Hi Everyone.
Just wondering if anyone can provide directions on what sort of approval process to take before using any fertilizer/supplement for cannabis cultivation at a licensed facility in Canada. For instance, registration requirement, heavy metals etc. I have some basic understanding but if there are any steps one follow to make sure quality nutrients are used.
Hi,
You are going to need a law degree and a good understanding of chemistry but here are the links to fertilizer regulations for Canada
This will be the minimum requirements.
I would expect control of heavy metals as a contaminant to be tighter.
Organic sourced fertilizers are going to be really tricky real fast.
I know the organic growers association of Canada requirements are nuts. I not sure I could pull an organic grow off in Canada.
From the voices in my head
Ethan
Hi Ethan,
Thank you for the reply. So, as a part of my due diligence, I am looking at two things. One is heavy metals and others if they are registered or exempt.
While looking at fertilizers act, they do not have any specific heavy metal limits, but rather a formulae. While many of fertilizers are from US., when I ask, they provide a link to California database. CDFA - FFLDRS - Fertilizing Materials Inspection Program. I can find the limits there but I do not know what I am comparing against since most of time they are exempt in Canada. Any insight on this? 
Thanks
Ashish
The California rules are more complex than the federal government. If you can pass the California rules you can pass in Canada. The one exception is any thing that is labled plant food in the USA is band in Canada, period.
The heavy metal rules is to stop people from spraying fish guts on there fields. 
they watch these numbers closely.
That is about all I know about Canada.
Thanks Ethan for the reply. It makes sense. so, I also found that Washington uses the same limits for heavy metals as Canada. And, there is a website called AAPFCO. They posted a chart on their website
AAPFCO - The "Heavy Metal Rule". and claim that they maintain uniformity between US and Canada. So does it mean that if heavy metals limits comply with this chart, then it is good to go for Canada if heavy metals under the limits.
Let me look. The source of details have changed since the last time I tried to do this. Maybe beyond me.
But, I will look.
From the voices in my head
Ethan Kayes
This guy maybe able to help
The data are also available in a computer file from: Joe Slater, Fert./Ag-Lime Control Service, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211-8080, Telephone: [(573) 882-0007](tel:(573) 882-0007), Fax: [(573) 882-4543](tel:(573) 882-4543), E-mail: slaterj@missouri.edu
Thanks Ethan. I will contact this guy.
Ashish
Hi there!
Not sure if you found all your answers yet, it’s been a week already and am sorry if this seems like a missed train and old thread digging, however here is some insight about Health Canada’s requirements for licensed producers. The company I work for does provide to many LPs since the first days of that program and I do deal with the paperwork mountain that is required.
In short, Health Canada does not approve fertilizers for LPs. HC approves of the final product and doesn’t really care how you get there. They do require, like in many states, that the LP is able to trace back and recall any faulty batch and put in place protocol for it to never happen again.
QA managers all set their own rules in term of making sure they don’t get to harvest a crop that can’t be sold.
Fertilizers used for indoor production are generally exempt from registration in Canada. Some exceptions do require it, like seaweed, humic acids and very high NPK products. Generally speaking all PGRs are banned, unless they are registered for Cannabis production. As far as I know none exist. So they say “yes you can” but really mean “No, you won’t”
I’m not here to do marketing, but can take the company I work for as an example. All our fertilizers are stamped with Batch #, Order # and warranty expiry date. We keep samples of every batch produced and can go back and analyze any product we manufactured. When we do ship large volumes to LP’s we also send Certificates of analysis. Throughout the year we have third party analysis done to confirm our own quality controls are in check. So this helps the QA manager a lot with their own paperwork. Some LPs were caught using banned pesticides, some of them claimed “it must have been in the nutrients or the soil” since then, most LPs require we show certificates of pesticide testing for the 90 something banned substances from Health Canada, we provide for more than 250 mainly because that’s the package the lab we work with offers. We have to do this even though we dont manufacture pesticides, nor are in an area where they are produced or used. However we need to deal with a very paranoid situation, so we exceed the norms.
As I said QA managers kind of set up their own rules to make sure the final product comply. Unfortunately a lot of them have zero horticultural knowledge and will ask for retarded things like third party certification that the nutrients wont contain peanuts… other will ask to prove that organic growing medium be certified sterile and so on.
However in the end, if your nutrient manufacturer is well established and follows the rules of the CFIA (Label, SDS), you can use it whether it is premium purified liquids or cheap dark blue powders. At the end of the day, cannabis is very good at picking up heavy metals, half of the elements in nutrients are heavy metals which the plant really need. So feeding a clean nutrient is one thing, but making sure the growers do not over feed is way more important.
Then people tend to look only at inputs to prevent crop contamination by heavy metals, but it should be known that cheap plastic pots, hoses, etc can leach out a lot of garbage into the growing medium or even off-gas them in the air where they end up being taken in the stomata and build up within the plants. Things like polyurethane insulation will off-gas for years, same goes for some paints, glues, floor sealant etc.
Finally, we still have to deal with urban legend and witchcraft science of “master” growers who’ve got their degree at Facebook University or Google college… Lot’s of whom believes that the final flushing period will magically suck all garbages out. Unfortunately, what ever gets inside the plant stays in the plant, no matter if you flush for a month. Therefore your focus should not be on the nutrient (as long as they have batch# and traceability) but on making sure your growers do not over feed or allow plants to accumulate more nutrients than they can actually process. Because Health Canada does not forgive and it can become costly quite quickly if the batch is denied.
I hope this helps, again sorry for the week late reply, I just joined this great forum 
Cheers,
Eric
Canada always was a bane on my exsistane in growing.
@ron at HGV fertilizer is a good resource.
If I was growing today my first choice would be clay pots. Second choice would be food grade hydroponic baskets.
Heavy metals in organic fertilizer are a real problem. I don’t see a solution.
QA managers do learn @omykiss1953 would be able to give us some practical in put.
@hunter can we make a QA tag.
I understand generally quality assurance people don’t understand horticulture, but they learn if the growers are patent and both sides listen. Most of the QA people I have worked with come from the food science sector. (In the technology sector different story). The QA people I have worked with in horticulture have made our growers better growers and allowed us to produce better end product.
From the voices in my head 
Ethan
Done! It’s in the title now.
How about a @ QA so all QA people see like @ master grower
From Voices in my head
Ethan 
We’d have to create a custom group and start adding people to it, might be a bit too much hassle for what it’s worth.
Awesome. Yeah, a QA group would be really nice. thanks.
Thanks Eric for the detailed answer. Yeah, its been a real issue in trying to understand the fertilizer and feeding rate. But I am getting close now. I am using a heavy metal chart from Washington since they have same limits as CFIA. It has started to give me some insights. Although you are right, the main factor is application rate. How many times the irrigation is applied, which we are in the process of figuring out.
