okay welcome back today we're talking about providing nutrients to your plants and kind of the basics of what that entails and yes the focus is on cannabis as it typically is but all plants need nutrients and you can use the information in this episode to have a happy thriving plant regardless of what species it is this information is aimed at the beginner grower to help lower the barrier of understanding the role of nutrients it may be pretty obvious from this episode but I was never someone who used a lot of nutrients during my growing and I've cultivated quite a few plants I try to provide most of my nutrients in the soil from the compost manure guano Ash Etc but recently I've started to dive into utilizing nutrients and it does make a huge difference especially for indoor grows but you can make the decision for yourself as to what type of nutrients if any that you use and this could depend on if you're growing indoor outdoor Greenhouse organic or just trying to keep a plant alive also big exciting news I'm moving into a new office SL recording space which is super exciting and everything but I also almost just cut off my thumb so it's a tough time to move for everyone wondering how I almost cut off my thumb I really wish this was a cool story but I was literally just washing dishes and the handle of a ceramic mug broke off in my hand while I was cleaning it and sliced through my thumb it was a very very deep cut and now I have nine stitches on my thumb but I'm doing great and can do almost everything that I did before but wow what a new perspective on cannabis use and accessibility I found Grinders are really really hard to use and rolling up is moderately difficult but I've mostly been using my puffco proxy with the hot pen because it is by far the easiest way for me to consume at the moment and I've also been enjoying some infused beverages which I don't typically do anyway I hope you find this episode with Tanya fun as helpful as I did and if you want to support this podcast consider joining the patreon for as little as $1 a month or if you want to free and easy way to support this podcast drop a five-star review wherever you listen relax your jaw take a sip of water roll up a j and just chill with us for the next hour [Music] okay welcome back to the bioactive podcast today I'm really excited to learn about cannabis nutrients and what we need to feed these beautiful plants to make sure they're happy and healthy and I have Tanya Funk on who is an expert cannabis cultivator and a really great communicator and I'm really excited to learn from you and for you to teach our community a little more especially for new growers in cannabis not getting into like the crazy crazy science just for a new grower you know teaching them what they need to learn about cannabis nutrients so thanks for coming on well thank you for having me um yeah no I understand and because I was not a cannabis grower when I got into this industry um I was more intrigued by it so I had a lot to learn um you know you dive into an industry and there's definitely a lot of opinions in our industry which is amazing but you know when you're coming in you're new to it you want to understand how can I do this how can I do it better how can I be smarter about it and you want to learn more that's that's perfect we've all been there yeah there there's a lot of opinions but there's so much passion and I think that's why there's so many opinions on it is you know people are so passionate about this plant and quality medicine that we want to you know represent that well would you mind kind of describing your journey into the industry and in growing cannabis and and what that's been like sure um well it was unique because when I got into this industry it's been almost 15 years um I dove in with a plasma light and I saw this energy efficient opportunity to have a really amazing grow light and I think it was probably about 20 years too early um for the technology itself uh we're finally getting around to that but it was it was such a great learning curve and I was also unique that I was female in an industry it was predominantly a male industry so here I was coming into this Market one not really knowing what I was was doing with cannabis growing um I had vegetable gardens I enjoyed cannabis but I wasn't an expert grower um and I started learning about how lighting can impact you know a plant's you know health and prosperity of it um I looked at it um in a different light and because of that is how I sort of found myself I've been sort of in the Pix and shovel side but um from lighting I evolved into getting into the microbial component because the bacteria in the soil was responding differently to a less stressful lighting environment um and so basically in 2017 I want to say 2018 organite was founded my business partner Christopher Leonard came out of lumatech lighting so we were both way back in the day lighting um and he has quite the Legacy um and so we've started with microbial inoculant and then we got into minerals for the nutrient profile which we'll talk about but essentially how can you feed a plant um and do it smartly do it most efficiently do it with good quality because ultimately just like with us you are what you eat so what you put into that plant you're ultimately going to consume and so there's different love that yeah you are what you smoke you are what you smoke exactly I love that no it's it's cool that you and your business partner both started in lighting because my like first time I tried growing I definitely didn't have enough light and like even right from the start I could tell my plants weren't healthy and it's cool to see how quickly the plants respond um to different things that you're changing and how they clearly show when they're happy and they clearly show when they're not happy which you know I think we should get into that later on like signs to look um when you're looking at your plants of when they might need more nutrients or whatever that is um but you know it's so cool hearing about the the industrial side this and being able to kind of learn step by step because I think that's how a lot of people kind of advance in this industry and I just also want to just focus on the the little hom grower that's like you know what I want to pop a couple seeds and um what what that process is and when did you start growing