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Building An Integrated Pest Management Plan – Part 5

By Phil Gibson
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This is the fifth in a series of articles designed to introduce an integrated pest management framework for cannabis cultivation facilities. To see Part One, an overview of the plan and pest identification, click here. For Part Two, on pest monitoring and record keeping, click here. For Part Three, on preventative measures, click here. For Part Four, control methods, click here. Our final chapter, Part Six, discussing emergency response, comes out next week to wrap it all up.

This is Part 5: Pest Control – Taking Action

Previous chapters have covered the many preparations you can take to protect your facilities from pest attacks and outbreaks before they get started. This chapter will summarize the concepts of pest control thresholds and the actions you can take for the painful event when you surpass those limits (and various examples). The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) recommendations provide you with a framework for these plans.

Figure 1: Cleaning regimen, the heart of successful operations – no biofilm buildups

Preventative actions are part of your regular site operations; in other words, they are how you avoid problems before they happen. Just to hit this action one more time: cleaning must be fundamental to your facility. Water sanitation and changing filters must be done on schedule and frequently to avoid biofilm build up and nasty self-multiplying eco-systems.

For each of the rooms in your facility, identify the acceptable tolerance level for each type of pest that you may encounter. Define the intervention levels per room: preventative, direct action and escalated direct action. Follow your predefined procedures and defend your facility. Let’s cover high, medium and low tolerance example responses.

High Threshold for Tolerance

For example, the impact on your plants, your profits and your yields from the discovery of a white fly fluttering inside of one of your flower rooms may be very small. If this presence is late in your harvest cycle, your tolerance of this discovery may be very high. Your team could take preventative actions to clean the room more aggressively or to check your traps more frequently, but you are probably not going to want to invest in aggressive actions at that time in the harvest cycle.

Move from passive observation to the shake test. With sticky traps in place, shake or brush your plants. Do you see the bug counts increase on your test sheets?

Figure 2: Thrip Evidence c/o UC ANR Publication 7429

As that infestation grows, you may set a threshold for direct action (i.e. 5-10 flies per trap per week). If you reach that level, implement a treatment action with a non-chemical microbial biofungicide to stop growth in the roots or neem oil as a direct chemical action.

When you reach your escalated threshold of 10-20 flies per trap or direct plant damage is apparent, an infestation is more serious. In that event, you may choose to take steps to directly reduce the pest population with knock down sprays of approved direct chemical pesticides like citric acid or insecticidal soaps. Be sure to use your Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for breathing and contact safety if you get into this situation.

Medium Threshold for Tolerance

Depending on the timing in your harvest cycle, the discovery of fungus gnats in your grow room may trigger a medium level alarm for you. Is the location, a small example with a minimal frequency? Is this addressable with additional attention to cleaning the area and longer dry periods in the irrigation or is this the beginnings of an infestation? Fungus gnats feed off of fungus or organic matter in soil triggered from an overly moist root environment. You may choose to react with immediate cleaning at the first existence in a room. Or you could set your “Medium” level alert status to be additional sticky trap distribution at the first visible gnat. If those counts reach 10-20 gnats per sticky trap per week, begin your foliar spray regimen with Zerotol or the equivalent.

Figure 3: Fungus Gnats

If these counts do not respond to your treatment, meaning that the next sticky trap count reaches beyond 20+ gnats per trap or visible direct plant damage, then institute your root drench protocol with a solution of BActive 1-2 times per week until the problem is under control and the counts are reduced. If the growth continues, look to approved pesticides in your area (as an example, AzaGuard Asadirectin).

Low Threshold for Tolerance

Alternatively, you may have a unified air circulation system due to facility limitations. Your air circulation may be shared across all of your mother plants, clones, veg and flowering plant areas. In that case, any presence of an airborne fungal infection like powdery mildew would have a very low tolerance of acceptance. Selective de-leafing of the infection and increased airflow are your first defense. Any visible presence beyond that would trigger a low threshold alert and immediately start a preventative action, such as carefully removing the infected plant material much wider than a few leaves and treating the area with foliar sprays like Zerotol (hydrogen peroxide plus).

If the penetration continues or expands, treatment would escalate to minimal risk pesticide follow up and observation. Chemical oils or citric acid might be in your mix in this case.

Figure 4: Powdery mildew in cannabis – Ryan Douglas Cultivation LLC

Finally, if repetitive treatments once a week are not turning the tide, increasing to once per day or even once per ON/OFF lighting cycle until the infection is controlled. At this point, you may decide to strip the room down and start over. Clearly the choice to “throw in the towel” is a total loss of the crop, but it may be the best option relative to minimal yields and failed flowers that will not sell.

Pest Control Actions

Our Integrated Pest Management recommendations paper gives you examples of what to consider for plans with white flies, fungus gnats, root aphids, powdery mildew and biofilm on plumbing or surfaces. These follow the preventative action, direct action, escalated direct action and pesticide approaches for each example. These are options to plan for water sources, root treatment, tunneling, crawling and flying phases.

In summary this week

As covered, preventative measures are your best defense. Hire expert consultants and plan these well. Escalate your response based on your scouting activity and your plan. Add your sticky traps, de-leafing, root drench, foliar sprays or knock down sprays as defined by your pest population control actions document.

For more detail on each of these treatments, you can see examples for your integrated pest management procedures in our complete white paper for Integrated Pest Management Recommendations, download the document here.

In our final chapter, Emergency Response, we will review control thresholds and example plans for a range of problems from biofilm build up to white flies and more.

Our final chapter after will describe emergency response framework and reviewing your complete plans. See you next week.

Building An Integrated Pest Management Plan – Part 4

By Phil Gibson
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This is the fourth in a series of articles designed to introduce an integrated pest management framework for cannabis cultivation facilities. To see Part One, an overview of the plan and pest identification, click here. For Part Two, on pest monitoring and record keeping, click here. For Part Three, on preventative measures, click here. Part Five comes out next week on how to build a framework for control actions and how to monitor them. More to come!

This is Part 4: Direct Control Options

Even when the best methods are implemented and precautions are taken to protect your infrastructure, determined pests can penetrate your perimeter. Before you see crawling, hopping or flying insects, or sickly-looking plants, be sure to implement your physical protection (positive pressure airflow sealed facilities) and personal hygiene methods (shoe baths, sticky mats, & air shower entrances) to protect your crops. Equip your employees with personal protection equipment (PPE) proper gloves, masks and clothing as discussed in our last chapter, preventative measures.

Figure 1: Fungus Gnats Unleashed In A Grow Room

When things do break-out beyond your acceptable thresholds, Direct Control Options include non-chemical microbial biofungicides, microbial bioinsecticides and direct chemical control options. Lots of big scary words there, all of which are toxic even under safe application methods and when used at recommended concentrations levels. This means training in their use and protective clothing is required. Careful application of these control options is necessary so you exterminate your pests and not your people! This seems obvious, but do not just “wing it.”

These chemical elements can be applied in diluted concentration levels, manual wipe-down application, concentrated flush frequencies, or root drench applications, foliar spray mist applications, HVAC aerial diffusions and aerial knock-down sprays. You may even choose to remove badly infected plants and destroy them completely.

Use experts when you are planning for these tools. All of these methods require handling and safety precautions. Proper breathing filters, eye & skin protection, as well as disposable gowns/hazmat suits should be used when applications are performed and until the applications have dissipated to safe levels. Be careful not to co-mingle removed plant materials. Gloves become transport and infection spreaders after use.

Please also be sure to review your harvest testing requirements and what treatments are safe for your consumers and within legal limits. No one wants to have their harvest rejected due to pesticide contamination.

Figure 2: Municipal Water Treatment, RAIR Cannabis, Michigan

Clean-up after application may be required depending on the bioinsecticide or chemical that is used. Again, always ensure the safety of your employees and take precautions.

Start the application of your control options with your site map, room assignments and scout monitoring teams. Where does air flow into and within the facility? When your scouting team count logs go beyond your acceptable thresholds, here are some options for you.

Let’s begin with cleaning your irrigation and nutrient water sources. For a walk-through tutorial for incoming water treatment, humidity recovery and nutrient water recycling, please review the video tour of Water Treatment at RAIR Cannabis to see how an expert has done it.

From the IPM Planning Guide standpoint, peroxide and acid sterilizers can be used to clear irrigation water, for surface wipe-downs or as direct plant applications. We will cover those first. Caustic sterilizers require PPE for cleaning. Forgive my image here, we were just using water.

Concentrated Cleaners for Surfaces & Irrigation Sources (Hydrogen Peroxide & Sanitizers)

Plant interacting interfaces, i.e. surfaces, benches, walls, floors, trays, utensils, clippers, etc. should be sterilized with every use. Methods can include direct wipe-down or scrub, concentrated or diluted sprays or room vaporizers. A good example of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) liquid would be a food grade sanitizer with 3-35% H2O2 content. Use acceptable diluted versions of these cleaners as appropriate.

