An Interview With Manki Farms

In a world where CBD products are popping up all over the place, Soft Secrets sat down with Benjamin from Manki Farms in Switzerland to find out more about what goes on behind the scenes, how the farm is legally run and what it takes to be a large scale, commercial farmer.

Hello Benjamin, can you tell us what is Manki Farms?

Yes, we are a producer of indoor CBD hemp flowers and we produce our own full spectrum CBD tinctures and oils as well.

When did you first get involved with Cannabis?

Difficult to say, quite some years ago, around about 20. I had my first contact with Cannabis when I saw the big brother of my best friend smoking it when I was a teenager. Later I tried it myself, but I never became a great smoker. I have been always more into the plant itself.

What is the legal framework with Manki Farms?

It is an AG situated in Switzerland. We are officially listed as a CBD hemp farmer and the police is periodically visiting us and check if your flowers are below 1% THC.

How many lights does your facility use and what lights are they?

At the moment we run 256 x Q6W Gen1 from SANlight. We will change the Gen1 lamps to the Gen2 Lamps in 4-6 weeks and we go from 196m² flowering area to 144m² but we keep the amount of lamps.

What number plants are you legally aloud at Manki Farms?

Now days a total of 2560 plants in 6L pots. We worked with 1920 in 10L pots and with 5120 in 3L and 6L pots as well, but the 2560 are working best for us at the moment.

Could you tell us about the strains you are growing and who decides?

We have grown different strains - CBD-Therapie, Jeanne d´Arc, Strawberry Frost, Erdbeerly, Bubble Gum, Fedora 17, Eletta Campane, AK47, New York Sour Diesel, Harlequin, Alpine Spirit, Remedy, Cannatonic and V1. From all this strains we mainly grow 2-3 at one time and the main strains are, at the moment, Cannatonic, V1 and Remedy.

We decide which strain is viable for us when it comes down to yield, general performance of the plants, resistance to pests and THC-CBD ratio. The strains who make it through our “checkpoint” are open for growing and we talk with your partners and customers what they like most in terms of colour, taste, smell and density and what the wanna get in the future and then we go to grow what they want.

Which strain is your favourite to grow and why?

My favourite strain is the Cannatonic. She performs well untopped and really great when topped. A lot of the buds are colourful from red to violet. The smell is great - like a bunch of different berries.

And last but not least, she's easy to harvest for us and the buds are perfect for trimming with a machine.

Can you explain the 0.3% THC rule?

Some countries in the EU, for example Austria, only allow a maximum of 0,3% THC in flowers and other products. Same in some US states. The CBD level is not relevant. There are quite some variations out there and the diversity is getting bigger. CBD strains are getting better and better when it comes down to overall plant performance.

What do you at Manki Farms with the flowers once they are grown and dry?

We sell the best looking and smelling flower (mainly the ones from the top of the plant to the middle) to our customers, mainly in Switzerland and Austria. The smaller and less good looking flowers (from the middle to the bottom) and the trim rest is taken for our ethanol extraction.

We can influence THC and CBD by light, fertilization and time of harvest, but we don't achieve the legal ratios by doing so. It has to be guaranteed and proven that the plants will be below 1% THC before you start to grow them on a big scale, the rest is just fine-tuning.

In Switzerland you can legally have upto 1% THC in your crop, does that mean a legal coffee shop culture already exists there?

As far as I have seen, there is no real coffee shop culture, but I just work in Switzerland and I live in Austria, so maybe I don't see everything happening with the hemp behaviour of people in Switzerland. But quite a lot people I know started smoking CBD flowers regularly and they enjoy that they can do that legally, still the most do not do it in public or at least not too public because they don't want to get problems with policeman not knowing what they smoke there.

They won't get a problem when they get stopped and controlled, but it really kicks you of your relaxation level when you enjoy your after work CBD cigarette and then get stopped by the police, asked what you smoke there and then get your cigarette taken to test it. So they still do it in their private areas.

Finally Benjamin...thank you very much for your time and where can our readers follow you on social media?

You ́re welcome Soft Secrets. Thanks for the opportunity, and your readers can follow us on manki_farm on Instagram. Good Luck with everything in the future.