cannabis just out of curiosity like 2012 I would say 2011 2012 um when I first got out I had California of course California is different I came from Colorado um so I did it all I did you know the outdoor we owned a farm over the years we've had indoor Hydroponics Etc we I've done a ton of Consulting work um I taught I was a guest uh teacher I guess you could say at Oaker Dam specifically in the lighting world so it was really getting to know the different processes because every environment's different every you know every story is different and there's not always you know here this is going to work for everybody because yeah yeah and I I have to ask every guest you know why cannabis like why what called you to this plant as a career and as like your whole life essentially is focusing on cannabis you know what was it about the plant it's the love it's the people it's the community um and it is an organism you can get as granular as you want and and develop systems and Sops but you're still de dealing with an organism and a creature essentially um but really it was the love it was the people and the community um it's just an amazing industry that we're in um and there's something inherent obviously within our bodies Our receptors that we respond to this um and it's also an industry that needs to grow we need to evolve we need to take you know the stories of the past and evolve with science into the future and figure out better ways to do it and that impacts all of our agriculture not just cannabis oh love that and I love that you brought up that it's a living plant and it has its own systems within that plant and that's what makes it so diverse and complex and beautiful and you know obviously makes it difficult to study and for some people difficult to grow too but as you give it more love and as you learn more about it and what it needs like you can become a better grower and a better educator and cultivator you know it's really it's really beautiful when you think of complex biological systems interacting with each other and how that medicine is just you know expanded so much when we have these complex systems working with complex systems and that's very unlike other systems of medicine I won't bash Pharmaceuticals but you know they're simple and they're not living they're often synthesized so it is beautiful about natural products it is it is I I appreciate that yeah so can we um can we start to dive into nutrients and um first of all like do all plants need nutrients or is cannabis special that it needs to be you know supplemented in these specific ways to to make it grow and thrive all plants need them I mean essentially it has enough within the seed to germinate but at that point now we have biologically naturally occurring organic nutrients if you think about it that's what organic gardening is I mean essentially microbial digestion of decaying matter to translate that and make it bioavailable for the plant in other words the plant can eat that simplify those terms so that is organic gardening at its heart but we're dealing with race hor essentially um you know we're we're trying to take a plant and we want it to do well but we want it to do really really well because the more that you can provide the balanced nutrition the right environment the more the plant can prosper and therefore you have better expression um you know it's just like with us if if I want to sit on the couch and do nothing you know I'll still I'll still live but if I want to go out and I want to be you know the best at what I'm doing if I need to train I got to feed my body right I got to do the right things for my body and to to make those goals whether it's physical whether it's spiritual whether it's emotional you know you have to put in to what you get out so it doesn't matter if you're growing tomatoes or watermelons or anything you're still going to have to give it some food and so let's choose what is the best food you can put in love that analogy of just kind of taking care of yourself and prospering versus just staying alive cuz I think a lot of people could keep a cannabis plant alive but maybe it wouldn't be producing that nice quality smokable flower that you're after and that's really where that next level of of cultivation comes in yeah okay so oh sorry go ahead oh no I was say it's called a weed for a reason right yeah exactly exactly it will grow yeah so so say you're at home and you just germinated your seeds it's kind of around that time um for people to start germinating their seeds for outdoor grows and now maybe they want to move up to Solo cups where they fill that Solo cup with with some soil and then they're going to put that germinated seed in right off the bat does that soil that you're putting that germinated seed in is is there certain nutrients that we need to have right then in that soil is are we introducing nutrients that early yes you are um and sometimes soil comes that way you know you can have a mended soil and they have you know different inputs um but essentially from the life the entire life cycle of the plant once it's germinated it's popping up until the very end you're going to feed it now you know is that mean just go get a bottle that says you know grow on it or you know and then switch to bloom when it's Bloom no that doesn't mean that um and a lot of people do that they go oh it's the grow it's the veg that means during veg I I pour this in and now I'm at Bloom it doesn't really work that way um in the world of of plant nutrients we spend a lot of time in the feed charts and so if you ever see a feed chart it's because it's going to have a list of products that are designed to go together and as the plant's life cycle progresses then things change and what you want to feed it you know just like with a child start with milk and soft foods or however that goes and then you ramp up um so we're going to do the same thing with plants and so the feed chart is really important to follow if you want the system and and don't just go in and be like oh there's I'm going to do this I'm going to do that or soand so told me that these are the secret sauce that I need to buy this product this product this product which is a very common choice right yeah um you know there's there's a reason why we have those feed charts and there's a lot of science that goes into it and a lot of you know both