Figure 3: Cleaning & Scrubbing, Where’s the PPE?

A commercial example would be Zerotol 2.0 with 27% H2O2 & their proprietary acid mix. Alternatively, you can use direct hydrogen peroxide generators from commercial sources to generate your H2O2 at various concentrations. More detailed examples are included in the complete Integrated Pest Management Guide (link at the end of this article). Establish your procedures for sterilizing your rooms and tools before you introduce plants, and describe what is to be done after every harvest and room turn. Track the cleaning materials used for your operational records. You will find this useful to track operational cost over time.

Sanitizing Acids for Surfaces & Irrigation Sources

Similar to hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorous acid (HOCl) comes in many commercial forms and can also be generated onsite using purchased generators. Commercial mix examples are UC Roots, Watermax and Athena Cleanse. They come in 0.028% to 15% concentrations. Self-generators range in output from highly precise 0.01% to 1% concentrations with more examples in the guide.

Treatment Tools

OK, so enough on cleaning preparation. Here are some tools that can be used to fight back against a pest intrusion:

Non-Chemical Microbial Biofungicide for Pathogens in Soil or Fertigation Water

Microbial fungicides are available to clear nutrient irrigation systems by minimizing pathogens and improving plant resistance to infections. Some fungicide versions target root pathogens by attacking the diseases directly. Others control or suppress common water carried challenges like pythium, rhizoctonia, phytophthora, fusarium and others. Brand names include Botanicare, Bonide, BioWorks, Actinovate, Mycostop and many more. Details covered in the guide.

Non-Chemical Microbial Bioinsecticides for Larval Stages

These biological tools attack the organisms or insects at a physical or mechanical way by breaking down the pest’s nervous system, biochemistry, or structural integrity (exoskeletons, etc.). These are engineered or living organisms (bugs to attack bugs) that are developed as targeted attacks for specific pests. Brand names are BioCeres, Botanigard, Venerate, Bio Solutions and others.

Minimal Risk Chemical Pesticides for Airborne Critters

Figure 3: Example Fungus Gnat Infestation – Royal Queen Seeds blog

Regularly approved for used in most locales, essential oils, natural acids (like citric acid) and insecticidal soap are commonly available in every hydroponic store. These work very well as safe spray “knock-down” insecticides for crawling or flying pests. Commercial examples use a proprietary mix of various oils, citric acids or isopropyl alcohol to do their task (examples in guide). Insecticidal soaps and fungicides for surface cleaning perform a similar purpose and typically use potassium salts or fatty acid mixtures.

Biochemical Pesticides

These tools are used to inhibit insect or fungal growth to acceptable levels. The multifaceted and commonly used neem oil comes in many commercial versions and is a naturally occurring pesticide extracted from the leaves and seeds of the neem tree. Example brand names are Bonide, Monterey, Triact and others. They range in concentrations from 0.9% to 70% concentrations. These oils suffocate living organisms or eliminate moisture to kill insects, spores or fungus at their initiation and throughout their lifespan.

Another option here are Azadirachtins. These act as insect growth regulators and disrupt the bugs natural evolution. Brand names are AzaGuard, AzaMax and others in the guide.

In summary, this week

We summarized some of the many pest control options available for water treatment, soil borne, intermediate or flying pests. We also covered various concentrations for these pesticide and sterilizer options. If you are not familiar with dilution ratios, %, PPM terms and how to apply the correct level of pesticide, you may find our plant science test kitchen blog on this topic of use here.

Chemical access and use should be restricted to employees familiar with their authorized application. PPE is very important to protect any employee that will come in contact with materials, liquids or vapors for chemical resources (gloves, boots, respirators, Tyvek (or equivalent protective wear) suits and eye protection or goggles.

For more detail on each of these treatments, you can see examples for your integrated pest management procedures in our complete white paper for Integrated Pest Management Recommendations, download the document here.

In our next chapter, Pest Population Control Actions, we will review control thresholds and example plans for a range of problems from biofilm build up to white flies and more. Our final chapter after that will suggest an emergency response framework and how to address pest outbreaks. See you next week.

Building An Integrated Pest Management Plan – Part 2

By Phil Gibson
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This is the second part of a series of articles designed to introduce an integrated pest management framework for cannabis cultivation facilities. To see Part One, click here. Part Three comes out next week and covers prioritization and preventative measures. Stay tuned for more!

This is Part 2: Pest Monitoring, Record Keeping, & Communications

Begin your pest identification process with a pest scouting document. You have already mapped out your facility with locations and potential access locations. For each of these pest types and room type assignments (mothers, clone, veg, flower), identify your employee scouts, their scouting methods, scouting frequency and the type of likely pest they are to search for and count.

Insect Types and Tracking Methods

Figure 1: Example Sticky Trap Scouting Map

Insect pest types include, but are not limited to, airborne flying or crawling insects, their various egg, lymph, larvae, pupal shells or immature forms. Look for trace remnants, plant damage or feces that let you know they are present in some form. If they are at the mature jumping or flying stage, this can be harder to count, but sticky traps distributed on an even basis around your rooms can make the counting process more consistent from survey to survey.

Note airflows in your rooms and fan locations so migrations can be predicted once an infestation is located.

Insects Can Be Everywhere – Crawlers & Fliers

Insects would like to be everywhere so they come in many types from the obvious flying and crawling types to root-zone microscopic, aquatic, fungal, bacterial or biofilm based. For those of you using soil or media, root-zone insects can be beneficial by digesting and breaking down organic matter into something useful for your plant’s roots (earthworms) or harmful by feeding directly on your plant roots and sucking the life out of your plants from out-of-sight below (nematodes, maggots).

Common pests in a cannabis environment include:

  • White flies – Oval shaped eggs on the underside of leaves, nymphs- oval crawlers that suck on the undersides of leaves, larger stage nymphs with pupae shells as they form wings and mature white flies.
  • Fungus gnats – Clear eggs deposited in overly wet soil or dead plant matter. Clear or white colored larvae in the soil or media, these worm-like critters go through multiple stages of molting as they grow, eventually pupating into brown cocoons and finally small black or dark flies with clear wings that flutter around your plants and suck on your leaves.
  • The dreaded spider mite – Clear, hard to see eggs on the underside of your leaves. These six-legged tiny moving bubbles begin the feeding as larva, add 2 legs in the intermediate and mature nymph stages and finally the oval shaped spider mites that every grower despises, adding their webs around the tops of your plants as their nurseries suck the life out of your flowers.

Insect Transfers of Bacterial Infections

Figure 2: The Dreaded Spider Mite

Many crawlers or fliers you may discover in your grow operation do not generate fungus or bacteria on their own. However, they do routinely pick these up along the feeding way and bring them into your shop. Sap-feeding insects like leafhoppers and aphids use their needle mouths to pierce your leaves to suck on the sap that is nourishing your greenery. These insects consume the fluids and transfer bacteria as they feed. Whiteflies fit into this category of leaf sucking bacteria carrying pests. These pests can make your healthy grow rooms look blotchy with color drained out of your canopy.

Obvious symptoms of these flying/hopping pests are sticky leaves, black fungus mold, or yellowing leaves that show up at the bottom of your plants and work their way upward as the infestation progresses. Leaf curling or plant wilting will be visible in the more advanced stages of these pests.

As if crawlers were not bad enough, invisible fungus and bacteria that get into your water supplies can be the worst challenges of any grow.

Water Sourced Bacteria

Baseline testing of your feed water is critical for any facility. This is true whether you are using surface water, well water or municipal water. Please see the water tutorials on the AEssenseGrows website for details on how to test your water sources and what to look for in the mineral content.

Regardless of your water source, bacteria can be present directly in your water supply, or it can be introduced from infected plant materials from one of your suppliers. Pythium, fusarium and the latest plague, hop latent viroid, are some of the most common threats that attack your plants from your water or soil sources. These can come from your wells, feed lines or plant materials.

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a typical method to clear water of most pathogens and bacteria using water that is pressed through filters with very small membrane apertures. These small openings usually stop impurities, salts and microorganisms. Of course, these systems come in many different types and they have to be maintained to keep their performance quality. Don’t take shortcuts on your RO system.

Once your water source is clean, strict hygiene procedures for tools, equipment and plumbing are the best way to minimize these threats to your plants downstream from your water source. These cleaning efforts are not a guarantee. Pests can still get into even the best facilities. Symptoms of these maladies vary, but root rot, stunted growth, wilting, discolored roots or leaves, and in some cases, the quick death of your plants is possible depending on the critter.

