Thank You Dan,
We appreciate your time and I know that I will definitely be reaching out to you in the future with further questions and it is great having you as a valuable resource to the members of this community.
Best Regards and Big Yields
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I can take this question for sure, Dan. I always recommend disposing of excess product that puts you over you allowable amounts. If you have access to an extraction lab, I find this is one of the easiest ways of converting excess trim/larf into a more viable, marketable product.
The only way I know of to grow more than 60 plants is to grow for a licensed dispensary. Since the number of these licenses were capped in 2010, they are exceptionally hard to come by. The upside of having said license is that they are essentially Tier 5 licenses (county/municipality permitting) with an unlimited plant count.
Stay away from the black market.
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Heyy itās Kareenabis again, 2 more questionsā¦
Can you tell us a little about the hydroponic, irrigation or nutrient delivery systems that you are currently using?
And, can you explain the most cost effective improvements you have experienced with these systems?
Thanks for your time and expertise!
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I have standard ag type 3" aluminum pipe and 3HP pump to push pond water uphill. I use this for all of my food, but I hooked up 250 mesh filters on 1" off shoots and those run 6 to 8 drip lines that are 5/8" in diameter and 400ā long. They emit 0.4GPH ever 8 inches. I have built a quick attach venturi manifold to inject inline while irrigating.
I think I will need to add 50lbs of actual N to my 40,000sqft of canopy, about 100lbs Urea (I may substitute or add Jackās/Grow More depending on PK levels). I want to add this in small doses on a weekly basis through July over 13 rows. This is 25lbs of urea (or other products) per week, or about 2lbs per row per week. Since I drip 3 to 4 rows per section, this is 6-8lbs of urea that I will dissolve in water in a 5 gallon bucket and aim to have that bucket empty after a 4 hour irrigation event (2,400 total gallons irrigated per row).
Dry fertilizer has zero marketing and lower freight costs. It really is the same thing you would buy in a bottle, but you arenāt paying for the water and marketing. For example, I use silicate in my indoor. Name brand bottles of this run about $20/qt, but I can make it twice as strong for $7 per 3 liters, making it around 6 quarts worth of diluted silicate. You can do this with most name brand fertilizers. Most of your organic extracts are not going to be DIY, but there are some bulk alternatives with low marketing expenses out there. Aside from fertilizer, potting soil is a huge expense, so I am using my ag education to manage native soil.
My venturi manifold
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Wow! That is very insightful!
It is very interesting and incredible that you are able to make your own stronger fertilizers by the liter for a fraction of the cost that most would pay by the quart. Your process is cost effectively amazing!
Thanks again for this information and for the picture of your venturi manifold as well.
This was a great and resourceful AMA 
! Go head @Farmer_Dan with the master growing plans!!
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Very interesting indeed. We are Agriculture suppliers of a liquid Peat Extract (serves as a more robust version of Leonardite coal-derived products; nothing to do with PeatMoss or such), and had a CO indoor grower trial and confirm his transplant lag went way down and plants grew faster/bigger. I am curious to see how field-grown plants could be helped. Our business problem is that our product covers a wide area, at 1-1.5G/acre total per season, so even a large grower is still pretty small (compared to vegetables and such). We would still be interested in helping where we can, but one 3G case would apparently last you two years - and you are big! So we have not actively focused efforts on this cropā¦
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If it shortens establishment time, I very much would be interested!
It takes longer in native soil for plants to establish when compared to potting soil. I think it takes 2 weeks before they begin to visibly grow. I think it would be interesting to do a control and trial and see how much more quickly they can establish.
Would this be used with the final watering of the potted starts before transplanting, or drip irrigated with the first watering after transplanting? Can it be used as a foliar or is it soil related benefits?
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Ideally both (a small amount for each)! It promotes root development, so many farmers add some to whatever else they use at seeding, and then another hit on transplant day, usually 2-6 weeks later (dep on plant).
If you move the plant and most/all of the potting soil into the field, I like the water in before moving approach, as the new roots can be stimulated sooner to establish in new soil, but driplines or water wheels, etc., also work great.
Some conventional farmers (AgraPro is OMRI Listed, but we supply org and non-org growers) use boom sprayers with preemergent herbicides and whatnot over the field - we try to piggyback on what Growers already do, so that there is no extra labor involved. It is pretty flexible. Our @AgraPro page on FB has info and pics (of fruit/veg) if helpful.
In Japan for a cpl more weeks, but happy to coordinate something with you (for next year at this point) from here or when Stateside.
Mark
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Sounds great, keep me in mind for next spring. I aim to start planting on May 21st each year, weather depending. If I could cut my establishment time in half, one week, that could arguably add 5-10% more growth.
Iāll follow you on Facebook.
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Yea since im getting about 1-2 lbs per plant theres no way the patients can use all that. Do you know any extraction labs in Tucson?
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I do indeed know some great extraction artists and labs. Send me a private message and we can further discuss the matter.
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Great AMA, Dan! I canāt wait to come visit the farm! Congrats on the CBT cover! Thanks for taking the time!
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Thanks, I thought it went well too! I am glad that participation was so high, there were a ton of great questions. It was a lot of fun.
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Before I read the article, let me throw in my 2 cents.
For years I swore by specialty nutrients and paid accordingly. It was much like the Super Premium dog foods supposedly created just for golden retrievers but never fed to Labradors. It also costs three times as much as pet food with near identical protein and ingredients.
Then I sat down with a PhD chemist working in the AG field. When I explained the situation with Super Nutes specifically for cannabis, he just laughed at me.
Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus are chemical compounds that must be listed on the nutrientsā label. It makes no difference if itās rat, cat or bat poop, just go by the numbers.
He did agree that organically derived nutrients add to the tilth of the growing medium, may foster micro organisms and be ecologically sound. But if the plant is missing what it needs in terms of NPK, it doesnāt care about its source.
"Feed me, Seymour " is the plea, not feed me over priced nutes in fancy bottles with quirky names and high prices.
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True story.
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Hi Farmer Dan ā I joined GrowersNetwork about a year ago but then got pulled in some other direction and have come back recently. Kareen has been a strong community advocate and she said that you would be a great person to meet so I wanted to introduce myself. Hello. I run a startup in Silicon Valley called AlulaHydro that does Nutrient Control Systems, think Donatron Injectors but connected to the Internet, controlled from a smart phone, dispensing different recipes for different zones and tracking history to create a dataset that will help growers really dial in their nutrients perfectly based on their growing method, strains and specific goals. I smiled when I saw the Venturi injector, looks a lot like some of our early prototypes, right down to the Orange 5 gallon Homer bucket from Home Depot! Our focus is on indoor and greenhouse, looks like your committed to outdoor, but maybe someday we can help each other or do some business together. Best, Walter p.s. Why are people hating on you on Instagram? People need to chill the eff out and support each other, weāre way stronger united than divided.
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As we move along, I will be interested in spending money to save time. Iām a one man show most of the year.
Some form of automation would save me at least 3 hours per day from February to May with cloning and starts. Outdoor irrigation is a different animal altogetherā¦
I will definitely be in contact when the time comes. I love this community and want to support it, so many intelligent and gift people with so much to offer.
As for Instagram, social media is social media. Infamous is just as good as famous. 
I got to feel like a celebrity for a day, soon to be forgotten. 
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Weāll never forget you, @Farmer_Dan! Weāre always stoked to see our fellow professionals follow their dreams and achieve success. Youāre an inspiration to us all!
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This says 2018