Catastrophic Consultations
Are you having a catastrophic catastrophe?
More and more over time I have been emailed and asked if I did consultations for operations large and small, and while I declined as I did not want to do consultation jobs, I kept being asked and ultimately decided to do consultations. As such I have made a consultation section to answer some questions I receive..
Do you need a cannabis expert to help with any number of problems related to cannabis?
Are you having problems in your grow rooms or cultivation facility, greenhouses, or problems growing outdoors?
Do you need help with employee training and/or general cultivation knowledge?
Problems with growing in (organic) soil, rockwool, coco, or other medias? Propagation problems?
Do you have a pest or nutrient problem you need help to diagnose or fix? Pests, mold, or nutrient issues you thought were corrected, or tried correcting, but these probems still persist?
I might be able to help you. I will tell you up front though;
I am not cheap.
I'm not a PhD or certified by any government or independent agency in anything.
I am not licensed by any agency or board anywhere.
I have held a MA state pesticide applicator license but am not currently licensed to apply pesticides in MA or any state.
I use equipment such as a professional grade FLIR camera, pH and PPM meters, and other tools for identifying environmental conditions and assessing plant health in a grow area.
I would describe myself as an expert in cannabis, its cultivation, and many other aspects of cannabis, an Integrated Pest Management expert, and a soil expert, though as it stands I prefer soil-less media such as rockwool for growing cannabis.
I am not necessarily the best guy for the job, and nothing I say may work. Your problem may be out of my range.
But I will take all my expertise and years of experience to task on your issue to solve your problem(s) or tell you how you can prevent them before they may actually arise.
And if I can't figure something out I'll do my best to put you in touch with people I think can.
“Why me” if I am seemingly without qualifications?
Experience speaks for itself; I have taught many to grow, saved many grow rooms, and diagnosed and corrected many problems large and small, troubleshooting issues until they are corrected. In other words, this ain't my first rodeo.
As an expert I am always learning and never will shy away from expanding what I know. I am constantly researching and learning from other industry experts and adding their knowledge and experience to my own.
New techniques, methods, pesticides and controls, along with new cannabis pests and diseases, are constantly emerging and will continue to emerge and become a bigger and bigger problem as cannabis becomes more ubiquitous both commercially and within the home.
Much of the hype on cannabis in early literature both scientific journals and in the general public speaking to the great benefits of cannabis being a "wondrous super plant" that is free of pests and diseases, uses and needs little to no pesticides, uses very little fertilizer, is easy to grow, etc., etc., in many instances are exaggerated claims made up by proponents of cannabis who were either overstating or lying about the horticultural aspects it possessed, done mostly in an effort to shift public and government opinions toward legality.
While these hippy mantras worked within the public sector to convince changes in public policy, the truth about cannabis growing, cannabis horticulture, cannabis pests and diseases, remains a very different story.
Cannabis IS difficult to grow, especially GOOD cannabis.
It takes genetics AND a good grower to grow CONSISTENT quality.
Anyone can grow good bud every once in awhile and get away with a few good pounds. Being able to do that all the time is a very different story. Doing it on a commercial level a whole nother ball game.
Cannabis has MANY pests, diseases like molds in particular, and viruses, that can attack it and entirely destroy crops very quickly.
Most problems go undiagnosed until it is too late.
And cannabis is in fact, NOT very resistant to these pests and diseases that plague it.
Management of these diseases in the past largely required the use of pesticides, some of which could be or are very toxic, and with cannabis being illegal, you can be sure almost none of these pesticides were applied by people who were licensed pesticide applicators who knew how to apply pesticides, how much, how often to ensure pest/disease suppression, etc.
These pesticides were routinely used all the time, while cannabis in much of the scientific and popular literature was touted as being largely “pest free” and “without the need for pesticides”...
And the same was claimed for fertilizer usage, that cannabis uses or needs very little fertilizer, when anything but this is true - cannabis uses A LOT of fertilizer, and there is simply no way about it, cannabis not only will take up and use a lot of fertilizer, it seems to benefit from higher amounts as much it can be pushed for both safety of human consumption and before the plant suffers from toxicity.
Cannabis has fertilizer usage on par with tomatoes, corn, and a few other crops – again, crops that need higher applications of fertilizer than most other crops, due to the nature that we are producing a fruiting body with many complex metabolites.
Without applying enough fertilizer, yield will suffer. That is not a plant with “little need for fertilizer” at all!
Without ensuring soils or media with adequate nutrition for a plant, you will incur problems.
Organic growing is actually not easy when it comes to cannabis, especially due to the nutrient demands it has; having made my own organic soils for over 10 years its easy for someone to say "you just need a well balanced soil" but that doesn't actually mean much when it comes to what really goes into it and how to get something out.
There are a lot of overstatements to the benefits of growing "organically" or using "organic soil" and "organic methods", and like I had stated before, the so-called benefits of using organic soils or methodologies are often exaggerated, and much of this propaganda is in regards to pests or fertilizer usage.
Organic growing, and using organic methodologies, growing in organic soil, does not magically reduce or eliminate pest problems or fertilizer needs like many proponents of organic techniques and "living soils" will tout.
Oftentimes organic growing and using organic soils actually increases these pest and nutrient problems, as well as increases vectors for these problems to come into your grow operation.
This is in stark contrast to the claim that using organic soils, "living soils", or organic methodologies will decrease or entirely remove pest and nutrient issues in grows.
Anyone claiming that the grower who has problems or failed with organic soils "didn't do it right", didn't use "proper" or "high quality inputs", "didn't do this or that", etc., simply is using guru magic to distract from the difficulty and variability of organic growing methodologies and growing in organic (living) soils.
Its not so easy as many organic proponents will say, with common mantras such as "just feed the microbes" and "let the microbes feed the plant", such dummy phrases don't actually help anyone, particularly when there is a real pest or nutrient problem.
These sayings are given as blanket catch-alls to a person experiencing plant nutrient and pathology issues, but since plant biology and mineral uptake doesn't exactly work in the way or in the manner that such organic soil proponents claim and describe, these problems persist for many growers despite using "living" organic soils and/or only organic methodologies.
If organic growing were such a panacea, everyone would do it, and no one would have any problems.
The truth is, organic growers have just as many if not more problems than conventional growers.
That being said, growing isn't easy period regardless of method or media.
Growing in rockwool, coco coir, or other media, or simply aerated water, all encompasses its own challenges and issues in growing.
While soil is becoming more popular with commercial cannabis growing, rockwool still remains the most reliable and used media for large scale commercial production.
The bigger it is, the more pests and problems you will probably have.
Every grower will claim to be the best, especially me. But they aren't me, which is why I might be able to help you with your problem, aid in training, and maybe even save your grow.
For a confidential consultation email me ganjakittycat@gmail.com