Use your scouting regimen and your data mapping to locate infestations before they expand and damage your facility. Isolate outbreaks and take appropriate measures to address the pests. We will give you suggestions on prioritization and preventative measures to take in the next chapter.

Figure 3: Example Pythium Brown Roots

Pythium is one of the most commonly harbored soil or water carried pests. When it is present and gets into your plants through cuts, natural openings, root surfaces or leaves on weakened plants, it can be devastating. In hydroponic systems, dirty looking brown roots evolve into full root rot if not addressed. Pythium is often the cause. In soil operations, pythium often shows up as wilting or yellowing patches on leaves.

Your lab testing partners are your friends when it comes to bacterial or fungal infections. Many diseases can resemble one another. It is not hard to misdiagnose environmental stress such as overheating or overwatering for a bacterial problem. Test results are necessary to accurately diagnose a problem.

Truly Airborne Molds & Mildews

Pythium and fusarium are not just present in water. They can also be airborne. Grey mold (botrytis) and powdery mildew are also common airborne pests. Proper humidity, air movement, air filtration and sterilization using HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filters, activated carbon filters (also filter smells) and UV light sterilization can minimize these problems in your grow. Powdery mildew is the primary evil spore in this category. Airflow and regular cleaning to discourage fungal growth is the best way to limit these pests.

In conclusion, this week

Now that we have talked about identification (and clearly, this is not an exhaustive list), we will move into how to build in the cultural methods to prevent these problems from taking hold and ruining your business. In later chapters, we will dive into prioritization, treatment and control options for infestations, finally moving into control actions and emergency response.

Your integrated management response is how you pull all of this together and use your IPM procedures to increase your profitability. For the complete white paper on Integrated Pest Management Recommendations, download the document here.

Part three comes out next week and will delve into the world of Preventative Measures. Stay tuned for more!

The 3-Legged Stool of Successful Grow Operations: Climate, Cultivation & Genetics – Part 1

By Chris Wrenn, Phil Gibson
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Ideal cannabis profits come from high demand/high selling prices and low production costs. The spread between those two, or margin, can determine the life or death of your business. We want to share this series of articles so that your next investment can be highly successful and high margin out-of-the-box.

Regardless of the grow method (soil, coco, rockwool, hydro or aero), every plant performs best in its own ideal environmental conditions. Experienced growers gained success through hard work, and just that, experience. Many have tried more advanced grow technologies, but shied away due to early trial failures or the complexity of maintaining chemistry across a grow facility. The wonderful thing now is that precision sensors and software controls eliminate the risk to robust healthy plants and harvest success. Growers are now able to both manage production while performing research in line with their operations.

We have learned a great deal working with our grow partners over the last 6 years. Every grow facility and location are different due to local weather, business environment and scale. This series of articles and guide, authored by our expert, Christopher Wrenn, will include recommendations of the most successful approaches we have seen here in North America and all over the world.

A 4-Layer fully aeroponic flower room using movable racking systems

Building top-quality cultivation facilities is no simple task. Cultivators are also looking for new help as they shift from older soil or media approaches to more efficient grow methods. One powerful method is aeroponics, which is very good at growing any type of plant in air in a sterile environment, with labor, nutrient and water savings.

Where possible, we will share key vendors that support healthy grow operations and (since it is World Series Time), customer examples that are knocking it out of the park. In today’s competitive business environment, it is critical to do what we can to increase profitability and survival in the face of steep headwinds. We want you to crush it and be “the last man standing.”

So, let’s get to it.

Climate: Environmental Control

We begin with a critical leg in your environment. The process of photosynthesis is more than just light, plant and moisture. We want to do more than just grow plants. We want to grow highly profitable plants. That means we have to accelerate photosynthesis so we are growing faster, bigger and more potent than our competitors.

The Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) is the amount of “drying power” available in the air surrounding your plants. This is a useful way to understand the amount of moisture your atmosphere can remove from your plants as they digest carbon dioxide and aspirate water and oxygen into the air around your plants. A higher vapor deficit is a good thing for growth; It is also a measurement of how much nutrient you can uptake into the plant roots and convert into size and potency in the canopy. We recommend that you have resources in your grow rooms to maintain your environment to within 5% of both your humidity and temperature targets for ideal results.

Onyx Agronomics is a Tier 3 indoor cultivator in the State of Washington. This is the canopy in one of their 8 flower rooms.

In our Top Quality Cultivation Facility white paper, we review environmental settings for temperature and humidity for mother, clone/veg and flower rooms for day and night light cycles from early cuttings through to end of harvest flush. Day temperatures can be up to 20% higher than night temperatures for example.

Cooling

Managing temperature may seem straight-forward but the heat generated by LED lights, HPS lights or the sun will vary across rooms, time exposure and with the distance of the light source from the plants. Measurement sensors should be distributed across rooms to monitor and trigger temperature resources.

Humidification/Dehumidification

This is a topic that can be underappreciated by cultivators. It is important to slowly transition humidity as you move plants from cuttings to clones, to veg and to flower. Beginning in a very humid stage to motivate root start, humidity will be stepped down from an opening near 90% down to an arid 50% in your end of flush flower rooms. We detail the transitions in 5% increments in the white paper.

The 4-Layer aeroponic flower room with movable racking systems from the side with a tall human for scale. One can do a lot with 30′ ceilings.

Relative Humidity (RH) and the related VPD are the key metrics to accelerating growth throughout the stages. Not sizing dehumidifiers correctly is one of the most common mistakes our grow partners learn about as they move to full production. In the first phase of turning cuttings from healthy mothers into rooted clones, hitting your target VPD to motivate root growth is the number one success factor. This will require the addition of humidity into your clone room. It is also typical to require raise the humidity of your flower rooms when you transition clone/veg plants from the high humidity clone/veg room into an initially dry flower room, otherwise the plants may go into shock as a result of the dramatic change.

As flowering begins, if humidity remains high, and the VPD is below target, the plants will not be moving nutrients and transpiring moisture. We have seen lowering the humidity from 70% in a flower room down to 50%, results in a yield increase from 50 grams to 90 grams of dry trim bud per plant, so a smooth transition can both accelerate growth and have a big impact on your margins and profitability.

Plants in aeroponics can truly have explosive growth. This means that they will also transpire moisture at an accelerated rate. Fast automated growth in aeroponics means increased humidity output. Sizing these critical systems for humidification/dehumidification are a critical part of the design process.

Airflow

Fans combined with your cooling/heating/humidity/dehu systems need to mix the air in a room to break the boundary layer at the leaf surface for transpiration. As we covered, VPD is critical to growth success. A dry surface motivates the plants to transpire moisture. We recommend flow rates across the canopy in a 0.5-1.5 meter/second rate to align to your genetics and where you are in the flowering process.

A raw facility before it gets outfitted.

Airflow and flowering means rich beautiful aromas are generated. Every facility has to consider odor control. If you are in a populated area, you will have ordinances and neighbors to satisfy. The best way to do this is to minimize the amount of air that exits a facility. This is also the cheapest approach.

Sterile HEPA filters and scrubbing systems clean air of pathogens and odor but they also need to circulate and “condition” air to the correct temperature and humidity levels before it can be recirculated into a room. Oftentimes, this is a good place to also recapture humidity and reinject it into your pure water cleaning systems.

Key vendors to talk to about sizing air treatment systems are SURNA, Quest, Desert Aire and AGS. Each of these vendors have specialties and tend to be superior partners in different regions of the world. We would be happy to introduce you to excellent support resources for air management systems.

To download the complete guide and get to the beef quickly, please request the complete white paper Top Quality Cultivation Facilities here.

Click here to see Part 2 where we discuss water quality and management.

Your Cultivation Plan is the Most Important Factor to Increase Your Yield

By David Perkins
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Having a well-built grow room with adequate lighting, the ability to properly control the environment, proper nutrient feedings, a good pest management plan, well trained employees and an experienced cultivation manager are very important to the overall output of cannabis plants. However, even if you have all those measures in place, there’s no guarantee of success. One factor that is often overlooked is how many harvests you can get per year, as clearly the more harvests you can get in a given time period, the more likely your chances of success are in this competitive industry. This is why having a good cultivation plan in place, with proper foresight and planning, is so essential to success.

Increasing yield or production output in a cannabis cultivation facility can often be as simple as having the right cultivation plan in place to ensure that you are harvesting the maximum number of times per year. All it requires is a well thought out plan, and best of all, that does not cost any money if you have someone with enough cultivation experience assisting you and will earn back more than the cost of paying a consultant to get such a plan in place.

In this article I will explain why changing nutrients, grow media or even a cultivation manager may not necessarily increase yield, quality or your chance of success. What you should be focusing on is your cultivation plan and the scheduling of your cultivation cycles.

