Grower Stories #163: Christina DiPaci

Our talk with Christina DiPaci from Paradiso Gardens

The AskGrowers team chats with Christina DiPaci from Paradiso Gardens about how the company came about and what the thought behind it was. Ms. DiPaci talks about this and a lot more, including her tips for new growers, the benefits of growing cannabis in a greenhouse setting, her favorite strains, and the brands she follows and appreciates.

---

Tia: Tell us when you came up with an idea to create the brand and what was the starting point of your business?

Christina: We started about five, six years ago and we wanted to be a part of the regulated licensed market. About that time was when the regulations were being introduced, and we kind of doubled down and assumed that they would get voted in.

And I think we are very naive in a lot of ways. But we started with pretty large, greenhouses - we started with about 80,000 square feet of greenhouse space. We thought it’d be easy but it was not really that easy and there were a lot of hiccups and learning curves in addition to the new regulations being introduced and how those were being enforced. It's been kind of an interesting ride for the past six years. We developed our brands very early on and I'm really happy that we did, but we really wanted to create brands that represented what we were about. We're very fun-loving, we’re a group of friends who really like vacations.

It also represented the legacy cannabis community. And so we wanted to be like, we have good branding and we have a very good product and speak to people who smoke, who value quality and certain strains, and value a certain level of attention to detail. So that's kind of how we came about.

---

Tia: Where are you guys located?

Christina: We’re located in California, in Monterey County.

---

Tia: What’s the ethos (credibility and ethics) behind Paradiso Gardens?

Christina: We wanted to create a brand that was really dynamic where there's a lot of attention to detail. My background is in art and design so I wanted to have something that was really well done in the cannabis space and an innovative and kind of about art and design, in a way. We were coming from a medicinal market into a recreational market and I'm a very recreational smoker and so that was the inspiration around this - we wanted to invite others to have a good time and relax from their everyday stresses.

Cannabis isn’t this overly complex thing. It can be if you want it to be but it's very simple and it just melts your problems away for a little bit and it sends you on a vacation, It's a mental vacation, not physical, but we really wanted to invite people to explore that and we wanted our branding to be engaging and eye-catching. So people wanted to share it and talk about it too because one of the most beautiful things about cannabis is sharing it.

---

Tia: Do you guys grow medical cannabis only or recreational as well?

Christina: That is a good question. All of our cannabis is recreational that we grow via our licensing. And to be very honest, I'm not entirely sure that I understand the difference, licensing-wise, between medical or recreational. I think it's very much one and the same in California at this point. And we grow for our brands so we grow recreational and supply into dispensaries that are selling recreational.

---

Tia: What kind of fertilizers do you use to grow cannabis?

Christina: So we jump-start our plants with organic fertilizers. There's a little compost, a little biochar, and there's a little bit of worm castings. And so we give them this gentle fertilizer when the clones are getting transplanted into their vegging stage. And then, once they're about 2-3 weeks into vegging, we feed with salt. So it's your traditional NPK salt-based fertilizers in a hydroponic style.

---

Tia: Speaking of sustainability, do you foster it at PG?

Christina: We try to be as sustainable as possible and we look for opportunities where we can actually make a difference. For us, that means water usage and the amount of plastic that we're using. So we try to be as conscious as possible which is often difficult in the grow process. We have to use these like plastic metrics and we go through hundreds of thousands of metric caps a year and that's like not really something we can address.

We started kind of on the other end where we took advantage of the rise of sustainable packaging. So all of our brands are very sustainable in their packaging. So they're either recyclable or they're compostable jars.

Also, we grow in greenhouses and so we take advantage of the sunlight. We do have supplemental lighting because you kind of need it but we're more sustainable than an indoor grow and we're able to produce a certain quality of flower throughout the year that, if you’re growing just straight outdoor crops, you can't grow throughout the year. And so we're kind of a hybrid between the two, and I think that's the most sustainable path.

---

Tia: How do you release your production? What kind of platforms/solutions do you use?

Christina: We have a third-party distributor that we use. We’re distributed by Kiva Sales and Services. They developed a distribution company. So we're one of the brands that are distributed with them. Awesome. They have great marketing so we get to ride the coattails a little bit from there. A big focus for us is how do you engage with the consumer when you actually don't have a dispensary? And so we have brand ambassadors and we work a lot inside the shop. So, you know, when the customers are there, we're like, “Hello, we're Paradiso. Let us introduce you to us!”

