A cultivation license is required to cultivate cannabis in California. The type of cultivation license you need depends on:
- Type of production and lighting used.
- Number of plants grown or size of the canopy. The canopy is the area where mature (flowering) plants are grown.
Determining your license type
Outdoor licenses are for cultivators who grow cannabis outside without using any artificial lighting on mature plants.
Indoor licenses are for cultivators who grow cannabis in a permanent structure using at least 25 watts of artificial light per square foot.
Mixed-light licenses are for cultivators who grow cannabis in a:
- Greenhouse
- Hoop-house
- Glasshouse
- Conservatory
- Hothouse
- Other similar structure
Mixed-light licenses have two tiers based on the amount of artificial light used:
- Tier 1 — Up to 6 watts per square foot of artificial light
- Tier 2 — 6 to 25 watts per square foot of artificial light
Specialty cottage
- Specialty cottage outdoor — up to 25 mature plants or up to 2,500 square feet of canopy
- Specialty cottage indoor — up to 500 square feet of canopy
- Specialty cottage mixed — light tier 1 and 2 – up to 2,500 square feet of canopy
Specialty
- Specialty outdoor — up to 50 mature plants or up to 5,000 square feet of canopy
- Specialty indoor — 501 to 5,000 square feet of canopy
- Specialty mixed — light tier 1 and 2 – 2,501 to 5,000 square feet of canopy
Small
- Small outdoor — 5,001 to 10,000 square feet of canopy
- Small indoor — 5,001 to 10,000 square feet of canopy
- Small mixed — light tier 1 and 2 – 5,001 to 10,000 square feet of canopy
Medium
- Medium outdoor — 10,001 square feet to 1 acre of canopy
- Medium indoor — 10,001 to 22,000 square feet of canopy
- Medium mixed — light tier 1 and 2 – 10,001 to 22,000 square feet of canopy
Large
- Large outdoor — more than 1 acre of total canopy
- Large indoor — more than 22,000 square feet of total canopy
- Large mixed — light – mixed-light site with more than 22,000 square feet of total canopy
Nursery
For cultivators that only grow clones, immature plants, seeds or other types of cannabis used for propagation
Processor
For cultivators that only trim, sift, cure, dry, grade, package or label cannabis