  1. Why changing nutrient companies may not necessarily increase your yield
Nutrient dosers are used to inject fertilizer directly into irrigation lines

For the most part, nutrient companies use the same ingredients in their product lines and often buy them from the same source, but they combine them in different forms and ratios to create their “unique” product. You can go to a grow store, pick five different nutrient products, read the labels and compare the different nutrients in each one. You will find for the most part that they are very similar. Generally speaking, you could pick any one of those five nutrient companies and have great results. Mixing nutrients into a nutrient tank needs to be done precisely and if your employees are not doing it properly this can lead to plant health issues. In larger cultivation facilities, often nutrient dosers are used to inject fertilizer into the irrigation lines without having to mix nutrients. However, if the dosers are not set to the proper ratios, this can also lead to plant health issues.

There are a few companies that I really like that have a different approach to plant nutrition, which saves time and can prevent human error associated with mixing and applying liquid nutrients. Soilscape solutions, Organics Alive and Beanstock Agriculture all have nutrient lines that are intended to be used with soil or soilless media that can be amended into the soil which provide a slow steady release of nutrients that the plants can uptake as needed. This avoids the risk of human error in repeatedly applying liquid nutrients to the plants.

  1. Why changing grow medium and nutrients will not necessarily improve your yield but may increase yourquality

Whether it is rock wool, coco fiber, a soilless mix or living soil, everything has a limit. Giving your plants the proper amount of water and the frequency at which you water, along with having sufficient room for the roots to grow are key factors to ensuring plant health. If your plants aren’t getting watered properly, no matter what media you are growing in, you will be having problems. Changing things like grow media won’t result in instant success, as there will always be a learning curve when making changes to your cultivation. If you cannot adapt quickly enough, you can quickly create major problems.

plebanisoil
Changing things like grow media won’t result in instant success, as there will always be a learning curve when making changes to your cultivation.

You would be better off to master the grow media you are currently working; you will have more chance of success making slight alterations to your current media than you will if you switch your grow media altogether. There are so many different nutrient lines, soil companies, coco coir companies and the truth is any of them can lead to success.

Changing grow media and nutrients do play a large role in quality though. With cannabis being legalized in many states, the overall quality of cultivation inputs have increased, especially nutrients. However, in general, with some exceptions, the quality of cannabis has not necessarily increased along with the increase in quality of nutrients. One exception: I would argue that switching from salt nutrients and rock wool, to organic living soil will result in an improvement to the flavor, quality and terpenes of the cannabis.

A lot of people use rock wool with salts because it’s easier to scale up than if you are growing in soil, but some quality is also sacrificed. Soil is heavy and messy and most people throw their soil away which takes a lot of money and labor to do. Reusing your soil is one of the best ways to save time, money and increase quality. I had a friend that grew the same variety, same lights, same ventilation but grew hydroponically with salt-based nutrients and he would always say the cannabis I grew, organically, tasted better. The same was true when we grew the same variety outdoors. He used salt-based fertilizer, I used amended soil with water. There wasn’t really a comparison in flavor and the yield was not compromised either! This was his opinion not mine.

I think the vast majority of consumers have not seen the type of quality that someone in Northern California who has been smoking and growing for 20 plus years has seen. Quality is relative to what you have been able to acquire. Most people especially nowadays will never see the quality that used to be common when we didn’t treat the sacred herb like a commodity. When you do it for the love of the plant it shows. Remember, quality is relative to your experience and if salty weed is all you know, you are probably missing out.

  1. Why changing your Cultivation manager may not necessarily increase your yield

Every cultivation facility should have an experienced cultivation manager who is knowledgeable in the areas of nutrient requirements, pest management, environmental requirements, managing employees and overall facilities operations. If a grow room cannot sustain the proper environmental set points, blaming the problems and issues that arise on the cultivation manager is not fair. It is a common problem in the cannabis industry – the owners of a company are not seeing the results that they want and think that by replacing the cultivation manager it will solve all their problems. In reality, often the problem results from upper management or owners of the company not providing the cultivation manager the tools necessary to perform their job at the highest level. Another common problem is when owners fire the cultivation manager and replace them with lower-level employees to manage the facility. The problem with this is those employees do not have enough experience nor the attention to detail to successfully run a cultivation facility. The result is that yield and quality suffer tremendously.

  1. You should be harvesting every 60-70 days
If you are cultivating strains that finish flowering in 60 to 70 days you should be getting five harvests per year.

The reality is there is no one specific thing you can try or buy that will result in success. It is everything combined, the HVAC system, lights, genetics being grown, water quality, air quality, root zone temperature, ability to control environment, having a clean facility, disease free plants, knowledgeable cultivation manager etc. that are required to operate a successful cultivation.

But all of that is less important to yield than a good cultivation plan. Cultivation methods directly tie into the overall production of a facility. But, regardless of whether you’re growing in soil, hydroponics, using LED or HPS, have low or high plant counts, if you don’t have the ability to harvest a grow room, clean and replant within a very short amount of time (ideally one or two days) then you’re going to be losing out on profit.

If you’re cultivating strains that finish flowering in under 60 days you should be getting six harvests per year. If you are cultivating strains that finish flowering in 60 to 70 days you should be getting five harvests per year. To do this, you will need to have the appropriate amount of plants that are ready to be flowered to refill your grow room or greenhouse ready to flower. With a little bit of planning and foresight you will be able to do this, and you will be on your way to producing your highest yield potential.

If you are struggling to have enough plants that are ready to flower once you are done harvesting and cleaning your grow room, having trouble planning your cultivation schedule to maximize production, or struggling to maintain a mother and clone room to supply your own plants or planning for the appropriate amount of labor, contact Floresco Consulting and talk with one of our cultivation advisors to get you back on track. We can guide you to ensure you are harvesting, cleaning and replanting every 60 days. Contact us today to get your facility producing at its maximum potential.

Clean Green Farming is Good for Cannabis

By Khalid Al-Naser
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At Raw Garden, we have a ‘Farming First’ philosophy because we understand that the process of farming is the process of managing the plant’s life and the management of the land those plants grow on – this is when the plantgets its chance to thrive but requires that it is properly nurtured in order to provide resources such as high-quality terpenes and cannabinoids.

Our cannabis plants are sun-grown in Santa Barbara county soil just like other California crops. From the seed to the shelf, we are vertically integrated and maintain quality control at every step in the process. We grow our own seeds, farm and harvest our own plants, and process our own products while employing sustainable and regenerative farming practices – only organic and natural fertilizers, soil amendments and pest control methods are used on thefarm.

As farmers we have a responsibility to care for the land and the soil to ensure it is fertile and healthy well into the future. We take care of the soil and it takes care of our plants. The result is premium quality products that our customers love and trust. Our success and commitment to quality is proof that the economics of clean, sustainable operations are achievable. We’re farmers and scientists on a mission to make clean, high quality cannabis that is affordable and accessible.

A few of the sustainable agriculture practices we employ at Raw Garden include:

The Clean Green Certified logo

Clean Green Certification – Since our inception, we have been certified and licensed members of Clean Green, the #1 globally-recognized organic and sustainable cannabis certification program. The program was created in 2004 as a way to standardize legal cannabis products and the result was a program to help farms and brands obtain organic-like certification based on the USDA National Organic program. Clean Green-certified growers and processors regularly win awards for their high-quality products, including our award-winning extracts.

Water Conservation – Our farm team waters at the right time of day to reduce evaporative water loss; we also use drip irrigation and mulch to reduce water waste and runoff. Last year, we used about 8,000 gallons of water per acre on average, which is significantly less than standard outdoor grown crops.

Natural Fertilizer and Pest Control – We apply only organic fertilizers and foliar feeds and we spray only organic pathogen-free inoculants to keep our plants healthy and disease-free, which consistently results in high yields. To naturally deter pests, we recruit beneficial predatory insects like ladybugs and parasitic wasps, in addition to botanical oils and diatomaceous earth.

Precision Agriculture (PA) and Site-Specific Crop Management (SSCM) – We utilize technology to manage crops and increase farm efficiency, such as machine learning for fertilizer optimization and digital sensors in the field to monitor crops.

Author Khalid Al-Naser next at Raw Garden’s farm.
Image by Brian Walker

Soil Health and Terroir – Like grapes for wine, cannabis plants grown in the soil have terroir that affects the flower’s qualities, characteristics, terpene profile, aroma and taste, based on temperature, climate, soil composition and topography, as well as other environmental influences. Micro-climates matter – the same strain of cannabis grown along the coast likely has a different taste and potency than one grown inland. We grow in Santa Barbara wine country for the combination of fertile soil, hot sun, and cool nights which yield an incredibly diverse, potent and flavorful crop of cannabis flowers. Between growing seasons, we employ regenerative agriculture by planting cover crops including oat, beans, peas and buckwheat to add nitrogen and organic matter naturally back in the soil. This method of cover crops also helps reduce pests and soil-borne diseases in preparation for the next growing season. We know that an ideal environment in combination with healthy soil and good land management results in healthier, more vigorous plants, which translates to higher-quality products.

