He’s called BigMike for a reason. At 6’7″ tall, Michael Straumietis towers over most people, with a big voice, a big personality, and a big rags-to-riches story to match. He founded—and twenty-six years later, still owns and operates Advanced Nutrients, which sells cannabis-specific products in 122 countries and generates $170 million in annual revenue, making it the largest cannabis nutrients company in the world.

He’s also got a big heart. After a near-death experience in 2011, Straumietis founded the Humanity Heroes Foundation, which to date has provided more than $3 million worth of nonperishable essentials to more than 60,000 individuals and families experiencing homelessness across the United States.

A legendary outlaw grower turned legitimate businessman, mentor, and philanthropist, Straumietis is a larger-than-life icon in the industry. People literally and figuratively look up to him.

And he’s still blazing new trails. In December, Advanced Nutrients will unveil its latest proprietary blend designed especially for cannabis, a product Straumietis said enhances brix, resin, and terpenes. He’s so convinced of its positive impact on cultivation that he backs the formula with a 100-percent money-back guarantee.

But the launch represents more than just another formulation debut. It’s part of a larger strategy Straumietis has been building for decades to position Advanced Nutrients for what he believes will be the industry’s most transformative period yet.

From the ground up.

Straumietis began cultivating in 1983, during a pre-legalization period he calls “the Dark Ages.” Years of experimenting with commercially available fertilizers formulated for vegetables, flowers, and other crops left him increasingly frustrated with lackluster growth and disappointing yields that simply didn’t measure up to the potential he saw in his plants.

“It didn’t make sense to me,” he recalled. “Cannabis is a completely different plant. Why would it need the same nutrients as a cucumber?”

When he approached the major fertilizer companies to pitch the idea of cannabis-specific nutrients, he met blank stares and slammed doors. Even after California bucked the federal government and legalized medicinal use in 1996, stigma remained strong. No commercial brands wanted to be publicly linked to marijuana.

“A lot of people were afraid to talk about cannabis during the early days,” Straumietis said.

Instead of walking away, he dug in. He and a small team devoured plant physiology research and undertook hundreds of experiments with fellow growers. Molecule by molecule, they proved the effectiveness of entirely new nutrient formulas designed to bring out the best in a plant that had been grown in the figurative dark for centuries.

“Research has always been the backbone of Advanced Nutrients,” Straumietis said. “We knew we needed to dig into the science, so we did.”

The formulas debuted to an enthusiastic audience, and by the early 2000s, the company employed more than twenty PhD scientists dedicated to understanding the plant at the molecular level. Today, in labs spanning Europe, Colorado, and Canada, the scientific team investigates everything from basic nutrient uptake to cutting-edge genetic modification. Each new product spends roughly three years in research and development before it’s released to the public, because “consistency is everything in cultivation,” Straumietis said.

The genetics gamble.

Five years ago, Advanced Nutrients extended its quest for perfect consistency to genetics with the acquisition of biotechnology firm Tesoro Genetics. Since 2018, Tesoro has researched and developed ways to optimize crop yields, nutrient uptake, and metabolite production. Among the company’s primary focuses are gene editing and polyploidy.

Polyploidy—multiple complete sets of genetic material in a single cell—is rare and usually fatal in animals. But the genetic anomaly is a successful and not uncommon adaptation in plants, where multiplied genes can produce benefits like increased yield and larger flowers or fruit. Induced triploid genetics, wherein plants are artificially encouraged to develop three complete sets of chromosomes, have been used in commercial agriculture for decades to produce crops like seedless watermelons, grapes, and strawberries.

Researchers have studied and manipulated polyploids in food crops since the early 1900s, but scientists were not aware of its natural occurrence in cannabis until a wild tetraploid strain—a plant with four complete sets of chromosomes—was discovered in India in 2015. Triploidy in wild cannabis, where plants possess three complete chromosome sets, was documented in 2022.

Straumietis called polyploidy “a game changer hiding in plain sight.”

So far, the Tesoro division’s research has yielded what Straumietis described as extraordinary results. Triploid cannabis plants produce much heavier yields, display richer terpene and cannabinoid profiles, and resist pollen contamination, he revealed. Growers testing the company’s triploid genetics reported yields of two pounds or more per light, indicating potential to boost bottom lines dramatically.

“It’s going to change the face of how cannabis is grown,” Straumietis said.

The team also is experimenting with tetraploids, octoploids (eight chromosome sets) and double haploids (a homozygous single set) to further push the plant’s genetic potential. Each iteration brings new insights about how cannabis can be optimized for flavor, potency, environmental resilience, and stability. The program resembles the kind of long-term scientific research and development traditional agriculture has performed for more than 100 years, and Straumietis is determined to see cannabis catch up.

He is confident the future of cannabis has never been more exciting as cultivation moves toward plants biologically engineered for performance, consistency, and quality. The transformation is not unlike the one that took place in traditional agriculture during the late twentieth century, he said.

“Ninety percent of the vegetables we eat today have been gene-edited,” he added. “You’re going to see the same thing in cannabis.”

Global growth, rooted in heritage.

Ask Straumietis what sets Advanced Nutrients apart, and he’ll tell you it all comes down to mastering micronutrients and applying the right chelates at the right moment in a plant’s life cycle. Most fertilizer brands, he said, stop at the basics.

“Micronutrients are critical,” he explained. “A lot of companies overlook that, but micronutrients are where the magic is.”

Iron, for example, plays an unexpectedly major role in cannabis growth. It’s typically categorized as a micronutrient, but in practice, it behaves almost like a secondary macronutrient. One of Advanced Nutrients’ lead scientists, a world-renowned expert whose doctoral thesis explored iron uptake in plants, coordinates a team working to determine not just how much iron cannabis requires but also which chemical form of the element produces the most vigorous growth and potent flowers.

