disciplined manufacturing process, not an experiment.