As farmers, it is our responsibility to care of the land with good management decisions today so that we grow the best quality products while better preserving the land for the future. It takes careful planning, knowledge of the land, a commitment to sustainable practices and a desire to put farming first.

Flower-Side Chats Part 3: A Q&A with Harvey Craig, CEO Harvey’s All Naturals and Co-Founder of Boot Ranch Farms

By Aaron Green
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In this “Flower-Side Chats” series of articles, Green interviews integrated cannabis companies and flower brands that are bringing unique business models to the industry. Particular attention is focused on how these businesses integrate innovative practices in order to navigate a rapidly changing landscape of regulatory, supply chain and consumer demand.

Large-scale agricultural practices can take a toll on soil health leading to inefficiencies over the long term. Harvey’s All Naturals is a Colorado-based company specializing in premium farm-to-table full spectrum CBD products. Harvey’s gets all of its hemp from Boot Ranch Farms, an off-grid sustainable hemp farm in Southern Colorado supplied by an artesian well.

We spoke with Harvey Craig, CEO Harvey’s All Naturals and co-founder of Boot Ranch Farms, to learn more about the benefits of regenerative agriculture, how he thinks about soil health, and how they produce their CBD products. Harvey started Boot Ranch Farms in 2014 after the passing of the Farm Bill and Harvey’s All Naturals followed shortly thereafter.

Aaron Green: How did you get involved in the cannabis and hemp industry?

Harvey Craig: I got involved at a very young age, as the youngest of eight kids, seven of which are boys, I was introduced to cannabis on the marijuana side first. As an engineer through the years, I’ve always been involved in creating very efficient growing systems for cannabis.

Harvey Craig, CEO Harvey’s All Naturals and co-founder of Boot Ranch Farms

In the early 2000s, I learned about CBD a little bit through experimenting with marijuana strains to help a friend who had Parkinson’s and also through the research performed by Raphael Mechoulem, an organic chemist and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. In 2014, when the Farm Bill made hemp legal, I dropped everything and went into it because I felt “this is what I need to be doing.”

Green: What is sustainable farming mean to you?

Craig: Sustainable farming to me means putting soil health and responsible natural growing practices at the forefront of all agriculture – regenerative processes for soil, in a nutshell. To me, soil health is one of the biggest problems in the United States right now. By regenerating and making our soils living, healthy and with a rich nutrient base we create an ecosystem that is good for human health and health all around.

Green: What do you mean specifically when you say, “soil health?”

Craig: Soil is living. A good natural soil has a living microbiotic structure inside it. There’s a living habitat that forms inside our soil over the years. Large scale agriculture in many cases has depleted or killed this living structure through readily accessible fertilizers and tilling practices.

Farmers understand the soil. There are practices we can undertake that are helping our living soils and helping the microbiotic habitat to thrive. Practices such as no-till technologies, rotating crops, using cover crops, not being a monocrop, responsible water use, healthy fertilizer and pesticide technologies, minimal processing, the list goes on and on…

When we talk about this thing called sustainability, I think it’s very important that we understand there are two sides of cannabis. There’s the marijuana and then there’s the hemp. We can’t put those two together – they’re governed very differently. Hemp became legal through the Farm Bill and is governed by the Department of Agriculture. Hemp is just like any other crop out there really. That means we can mix hemp in with other crops. It’s very much like corn and other crops in how it’s grown on a large scale, industrial basis.

Marijuana on the other hand is governed by each state’s regulatory commission. Those regulations make it very hard to mix in with general agriculture. So, when it comes to the marijuana side, unfortunately, it must be a monocrop. Most marijuana is grown in pots and pots are fine. However, if you are just growing in a pot and then throwing your soil away, that is not very sustainable. As it sits right now, in the marijuana industry there is really no sustainability, unfortunately. The energy use for the lights in indoor grows, for example, creates a huge carbon footprint and load on the electrical grid. I’m not trying to put indoor growing down, but that’s the way it is. The only way I foresee sustainability in the marijuana side of cannabis is to let loose a little bit on regulation and allow it to become a part of normal agricultural processes.

Green: What is it about tilling that degrades the soil quality?

Craig: When we till our soil, we’re turning the organisms in the soil up and we’re allowing the sun to dry them out. If it’s not done properly, you kill that soil structure.

Now, these little microorganisms in our soil create a healthy soil, but it doesn’t happen instantly, this takes years to create. Nobody has the time anymore, everybody’s “go go go” and “make it happen instantly”. So that gets destroyed. Now we have all these dead soils that everybody’s growing in and growers turn to factory-produced fertilizers with readily available nutrients.

When we are talking about cannabis, we can’t just look at monocropping. If you grow one crop in the same soil over and over, the soil is going to get depleted. One of the main things that we deplete is nitrogen and growing other crops, such as clover, can replenish that nitrogen. Growing cover crops protects the soil from the sun, creates nitrogen for the soil, and holds the water within the soil.

Instead of tilling, you can rotate with crops like root vegetables, radishes and other things that have deep root structures. Instead of tearing them up, just let them degrade organically and go back into the soil. Those deep root structures will also help aerate the soil.

Green: What is a farmer’s first approach?

Craig: Farmers want their land to be healthy. True farmers have a oneness with the earth and understand the earth. The farmer’s first approach keeps the farmer involved in creating new technologies for agriculture.

Green: Let’s say you’re a farmer that has land or recently acquired land that’s been industrially grown upon. How would you take that land and start fresh with a regenerative process?

Craig: The first thing you have to do is take soil samples and send them to a lab. That’ll tell you what you’re working with. Also, knowing a little history about the land helps as well. Was it used for grazing? Was it used for growing corn? What was it used for? Were organic practices used?

Then, there are many things you can do to start to regenerate your soil, but it takes time. In many situations, people don’t want to take that time. But what we’re learning is, the people and the farmers that do take that time often take a hit monetarily for the first two or three years. After that, once that structure is maintained, the natural health of the soil can be replenished. Crops will grow better, and they won’t spend as much money on fertilizers and pesticides in the long run because the microbiotic structure in the soil is creating a healthy ecosystem. When we destroy that ecosystem, it doesn’t come back easily or quickly. If there’s a little bit there, it can be regenerated with the right practices.

Green: I understand that the Boot Ranch is an off-the-grid farm. What was your motivation for either going off-grid or remaining off-grid?

Craig: I have a background in alternative energies and engineering, and when creating Boot Ranch Farms there was a lot that went into the sustainability side of it. The farm is extremely far away from the power grid for starters. So, an investment in solar for electricity was money well spent. My thought process was, why would I invest in bringing the wires in when I could actually save money and resources by creating a very efficient solar system and not be tied to the grid? Our farm is self-sustaining without being connected to any grid, which is one of the main reasons for remaining off-grid.

Green: I understand the farm is supplied by an artesian well. How do you monitor your water quality?

Craig: Well, we’re very fortunate. Existing natural water quality is one of the main reasons we decided to grow in the San Luis Valley. When you’re starting something new, you have to look at your financial side of things. Investing in a hemp farm is very different than the marijuana side because you won’t make as much money per pound of product sold. So, you have to watch your budget and not spend too much, or you’re never going to make a profit.

The self-sustaining artisanal well and water rights were existing on the property. There’s no pumping required for it and the water goes into a 10,000-gallon holding tank, where we can monitor and test for water quality. In order to water our plants, we use a pump/drip water system that supplies water to each individual plant. It’s very efficient compared to most watering systems out there, such as flood irrigation or pivots, and really doesn’t use a heck of a lot of water.

Green: Are you growing in open air or greenhouses?

Craig: We grow in two 3,000 square feet industrial-grade greenhouses at Boot Ranch Farms. Greenhouse One has all the bells and whistles including heating, cooling, light deprivation, supplemental lighting, automated controls and more. That greenhouse allows us to mimic Mother Nature a little bit. We can get up to six harvests throughout the course of the year in that greenhouse. However, in reality, we get about four.

In addition, we have a second greenhouse that is set about 100 feet away and set up to keep plants growing on mother nature’s cycle. We can move groups of mature plants to Greenhouse One after each harvest for multiple flowering cycles. Lastly, between greenhouses, we have a 10,000 square foot courtyard that’s protected with shade cloth and other things to help protect those plants from the elements. In late October, all remaining plants in both greenhouses and the courtyard become mature and ready to harvest due to shorter days created by mother nature.

Green: Do you insure your crops?

Craig: We have not. Hemp is a new industry and we have not found good crop insurance.

Green: Do you cultivate your own genetics?