“We’ve spent years fine-tuning the way the plant feeds,” Straumietis said. “Once you understand what the plant needs and when when to give it what it needs, cultivation completely changes.”

Much of Straumietis’s professional life has been devoted to defining, refining, and spreading the gospel of optimal cannabis nutrition. But as legalization rapidly spreads worldwide, he spends an increasing amount of his attention on international expansion. The company now sells products in 122 countries, from established European markets to emerging opportunities in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.

Recently, he attended an agricultural trade show in Dubai, where Advanced Nutrients showcased its products but kept the cannabis connection under wraps. “People knew we were cannabis people, but we didn’t advertise it,” he said. “A lot of attendees approached us about partnering to open manufacturing facilities in the Middle East. It’s going to be a very exciting opportunity to see what happens there.”

Growing in extreme desert conditions will rely primarily on greenhouses. “They can grow outdoors, but it’s tougher,” he said. “I’ve seen facilities in the desert, and they need shade cloth, swamp coolers, and similar systems. Most likely, we’ll see indoor greenhouse setups, because it’s a medical market and you want tighter control over the plants.”

Pakistan has been experimenting with hemp cultivation and is considering a medical marijuana program, and India also is showing interest in legalizing the plant. “Some of the best hash in the world still comes from that part of the world,” Straumietis said.

He recalled a trip to Morocco’s Rif Mountains, where for centuries local families have cultivated the endangered Beldia landrace strain. “It’s sacred. It’s part of their lineage,” he said. “Unfortunately, the lines are beginning to blur since some farmers are growing Romeo next to Beldia, making the original strain washed out.”

In Straumietis’s opinion, the difference between cultivation in the United States and the rest of the world is “day and night.” In Germany, for example, producers are still in an early development phase. “They’re not even making pre-rolls or gummies yet,” he said. “There’s a whole learning curve that Europe still has to go through.”

European cultivators are turning to U.S. experts to help them establish standard operating procedures and refine growing techniques. To support the emerging German market, Advanced Nutrients partnered with the European company GrowMotion to develop starter kits designed for social clubs and home growers. The collaboration brings American cultivation expertise to Europe, helping to bridge the knowledge gap.

Straumietis advises U.S. companies looking to enter Germany to understand and connect with the culture. The business landscape is very different, he said: “It’s a very communal mindset in Europe.”

Although Europe certainly contains well-run commercial facilities, many remain far from optimal. Straumietis estimated the U.S. is five to seven years ahead of the European Union in cultivation and manufacturing capabilities. “Spain, Italy, France, and Germany are the biggest markets, and that’s where commercialization is going to happen,” he said.

Despite lagging behind North America in cultivation know-how, international markets are the guardians of the industry’s, and the plant’s, history: original landrace strains, the genetic foundation of modern cannabis. “There’s always going to be a demand for landraces,” Straumietis said. “They’re the grandfathered genetics, where everything came from.”

These heritage varieties, cultivated for generations in regions like Afghanistan, Thailand, and Colombia, possess unique cannabinoid and terpene profiles that modern hybrids struggle to replicate.

Straumietis hopes landrace strains won’t vanish as commercial breeding accelerates. He’s optimistic about global preservation efforts, pointing to pioneers like Ben Dronkers of Sensi Seeds, who built one of the most diverse genetics libraries in existence.

“There are still people out there preserving those original genetics,” he said. “And that’s a good thing, because they’re the foundation of everything we’re building today.”

As legalization spreads, overlooked corners of the world are quietly discovering the benefits of cannabis for both health and economic growth. “Kyrgyzstan is looking at medical cannabis,” Straumietis said. “Kazakhstan—we’ve been selling there for years. Armenia is preparing to launch its medical sector. A lot is happening. Georgia is another Eastern European region where Advanced Nutrients is sold, specifically in the Caucasus, the region formerly part of the Russian Empire.”

He predicts a new wave of cannabis production will emerge in regions with lower land and labor costs, much like the tea industry expanded in South Africa. “You’re going to see cannabis genetically modified and grown in places like South America and South Africa,” he said. “When I was in Dubai, a representative from Botswana’s government told me they’re interested in moving medical cannabis forward.”

He added advances in gene editing and agricultural efficiency could reshape global supply chains, despite regulatory and political hurdles.

The rescheduling catalyst.

Straumietis sees a global marketplace ready to take off. In this new landscape, brands born in California, the epicenter of cannabis culture in his opinion, finally can reach consumers across state lines and around the world.

He also believes federal reform is inevitable, predicting the plant’s recategorization from Schedule I to Schedule III in the U.S. could happen as early as 2026. That change—a major modification of federal narcotics law—would open doors to banking, investment capital, and expanded medical research.

“When [the plant] goes from Schedule I to Schedule III, you’re going to hear the whole world talking about it,” he said. “It will change the market overnight. The landscape of our industry will change as major players enter, creating numerous opportunities for those who wish to exit.”

He even expects a short-term “mini bubble” as capital floods the market, followed by a correction that will separate serious operators from the rest.

“After that, things will get normalized,” he said. “They’ll get consolidated or they’ll sell or they’ll go out of business, and only the strong will survive.”

For Straumietis, decades of investment in research, genetics, and global infrastructure have been building toward this moment. While others may be caught flatfooted when federal prohibition ends, Advanced Nutrients will be positioned with defensible intellectual property, established international distribution, and the scientific credibility that comes from twenty-six years of cannabis-specific research.

“We’re just at the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “The best and biggest chapter in cannabis history is still ahead.”