For two decades, Advanced Nutrients has led the industry when it comes to cannabis-specific plant foods. Learn the incredible story of how owner Michael “BigMike” Straumietis founded the bud-building brand as well as Advanced Nutrients’ plans for the future of cannabis cultivation, extraction, lab testing, packaging and delivery.
Advanced History
Courtesy of Advanced Nutrients
Advanced Nutrients was founded by Michael “BigMike” Straumietis in 1999 when he saw an opportunity to create plant foods designed especially for marijuana growing. A cannabis cultivator since he was 23 years old, BigMike knew that the products available for feeding pot plants weren’t optimized to their full potential.
As a co-founder of Canadian Soilless Ltd. in 1996, BigMike recognized that the hydroponics industry was stagnating and, as he was soon to find out, terrified of any connection to pot growing. Ever since the DEA’s Operation Green Merchant, an offensive in 1989 that targeted marijuana-growing-equipment suppliers, companies refused to acknowledge that their products were being used to cultivate cannabis, even though they thrived on the business.
“It all happened because of fear and ignorance,” BigMike tells me. “We hired scientists to develop products explicitly for growing cannabis, and all of our competitors got nervous and boycotted us. Some of it is still happening to this day.”
Over time, BigMike revolutionized the hydroponic-nutrient business entirely, building Advanced Nutrients into a hundred-million-dollar-a-year company with current operations throughout North America, Eastern Europe, Germany and Spain, as well as sales in over 100 countries and growing. Advanced Nutrients now has 25 PhDs on staff who design and test cutting-edge marijuana-growing technologies, all backed by an unprecedented 100 percent money-back guarantee. Along with Tikun Olam in Israel and GW Pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom, Advanced Nutrients in Bulgaria is one of only three companies in