Craig: We work with some other companies here in Colorado to provide genetics. Consistent genetics are extremely important on the hemp side because we need to trust that they are going to keep the THC levels down. On the marijuana side, that part doesn’t matter so much

There are different strains that have been created that I absolutely love, and I’ve tried to stick with them and stay with that seed stock. One of them is called The Wife and the other Cherry Wine. Most of the best hemp I have found is based upon the Cherry strain. People are always looking for high CBD. I’d rather have a lower CBD level in the 8% to 12% range. Something higher in the 14% to 20% range has a higher chance of producing a product with more than the legal amount of THC.

Green: Is Harvey’s All Naturals fully supplied by Boot Ranch Farms?

Craig: Yes, it is. There are a lot of things that go into a quality product and we focus on that at Boot Ranch. We’re small, not trying to compete with the large-scale market. Unfortunately, a high percentage of the products out on the market come from large-scale industrial hemp grows. We focus on long-term medicinal value and grow very high-quality hemp and we try not to degrade it in any way, shape or form throughout processing.

Green: How many square feet or acres is the Boot Ranch Farm?

Craig: Boot Ranch farm is about 260 acres. We only grow on less than three of it.

Green: What’s your extraction process?

Craig: We use cold alcohol extraction. We do not distill to separate our alcohol from the hemp oil. We use what’s called a roto vape. That cold processing preserves our terpenes, it preserves our full-spectrum cannabis oil profile and doesn’t fully decarboxylate our CBDa. We want a large CBDa percentage because there are many things that CBDa is good for when it comes to long term medicinal reasons.

Green: Are you processing your own hemp?

Craig: No, we sub that part of it out. What I’ve learned in this industry is three main parts: 1- the farming; 2- the extraction, and; 3- the product line. Those are three very separate processes and require specialized expertise within themselves. Each is a large investment and it’s very hard to do it all. I decided to work with other people on the extraction part of it. They have the expertise, and we pay them well to do what they do.

Green: Okay, great. And then any final words for Ag Day?

Craig: Support your small farmer in nutrient-rich agricultural products.

Green: Great. That concludes the interview, Harvey!

Craig: Thank you very much!

The Beginner’s Guide to Integrated Pest Management

By David Perkins
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Formulating a Plan

In this article you will learn how to control pests and improve the health of your cannabis plants using integrated pest management, commonly referred to as IPM. This involves a multi-point strategy – there is no quick fix, nor is there one solution that will wipe out all your pest problems. Proper pest management requires patience, consistency and determination.

It is important to understand that not all pesticides are bad. While many are incredibly harmful not only to pests, but also humans, in this article I will educate you about some of the safer alternatives to traditional pesticides. It is possible to safely control unwanted pests in your cannabis garden without harming yourself, your employees or the natural habitat around you.

Every cultivation facility should have a well-thought-out plan for their pest management program. This program should account for the prevention, and if necessary, eradication of: spider mites, russet mites, fungus gnats, root aphids, thrips and caterpillars. These are just a few of the more common pests you’ll find in a cannabis garden. There could also be many other less commonly known bugs, so you have to be vigilant in looking closely at your plants, and the soil, at all times. Complete eradication of a targeted pest can be difficult. Once a pest has established itself, decimating or decreasing the population will require an aggressive regimen that includes spraying daily to control populations and prevent other pests from getting established.

Spraying or applying pesticides to the foliage of plants isn’t the only way to control or eradicate pest populations. There are many other ways that you can minimize the spread of pests without the use of pesticides. In greenhouse and outdoor grows, growing specific types of plants around the cultivation area will attract both beneficial and predator bugs that will naturally control pest populations. Some plants that attract these bugs are: mint, peppers, and marigold. Beneficial and predator bugs, such as ladybugs, predator wasps and predator mites, can control unwanted pest populations in the area before they even have a chance to become a problem in your garden. Plants and flowers that attract bees, birds and insects will also create helpful bio- diversity, making it more difficult for the unwanted pests to thrive.

For indoor cultivation, it is imperative that you have your cultivation facility set up for a proper workflow. If you already have pests, you need to make sure you are not contaminating the rest of your facility when going from one area to the next. Make sure that you only go to contaminated areas at the very end of your day, and when you’re done working in that area, you must immediately exit the building. Do not ever walk back through the uncontaminated parts of your facility or the pests will spread quickly.

An aphid on a plant in a greenhouse

When most people think of pests in their cannabis garden they think of the more common varieties: spider mites, russet mites, aphids and thrips. However, there are also soil-dwelling pests that can exist, without your knowledge. These will decrease the health and vigor of your plants, without you even knowing they’re there, if you’re not careful to check for them. Some of the soil dwelling pests that plague cannabis plants are: root aphids, fungus gnat larvae and grubs. It is just as important to control the pests below the soil, feeding on your roots, as it is to control the pests that feed above soil on your plants.

Maintaining healthy plants is essential to controlling pest populations, both on the foliage and below the soil. Healthy plants will have an easier time fighting off pests than unhealthy plants. Plants have immune systems just like humans, and the stronger the plant’s immune system, the more likely it will be able to ward off pests and diseases. Allowing a plant to reach its full potential, by minimizing pests, means your plants will also have a better quality, smell and flavor, not to mention a bigger yield.

Worker Safety, Regulation and REI times

The application of pesticides requires certification from the state agricultural department. In certain situations, depending on the type of pesticide and method of application, a license may even be required. The application of pesticides without proper certification is against the law. Applying pesticides in a manner that is not in accordance with the label and instructions is also a violation of law.

The proper personal protective equipment (PPE) is required for anybody handling, mixing or applying pesticides. Employees can be a liability to your company if they are applying pesticides improperly. Make sure you and your entire staff are well educated about pesticide use requirements and limitations, prior to usage, and that only a properly certified person is handling the mixing and application at your facility.

The author, David Perkins, In his greenhouse after using insect killing soap.

After a pesticide is applied, you must abide by the re-entry interval (REI). This is the required time period limiting all workers from re-entry into areas where pesticides have been applied. This time period will vary depending on the type of pesticide used and the method of application. In some instances, pesticides applied in the last 30 days may require employee training before work can be done in those areas.

The misuse of or improper handling of pesticides is not only unlawful and dangerous to human health, but can also cause environmental damage to waterways and wildlife. The direct effects of pesticides on wildlife include acute poisoning, immunotoxicity, endocrine disruption, reproductive failure, altered morphology and growth rates and changes in behavior. Pesticides can indirectly impact wildlife through reduction of food resources and refuses, starvation due to decreased prey availability, hypothermia and secondary poisoning. Section 1602 of the California Fish and Game Code governs requirements for permitting of any project where pesticides will be used, and strictly regulates the disposal of all waste and run-off. It is imperative to know the regulations and to abide by them, or heavy fines will ensue!

Using Pesticides in a Regulated Market

Knowing which pesticides you can’t use, to avoid failing mandatory state testing, is just as important as knowing which ones you can use safely to pass required testing. Most states with regulated markets have strict limitations on the pesticides that can be used in cannabis cultivation. Pesticide use in the cultivation of cannabis is the most strictly regulated in the agriculture industry; the pesticides allowed for use in cannabis cultivation are far more limited than any other crop.

Photo: Michelle Tribe, Flickr

Just because a product is certified organic does not mean that it can be used, or that it is safe to be consumed or ingested. Oftentimes when cannabis flower alone is tested it will not fail or show a detectable amount of pesticides or heavy metals. However, when that flower is turned into concentrates, banned substances are then detected in testing, leading to test failures.

Cannabis cultivation facilities that are located on land that was previously used for conventional agriculture, or located near vineyards or other agricultural crops that are heavily sprayed with harmful pesticides, run a very high-risk failing testing. This is because of either spray drift from nearby agriculture, or residual pesticides and heavy metals left in the soil from previous crops that were using pesticides banned for cannabis cultivation. Accordingly, if you’re going to be growing outdoors or in a greenhouse, it is imperative that you get a soil and water test prior to cultivation, so you can determine if there is any potential for test failures due to pesticides or heavy metals in the soil or water in that area. 

Proper Application – Using the Right Tools in the Right Way at the Right Time

One of the most important factors in pest management is proper identification of pests and proper application and coverage of pesticides. It does not require an entomology degree to identify insects, these days there is a lot of information online that can help you identify cannabis pests. Proper identification of insects can make the difference between success and failure. With a good eye and a microscope, if you do your research, you can control most insects in your garden.

In order to control pests in your garden you must get proper coverage of the foliage of the plant when you are applying pesticides. There are different types of equipment that are commonly used to apply pesticides in cannabis cultivation: backpack sprayers, foggers, and airless paint sprayers are the most common. An alternative method involves using an automated dosing system such as a dosatron, which injects fertilizer or pesticides at a specific ratio into your water lines, allowing you to use only the exact amount of pesticide you need. That way you avoid wasting money on unused pesticides. It is also safer for employees because it minimizes employee exposure, since there is no mixing required, and it allows for a large volume to be sprayed, without refilling a tank or a backpack sprayer.