We also focus a lot on Instagram but with advertising laws, it's very challenging. We can't even advertise on Instagram - they'll shut down our account. We don't even have very much insight as to who's even looking at our account and dispensaries don't relay that information because it's sensitive. So we have no idea who's buying. So we just have this broad net that we cast and we try to be as inclusive as possible and engage with as many different types of people as possible.

---

Tia: If you could smoke with anyone on this planet dead or alive, who’d that be and why?

Christina: That is a great question! You know, I actually would love to smoke with Martha Stewart because I know she’s super cannabis-friendly and she’s also an idol of mine.

---

Tia: What are the best strains to smoke?

Christina: My favorite strain right now that we have is our Black Mamba. It’s a Gelato 41 and Wedding Cake cross, and it's beautiful! It's like dark purple, it's super frosty, and it knocks your socks off! And I think it's one of our best-selling ones right now at Paradiso.

---

Tia: Are there any brands you appreciate and follow in the cannabis industry?

Christina: So my favorite edibles are Rose edibles. My second favorite are Kiva’s. And then I really admire the breeders and the nurseries in the States. Our favorite thing about growing is trialing, so getting healthy, interesting genetics. I really like all of our dispensary partners equally, and all of our future dispensary partners.

---

Tia: You've been for years in the industry and maybe have some secrets about how to grow cannabis really easily?

Christina: I think it's much harder when you're inside because you need to deal with light and the environment. So, I think as long as you have a temperate summer, take advantage of your summer months, get a clone, or pop your seeds in March or April. Just water the thing, add some fertilizer - don't overfertilize! Just add a little bit of fertilizer when you can, take the bugs off the plants and bugs like dogs, and just let the plant do its thing. with annual automatically start flowering and just as soon as you see that, just look on your calendar and eight to ten weeks later, it'll be about done. Cut the thing, dry it for a week and you're good to go!

---

Tia: Would people strive for a high THC in the plant or just search for an entourage effect without paying attention to the THC? Why do you think so?

Christina: A higher THC is not a very good unit of measurement. And I think the entourage effect speaks to the number of cannabinoids and the variety of cannabinoids that are in there, in addition to the variety of terpenes. The way that it smells in conjunction with the variety of cannabinoids, it's going to be ultimately how it affects you which I don't think anybody knows how it really does but that's what it is.

There are little glimpses that we get which are like, you know, lavender’s a sleeping agent and citrus smells are put in cleaning products because they make us feel more energized. So people play on these things that have been studied and are in other products that we commonly use. But that is research is just getting started with cannabis and it's hard to be like, “This is gonna make me feel alert!” It's more like trying and then seeing how it makes you feel and also like a personal recommendation.

So, I really encourage all of our brand ambassadors and sales folks to really smoke our products. So that you can they can explain that to budtenders who then can explain that to customers. And so when you're smoking flower, you're getting all of the terpenes and you're getting all of the cannabinoids. When you are eating edibles for instance, in some cases, you're not getting that effect.

The reason I particularly like Rose edibles is that they use rosin as their source material and rosin is basically just smashing the bud into a liquid. When you do that and you're not introducing any solvent or anything that might strip any of the terpenes or the cannabinoids, basically you get all of them. So with those edibles, you feel different versus other edibles that are infused with distillate and you're probably just getting THC in it and there are no terpenes. So, it's not a well-rounded high.

And there's something about this plant, there's something about our endocannabinoid system that you'll be less paranoid and you'll have lower negative effects if you have more of a pure thing that you're ingesting.

---

Tia: Do you think at some point cannabis will be legal in all states? What can we do in your opinion to make it quicker?

Christina: At some point, yes. After being optimistic, I am having this sad realization that I don't think our government does things just because Americans want them to happen. So I don't think it's gonna happen in this administration and I don't think it's gonna happen in the next either. And even if it does happen, since the states have their own tax systems and their own internal operators, I don't think they would allow for states to trade with each other.

So I think it's a very slow process that I think in a decade - you know, people overestimate what happens in a year and underestimate what happens in a decade - it will actually be a very different landscape, but I don't think there's any quick change or anything to this.

---

Tia: Your advice to growers would be - …

Christina: I get this question a lot and my biggest piece of advice - and it's really what helped us along - is being humble and asking. Ask a lot of questions and reach out to people. You'd be super surprised that all of us large-scale growers are very accessible and we will tell you things! So, visiting other sites and just being a part of this community. Even in our case, if we have something that goes wrong, I take it and send it to my friends who are also growing. You’re not gonna get it perfect so just make sure that you have good folks around you, who can advise you in a way that is actually useful.

---

Thank you so much,  Christina, for taking the time to do the interview. To learn more about them, head on over to their website.