Frequently Asked Questions

The only rule: All flower must be grown in New York by the entrant.

The first entry costs $150, and includes your ticket to the awards show and reception. Any subsequent entries cost $100.

Two ounces of flower are due per entry.

Yes, entry kits are provided when you enter the competition at the flower entry locations around New York State. We require entrants to package their own entry kits on site so that we’re minimizing processing of entries between the entrant and judges.

There are five categories you can enter: Gas, Haze, Sour, Sweets, and The Champions Cup.

One entry is allowed per category.

The Champions Cup is the only category with a restriction to enter: You must have placed or won a category in a previous year of The New York Growers Cup in order to enter The Champions Cup.

Think of it like the final boss of the competition.

Growers!

If you enter The New York Growers Cup competition, you’re able to volunteer for judging. We take that list of volunteers and run it through a randomization tool to determine our 20 judges.

With four categories judged by growers, and five judges per category, there are 20 judges total chosen from the pool of entrants who volunteered to judge.

There is an additional category, The Champions Cup, which is judged by a panel of experts. Those experts are chosen by the producers of The New York Growers Cup.

There are five criteria for judging entries in The New York Growers Cup:

• Look

• Smell

• Taste

• High / Effect

• Smoke

Each category is judged on a scale of 1-10, and notes are encouraged. (Starting in 2026, all scores and notes will be shared with every entrant.)

Each entry can earn a maximum of 50 points per judge, out of 250 total possible points from all five judges. The highest three scores per category are the winners! In the case of a numerical tie, all winners are included.

Registration for The New York Growers Cup opens in mid-September, which allows you to register, pay, and secure your spot.

Flower is due in the final two weeks of October. You can either drop it off directly at our office in Manhattan, or you can meet us at one of several dropoff locations around the state during our annual Flower Entry Tour!

Each grower is only allowed one entry per category, with a maximum of five entries (including The Champions Cup) .

There is no overall cap on number of entries in the competition. We average about 120 entries across five categories from all over New York State.

The thrill of competition!

Joking aside, your entry price comes with one ticket to the awards show and reception, and one ticket to any other NYGC events surrounding the awards. This year we are planning two events surrounding the Cup, and all entrants are invited.

Additionally, every competitor in The New York Growers Cup gets a killer genetics gift bag featuring seeds from world-class breeders. The collection of genetics is curated by NYCeeds, whose genetics are also included in the gift bag.