No matter what you are using you must ensure you get the proper coverage on your plants in order to control pests. The temperature and humidity of your cultivation area, as well as the PH and temperature of the pesticide solution, all factor into the success of your IPM. For example, PFR 97 needs to be applied at a higher humidity range, around 70% to be most effective. In some areas this is not possible so repeated applications may be required to ensure the application is effective. A high PH or alkaline PH can cause alkaline hydrolysis which will make your pesticide solution less effective and will dictate how long your pesticides remain effective after they are mixed. It is therefore important to use your pesticide solution as soon as you make it; don’t let it sit around for long periods of time before use or it will be less effective.

In cannabis cultivation there are two different primary growth cycles: vegetative and flower. These cycles require different IPM strategies. In general, during the flowering cycle, pesticides should not be applied after the second week, with some limited exceptions i.e. for outdoor cultivation there is a longer window to spray since the flower set takes longer than a plant being grown inside, or in a light deprivation greenhouse, where there is a 12/12 flowering cycle.

Starting with an immaculate vegetation room is crucial to maintaining pest and mold free plants in the flowering cycle.

For the vegetative (non-flowering) cycle, a strict rotation of foliage spray applications targeting not only pests, but also molds and pathogens, will be necessary to avoid a quick onset of infestation. Starting with an immaculate vegetation room is crucial to maintaining pest and mold free plants in the flowering cycle. Preventative sprays that are safe for use include: safer soap (contact kill) for soft bodied chewing insects; Regalia (biological control) for powdery mildew; and PFR 97 (biological control) for soft bodied chewing insects. It is also helpful to spray kelp, which strengthens the cell walls of plants, making the plant healthier, and thus enabling the plant to better defend itself from pests and diseases. Also, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is useful to prevent or kill caterpillars.

The best way to control a pest infestation in the flowering cycle is at the very beginning on day one. You must start aggressively, with a three-way control consisting of a contact kill and preventative during days 1-14; preventative and biological control during days 10-18; and then release predator bugs on day 25, for optimal results. Knocking back the population with an effective contact kill pesticide early on is essential to ultimately lowering populations throughout the grow cycle, so that you can spray a biological control to preclude them from returning, before you release the predatory bugs at the end of the cycle.

Biological controls can take anywhere from 3 to 10 days before they are effective. Biological pesticides are selected strains of bacteria or fungus. When the plant tissue is eaten by a targeted pest, the bacteria kills the pest from the inside providing control without having to spray pesticides repeatedly. Predator bugs are the last line of defense, used in late flowering. They can be used indoors, outdoors and in greenhouses. An example of a common predator bug is Amblyseius californicus used to control low populations of spider mites, but there are many different varieties and they are specific depending on the type of pest population you seek to control.

A common concern with the use of predatory bugs, is whether they will be present when the flowers are harvested. However, if there is no food for the bugs (i.e. pests) the predator bugs will leave in search of food elsewhere. Further, indoor predator bugs are usually very small in size and difficult to see to an untrained eye. It is very unlikely to see any signs of predator bugs near the end of the flowering cycle, or in the finished flower product. Even when using bigger predator bugs, the bugs will leave the plants when harvested and dried.

Having pests can be very stressful. It is not uncommon to have bugs, pests, rodents, animals and birds cause damage in cannabis gardens. Making an informed decision based on science and not on unproven assumptions can determine how successful you are at pest management. There are many factors that go into pest management and no one situation is the same. You must be dedicated and consistent; pest management never stops. You will always have something ready to invade your garden. Prepare, plan, prevent and repeat!

Large Scale Cultivation Planning: 4 Important Factors to Consider

By David Perkins
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Before you begin any large-scale cultivation project, you must necessarily consider the four factors highlighted below, among many others, to ensure your cultivation is successful. Failure to do so will cost you greatly in both time and money, and ultimately could lead to failure. While the four areas highlighted below may be the most important considerations to address, you should hire a cultivation advisor to determine the numerous other considerations you must deal with before you begin.

1. Genetics

Genetics will play a huge role in your cultivation plan, as they can ultimately make or break the success of your business. Access to quality, verified genetics will greatly affect your profits. All cannabis genetics grow differently and may require different conditions and nutrients. Further, consumers in today’s regulated market have greater awareness; they are much more knowledgeable about genetics and able to discern between quality cannabis versus commercially produced cannabis.

Market trends will dictate whether or not you’ll ultimately be able to sell your harvest at market rate. You need to project out at least one year in advance the genetics you will be growing. But often it is impossible to predict what consumers will be purchasing a year in advance so this part of your cultivation plan should be well thought out. Further compounding this difficulty is the fact that it may take six months to ramp up production of any given variety.

Genetics that are popular now may still be popular next year, but that also means there will be more competition for shelf space, as more competitors will also likely be growing these same genetics. Therefore, don’t rely on only one trendy variety as the bulk of your selection for the year, no matter how popular it is at the moment. Producing a single variety as the bulk of your crop is always risky, unless you have a contract with a sales outlet, in advance, for a set quantity of that one particular variety. Diversity in your genetics is beneficial, when chosen correctly.

Making proprietary genetics from your own seed collection can give you a big advantage in today’s competitive market. Having a variety with a distinct, unique and desirable smell, taste, effect or cannabinoid profile will allow you to distinguish your brand amongst others. Entire brands have been built off of a single variety: Cookies and Lemontree are two examples of companies that have done this. All it takes is one really good variety to attract a lot of attention to your brand. Having your own breeding project on site will allow you to look for and identify varieties that work for you and your business model, and ultimately will help to distinguish your brand apart from others.

Only buy seeds from reputable breeders! Any new varieties that you are going to be cultivating should be tested out at least three times, on a small scale, before being moved into a full production model. If you are growing from seed there is always the potential for your crop to get pollinated by male plants or hermaphrodites that went unnoticed, and therefore, they could be a potential risk to your entire harvest. Treat them accordingly, i.e. by cultivating them on a small scale in a separate, enclosed area.

Buying clones from a commercial nursery can be risky. Genetics are passed from one grower to another haphazardly, and names are changed far too easily. This can create a lot of confusion as to what variety you are actually purchasing and whether you are getting the best version of the genetics. Just because a clone is called “sour diesel” doesn’t mean you’re actually getting the real, authentic sour diesel. And to further complicate things, the same clone grown in different environments can produce a noticeable difference in flavor, smell and effect depending on your cultivation method. Always try your best to verify the authenticity of the genetics you purchase. Ask about the history and origin of the particular genetics you are purchasing. Better yet, ask for pictures, physical samples, and most importantly, certificates of analysis from a laboratory, indicating the potency. In many states anything under 20% THC is going to be hard to sell, while anything over 30% will easily sell and command the highest price. It’s a good idea to have a laboratory test the terpene profile in order to verify a variety is actually what the seller purports it to be.

Knowing the source of your genetics is imperative. It will help ensure that you actually have the variety that you were intending to grow, and therefore, allow you to achieve your intended results. Knowing what varieties you are going to cultivate, before you grow them, will also give you a better idea of the ideal growing conditions for that specific variety, as well as what nutrients will be required to achieve optimum output.

2. Automated Watering Systems

Installing an automated watering system, during build out, will by far be the most cost-effective use of your money, and will save you the most amount of time in labor. An automated watering system, commonly referred to as a “drip system” or “drip irrigation,” is necessary regardless of whether you are cultivating indoors or outdoors; it will allow you to water multiple different areas at once, or only water a few specific areas of the garden at one time. Hand watering a 22,000 square-foot cultivation site will take one person eight hours every single day, on average, to maintain. However, a properly designed drip system can water an entire large-scale garden in a couple of hours, without any employees, record all the relevant data and notify you if there is a problem. This enables you more time to spend closely inspecting the plants to ensure there are no bugs or other problems present, and that your plants are healthy and thriving. This attention to detail is necessary if you want to have consistent success.

Larger scale cultivation requires bigger and more expensive equipment.

Automated watering systems not only save a great deal of time but also eliminate the possibility of human error, like over watering, which can kill an entire crop quickly. There aresoil moisture sensors  that can be placed in the soil to regulate the supply of water to the plants in a precise manner. Without an extremely skilled, experienced work force, damage to plants due to over watering is very common. A drip system will reduce the threat of human error by ensuring delivery of precisely the correct amount of water and nutrients to each plant every single time they are watered.

