While millions of Americans are getting ready to enjoy the summer for the first time in over a year, the cannabis industry is already gearing up for the upcoming fall harvest. Taking place between October and early November, the period is called Croptober, and it is a time when roughly 80%-85% of the cannabis industry’s outdoor cannabis is harvested. 

The reason why the industry harvests the majority of outdoor cannabis during this specific period has to do with the plant itself. Cannabis is an annual plant, which means it lives out its entire life cycle in a single growing season. 

Planted in the early Spring, the cannabis plant starts to produce buds in Fall as the days start to shorten, typically becoming ready for harvest around mid-October. For outdoor cultivators, this is the only time of the year they will harvest their crop, so it is both a time of celebration and great stress.

In many of the parts of the country where cannabis cultivation is big business, like the fabled Emerald Triangle in Northern California, Croptober has taken on an air akin to many of the harvest festivals celebrated throughout the world. 

Cannabis farms often give tours, parties are thrown, and while consumers can’t pick buds off the plant like apples, there is an influx of cheap high-quality cannabis. It is this celebratory atmosphere that first attracted Case Mandel, the Co-Founder of Cannadips, to set up shop in Humboldt County.

“I first visited Humboldt County in 2003 when I right out of High School,” Mandel recalls. “There were so many beautiful farms and incredible cultivators. I was completely astounded.”

Cannadips CBD manufacturers a smokeless CBD pouch that works as a dipping alternative. With a retail footprint of 6,000 stores, Cannadips CBD is one of the area’s largest hemp manufacturers.  Cannadips also manufactures a cannabis pouch in Humboldt County as well.

Looking to draw more attention to the season, Cannadips recently announced its first annual Croptober Getaway Sweepstakes where five winners are given an all-expenses-paid trip to Humboldt County to experience some of California’s most prominent cannabis farms and experience Croptober first-hand. The winners will also be treated to a party at the historic Arcata Theater Lounge, as well as a relaxing tour of Humboldt Count’s redwood forests and beaches. 

“Humboldt is not what they see on Netflix’s Murder Mountain or Dateline NBC, it’s the Emerald Triangle, we are excited to share its shine.”

The contest runs from May 1 to June 30, and those interested in signing up can register on the Cannadips website. Four of the winners will be chosen through a random drawing, with one winner to be announced every two weeks. The fifth winner will be the person with the best Instagram post with the #Croptober2021 hashtag.

“This type of access would never have been possible in the last twenty years,” says Mandel. “These Croptober winners won’t be touring corporate cannabis monocrops, they’ll be exploring the best outdoor sun-grown cannabis from some of Humboldt’s best cultivators.  It is refreshing we can share the amazing innovation and craft legally that has made our region famous.”