What about indoor growing?
5 Likes
Good morning Growers. What is your way to consistently produce quality buds (in general terms)?
4 Likes
Is there a systematic Quality process you go by?
3 Likes
One of the major benefits of indoor is a completely control environment. Your plants will not be fighting 90°F days and evaporation should be minimal. I do maintain an indoor vegetative grow through the winter for mother plants. I run a night cycle for veg (4hrs) and temp differential. I still like to water when lights come on and the room is 20°F cooler. It is more out of habit than anything, if they need more water, I donât hesitate water midday. I donât think evaporation from the soil is a major concern for indoor.
Similarly, if my outdoor field looked like it need water midday, they will get water midday, but I wouldnât fertilize. It hasnât happened, I keep a close eye on the weather and preemptively water on projected hot days.
4 Likes
Hey Dan! We just visited some farms in Humboldt that were experimenting with auto-flowering cannabis plants. Do you have any experience with auto-flowers? If so, what are your thoughts on sustainability of growing auto-flowers over conventional cannabis plants?
5 Likes
One of my favorite graphics from both plant and animal nutrition is Liebigâs Barrel which is used as a nutritional status analogy. The slats represent nutrients and their length represent the amount supplied. The goal is to make a âyield barrelâ with all of the macro to micro nutrients slats at the proper level.
One thing that has been far too overlooked in conventional agriculture, in my opinion, is trace remineralization. I have applied 400lbs/acre of azomite (70+ trace minerals, ) to my soil, and foliar feed Sea-90 (90+ trace minerals, a raw sea salt). I believe applying these fairly inexpensive products helps keep that barrel filled to the brim, and everything else is somewhere between genetics and the environment.
3 Likes
Great question.
I have zero experience with auto-flowers. 
If my yield is too much for my drying capacity, I plan to look into planting a section of autos so that I can stage my harvest next year rather than build another greenhouse. I am so very tired of building greenhouses⌠
I would need some data on their average finishing size, but would assume that I would need at least double the plants per area.
One of my main concerns with this would be males, but perhaps Phylos Bioscience could help with that with their plant sex testing. My second concern is cost. I wouldnât want to mess with breeding, so I would need seed, probably feminized. I would also need testing for sex or pull males/hermaphrodites. It would require a serious look into costs and benefits for me to decide. I havenât outgrown my drying capacity, yet, so I havenât crossed that bridge.
4 Likes
What do you think about the excess weed leftover when you are a caregiver in Az. We are allowed to grow 12 plants per patient and we have 5 patients so thats 60 plants. Can we grow for other legal operations? Or do we sell on the black market.
5 Likes
My knowledge of cannabis law is localized to Oregon and some federal aspects. I think @Growernick would be an excellent resource for you to discuss Arizona specific laws.
2 Likes
What variables do you consider when monitoring the progress of the crop. Can you quantify these variables to make changes or do you just watch your plants and make changes according to your observations and experience?
3 Likes
Thanks for the thoughtful response! The grower I met with that was experimenting with them said each plant should yield 3-5 oz. of cured flower. They only grow to like 3 ft. tops. He seemed to think that the cost and speed to harvest made it more sustainable, but didnât get specific about how or why. Any move towards further sustainability is interesting to me. Youâll have to update us when you do cross that bridge!
3 Likes
@Farmer_Dan Where do you see the global cannabis industry in 2, 4 and 6 years?
Being in native soil, I canât exactly flush the media, so a solid understanding of plant needs, measuring what is in the soil, and an ability to do algebra to bring all nutrients to their limit without going over are a must.
I shoot for about 70% of NPK at planting, let them use that up, and apply the final 30% through the drip lines. In general, this happens in July. I will decide when the first dose happens based on soil tests. My goal is to never see the plants stressed for nutrients or water. I try to give them everything before they are literally starving for it. Seeing those signs of stress means lost growth potential. Since I am in an uncontrolled environment, I canât just compensate by adding a week to veg.
Additionally, everything I do is by the row (250 plants or so at a time). If 1 plant is doing poorly, I probably wonât do anything about it. Native soil can be different from foot to foot in every respect. My goal is an average per strain, rather than individual metrics.
As for terpenes and cannabinoids, we get those numbers from the processor. Most of our changes has had to do with post harvest handling rather than growing.
The @cbt article coming out real soon, highlights our many problems our solutions to overcome these problems. Some of them revolve around wide spread soil problems and post harvest handling.
6 Likes
Whatâs your biggest challenge when hiring / training someone to help with harvesting (if you do that - hire people to help) or trimming?
4 Likes
I plan to remain active here and keep my grow log updated with current growth and future problems and solutions. If I add autos next year, I will write about!
5 Likes
Nationally, I think we are going to stall, but not go backward, with this administration. There is still a lot of hemming and hawing federally, but as more and more states get on board, there will be no choice in the matter. I am glad to see bi-partisan efforts to fix our national problems.
My hope is that cannabis stays like beer and does not become like tobacco. With tobacco use trending downward at a high rate, I see that industry wanting to sink its teeth into something new. Since cannabis is used in lower volumes, it seems to better fit with a craft model. Variety is the spice of life, after all.
3 Likes
I do!
I need temporary labor for spring planting and fall harvest/processing/packaging.
This question is addressed our @cbt article for July. If you have more specific questions related to our labor problems and solutions, please message me and I would love to discuss this in more detail with you.
One aspect not covered in the article is why we had a problem. I believe it was due to people not really understanding what the job entails before they arrive. It is hard labor, great exercise, but hard labor. Not everyone is able to keep up with the pace. I think this applies across the board, my customer, Cura Cannabis Solutions (a processor), has the same problem with people not expecting how fast paced we are. We pay a very competitive wage, but we also hustle in the field. A friend of mine started a on-site trimming service that we will use this year, Worthy Hands Trimming LLC, and they too have this same problem. Some people are just unable to handle a demanding workload.
4 Likes
Hi everyone!
So, technically the AMA starts now, but I see yâall have already been at it! So keep the conversation going!
@Farmer_Dan - How did you get selected/discovered by @cbt?
4 Likes
Haha, I thought it was at 10:00, but I started around 9:00. I am always happy to answer questions, and I will stay on until 12:00pm.
Any excuse to not be pulling blackberries out of the blueberry field is good enough for me. 
Thanks @Hunter!
4 Likes
No worries!
2 Likes