Not all drip systems are created equally. There are different types of automated watering systems. Designing the right drip system for your cultivation site(s) can be complicated. Make sure you do your research, or better yet, work with a cultivation advisor who has experience with automated irrigation systems in conjunction with a licensed plumber, to ensure you are installing the best system for your particular set up.

Adding a fertilizer injector to your drip system can further increase the efficiency of your operation and save you money on nutrients by using only what you need and ensuring correct application. Again, automating this process will save you time and money, and reduce the threat of human error.

3. Nutrients

The types of nutrients you use and the amount of nutrients you use, are going to directly affect the quality of your cannabis flower. Conventional agriculture and Dutch hydroponic cannabis cultivation have always used salt-based fertilizers. However, they can be toxic for the plant in high amounts. While cheap and easy to use, salt- based nutrients are made in big factories using chemical processes to manufacture. They are not good for the environment, and overall, they produce an inferior product. The highest quality cannabis, is grown with organic living soil. Although seemingly contrary to popular knowledge, when done properly, cultivating in organic living soil is more cost effective than using powdered or liquid salt-based fertilizers.

Yield and quality depend on the skills of the cultivator, more than the method they are using. Having healthy plants from the start, will always yield better results, no matter what way they were grown. In my 20 years of experience I have seen plants grown in balanced living soil yield just as much as plants grown with synthetic nutrients. Further, the quality is not comparable.

Controlling your clone supply can ensure they are healthy

Always remember, it is the quality of your flower that will determine the price it is sold for, not the yield. Even if you produce more overall weight of chemically grown cannabis, if nobody wants to purchase that product, then you are going to yield far less profit than another company growing in the same amount of space using organic practices that yield a higher quality product.

The difference in quality between plants grown in balanced living soil versus any other method of cultivation is undeniable. It is really easy to post a pretty picture of a flower on Instagram but that picture doesn’t tell you anything about what went into producing it. When flower is produced using chemical nutrients, it is likely going to be harsh and not enjoyable to smoke. Lesson learned: don’t judge a bud by an Instagram photo! There is a stark difference between cannabis grown using synthetic nutrients versus cannabis grown in living soil. Once you’ve experienced the difference you will never want to consume cannabis that is grown any other way.

4. Plant Propagation

Having the ability to propagate your own clones, from mother plants that you have cultivated, can save you a staggering amount of money. In some states, having a cultivation license allows you to produce your own clones for your cultivation, while having a nursery permit will allow you to sell clones for commercial sales to other companies. The average price of a wholesale clone is around eight dollars. If you require 5000 plants for every harvest, that’s a $40,000 expense you must bear, every grow cycle. This can obviously add up quickly. And as previously mentioned there’s the risk of purchasing inferior genetics or unhealthy plants, both of which greatly affect your profit margins.

On the other hand, the cost of materials and labor to produce a healthy clone can be as low as one dollar when using advanced cloning techniques. Controlling your clone supply can ensure they are healthy and allow you to know exactly what you are growing each time. Further, it doesn’t take a lot of space to propagate your own cuttings. In a 400 square-foot space one could produce between 5,000 to 10,000 clones per month, all of which could be maintained by one person depending on your situation.

And last but definitely not least, the most important thing you can do to ensure the success of your cultivation, is hire an experienced knowledgeable grower who is passionate about cannabis. The success of your company depends on it. You need someone with the knowledge, experience, and skills to make your cultivation dreams a reality. You need someone who can plan your build-out and cultivation to ensure success from the start. And you need someone with the skills to handle the multitude of inevitable problems that will arise in a cost effective and efficient way.

These are just some of the many considerations you must account for when planning a large scale grow in the regulated market. An experienced cultivation advisor can help you with these, and many other considerations you will need to contend with before you begin your grow. Creating a well thought out plan at the outset can end up saving you thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars down the road.

Heavy Metals Testing: Methods, Strategies & Sampling

By Charles Deibel
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Editor’s Note: The following is based on research and studies performed in their Santa Cruz Lab, with contributions from Mikhail Gadomski, Lab Manager, Ryan Maus Technical Services Analyst, Laurie Post, Director of Food Safety & Compliance, and Charles Deibel, President Deibel Cannabis Labs.


Heavy metals are common environmental contaminants resulting from human industrial activities such as mining operations, industrial waste, automotive emissions, coal fired power plants and farm/house hold water run-off. They affect the water and soil, and become concentrated in plants, animals, pesticides and the sediments used to make fertilizers. They can also be present in low quality glass or plastic packaging materials that can leach into the final cannabis product upon contact. The inputs used by cultivators that can be contaminated with heavy metals include fertilizers, growing media, air, water and even the clone/plant itself.

The four heavy metals tested in the cannabis industry are lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium. The California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) mandates heavy metals testing for all three categories of cannabis products (inhalable cannabis, inhalable cannabis products and other cannabis and cannabis products) starting December 31, 2018. On an ongoing basis, we recommend cultivators test for the regulated heavy metals in R&D samples any time there are changes in a growing process including changes to growing media, cannabis strains, a water system or source, packaging materials and fertilizers or pesticides. Cultivators should test the soil, nutrient medium, water and any new clones or plants for heavy metals. Pre-qualifying a new packaging material supplier or a water source prior to use is a proactive approach that could bypass issues with finished product.

Testing Strategies

The best approach to heavy metal detection is the use of an instrument called an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). There are many other instruments that can test for heavy metals, but in order to achieve the very low detection limits imposed by most states including California, the detector must be the ICP-MS. Prior to detection using ICP-MS, cannabis and cannabis related products go through a sample preparation stage consisting of some form of digestion to completely break down the complex matrix and extract the heavy metals for analysis. This two-step process is relatively fast and can be done in a single day, however, the instruments used to perform the digestion are usually the limiting step as the digesters run in a batch of 8-16 samples over a 2-hour period.

Only trace amounts of heavy metals are allowed by California’s BCC in cannabis and cannabis products. A highly sensitive detection system finds these trace amounts and also allows troubleshooting when a product is found to be out of specification.

For example, during the course of testing, we have seen lead levels exceed the BCC’s allowable limit of 0.5 ppm in resin from plastic vape cartridges. An investigation determined that the plastic used to make the vape cartridge was the source of the excessive lead levels. Even if a concentrate passes the limits at the time of sampling, the concern is that over time, the lead leached from the plastic into the resin, increasing the concentration of heavy metals to unsafe levels.

Getting a Representative Sample

The ability to detect trace levels of heavy metals is based on the sample size and how well the sample represents the entire batch. The current California recommended amount of sample is 1 gram of product per batch.  Batch sizes can vary but cannot be larger than 50 pounds of flower. There is no upper limit to the batch sizes for other inhalable cannabis products (Category II).

It is entirely likely that two different 1 gram samples of flower can have two different results for heavy metals because of how small a sample is collected compared to an entire batch. In addition, has the entire plant evenly collected and concentrated the heavy metals into every square inch of it’s leaves? No, probably not. In fact, preliminary research in leafy greens shows that heavy metals are not evenly distributed in a plant. Results from soil testing can also be inconsistent due to clumping or granularity. Heavy metals are not equally distributed within a lot of soil and the one small sample that is taken may not represent the entire batch. That is why it is imperative to take a “random” sample by collecting several smaller samples from different areas of the entire batch, combining them, and taking a 1 g sample from this composite for analysis.


References

California Cannabis CPA. 12/18/2018.  “What to Know About California’s Cannabis Testing Requirements”. https://www.californiacannabiscpa.com/blog/what-to-know-about-californias-cannabis-testing-requirements. Accessed January 10, 2019.

Citterio, S., A. Santagostino, P. Fumagalli, N. Prato, P. Ranalli and S. Sgorbati. 2003.  Heavy metal tolerance and accumulation of Cd, Cr and Ni by Cannabis sativa L.. Plant and Soil 256: 243–252.

Handwerk, B. 2015.  “Modern Marijuana Is Often Laced With Heavy Metals and Fungus.” Smithsonian.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/modern-marijuana-more-potent-often-laced-heavy-metals-and-fungus-180954696/

Linger, P.  J. Mussig, H. Fischer, J. Kobert. 2002.  Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) growing on heavy metal contaminated soil: fibre quality and phytoremediation potential. Ind. Crops Prod. 11, 73–84.

McPartland, J. and K. J McKernan. 2017.  “Contaminants of Concern in Cannabis: Microbes, Heavy Metals and Pesticides”.  In: S. Chandra et al. (Eds.) Cannabis sativa L. – Botany and Biotechnology.  Springer International Publishing AG. P. 466-467.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318020615_Contaminants_of_Concern_in_Cannabis_Microbes_Heavy_Metals_and_Pesticides.  Accessed January 10, 2019.

Sidhu, G.P.S.  2016.  Heavy metal toxicity in soils: sources, remediation technologies and challenges.   Adv Plants AgricRes. 5(1):445‒446.