In just the past several months, there has been a sudden spike of interest throughout California in the purchase of existing greenhouse properties. Professionals in the field are well aware of the time needed to secure permits for new greenhouse construction and the relative ease of retrofitting existing structures, even those that are seemingly abandoned, which are considered to be grandfathered in to any planning laws.
Already two large Salinas-area greenhouses have been sold to cannabis investor/grower groups and many more greenhouse owners are being actively courted.
Andy Easton writes as an independent orchid hybridizer whose plants will shortly become “homeless” (“greenhouseless”?) as an ancillary to one of these greenhouse sales. "Now although we export orchids to Europe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Colombia on a regular basis, and maybe the world cannabis market will far exceed our meager contribution to US exports, I suspect that the California hub of orchid expertise in Salinas may well be seriously diminished in the very near future. Once lost or moved overseas, this valuable resource will likely be lost forever to this country. As my specialty interest is the genetics of the Orchidaceae, I am sad to think of a current heritage that will likely be squandered."