theoretical science but applied science um and then we're learning more with different strains and as more information comes out if you're growing different strains you want different results we pass that information through through feed charts through you know podcasts when people talk about it and they have tips and tricks but there is a lot of lot of time that goes into those so I highly recommend follow the follow the chart it's there for a reason follow the feed chart awesome great advice in a um in nutrients what are the main compositions of the nutrients like what are we actually giving to our plants to allow them to grow and is this usually in a specific Ratio or as you mentioned like is the ratio changing throughout that grow cycle so that the plant needs more of something during veg and maybe less of something you know later yes you are correct it does change it does evolve so you have your your macronutrients your NPK you'll see it on the front of the bottle right those are your big boys those are your most predominant you know as far as what your plant needs but then there's micronutrients so you've got a little bit of both and you know so as your plant evolves you're going to shift between different levels of micronutrients different levels of your macronutrients that's why it's so important to follow those feed charts and some of the you know you'll have your primary grow ingredients that usually are you know three to four parts let's call it um and then you have your kind of supplemental components of any program um that add those subtle micronutrients as you're evolving because things like Boron things like miminum say that 10 times fast right they sound yeah right I like there you know the iron levels the copper levels all these things really matter um and that what that's what goes into the science of a good nutrient program so it's you know we try to take the burden off of you and we try to say Here's Your solution um but you do you do change and you will see that those numbers fluctuate but again it's not that just like you get a bottle of grow and pour it on your plant during veg and Bloom for flow you want to really use everything as it's designed and then that will ensure you get all of those nutrients and at the end you have kind of the best performing flour you could ask this is a question from someone on patreon and they want to remain anonymous but they wanted to ask can you use Miracle Grow as a substitute or some other like type of um you know commercially available product to help yes you can again but I can eat McDonald's today too I can I can definitely eat McDonald's I can consume it will it will it do harm when it comes down to the biggest thing you have to worry about with nutrients um so and I'll explain it this way we are a mineral-based nutrient which means we get everything out of the earth everything comes from the earth we're not synthesizing anything we're not going into a lab and making it up right um when you say or when you say we organite right as in like compan that's a good clarification um so there there are different ways of approaching that and what can happen with any there's there's different sources um and things can get contaminated and so you have to be careful because you can have things like heavy metals in your nutrients if they're not a really good quality which means at the end of either you're if you're getting tests your flow is going to test hot and you'll be you got to destroy it if you don't test it then that means you're ingesting it so again it goes back to Quality in quality out and you can very easily buy a nutrient program that's cheaper lesser qu quality and you end up with problems like that wow I've never thought about that heavy metal contamination in your plants because even if you have maybe other medicinal plants that you smoke or utilize like you definitely should be using super high quality nutrients so you're not just adding you know I'm not saying poisoning yourself but you know reducing the medicinal quality of that of that plant or that herb or whatever you're consuming so thank you for that and I'm sure um that person probably already kind of knew that answer but maybe just wanted to reinsure themselves um now in general I know um the feed chart is so important but in general is how often are people applying nutrients to their plants is it every time they water is it once a week is it every few weeks um that's a great question um we I like to do two to three times a week um there are some people who will do it every time they water and then they have to give it a break but I'm a fan of hey every other time you know um give your plants say you feed them three times a week and you're fourth watering day is just a fresh drink of water nothing wrong with that I think that's a great way to Pace it um you can also you know you can be lazy about it if you're not looking to say hey I need to produce weight you're looking at your craft cannabis you don't want them to be go hungry because if you go hungry or the plant goes hungry I should say you're going to stress that plant out and it'll actually stop producing well um you know you want to keep feeding your plant you don't have to dump more on it you just want to keep up on that every once in a while have a like I said a drink of water so to speak just water it without nutrients um that's a nice practice but the minute You' let that plant go hungry it's actually going to stop kind of pumping up and that's where you start reducing your bulk and your weight at the end so you don't want to stress it out but you can get a little lazy with it because I know you know when you're at your home it's different than when you're at you know the the ranch and you're needing to to produce for weight it's a different different game so yeah it's funny I know a lot of um of cultivators whether it's for cannabis or other medicinal plants who produce commercially and their house plants always look so much worse than the plants that they're um cultivating professionally and they're just like listen I only have so much energy and yeah the house plants really mine looks pretty good right now behind us so I feel I'm like okay thank goodness but no I'm I'm definitely guilty um so with that the tip and trick I give on this like for instance amplifies our microbial inoculant honestly I just make sure every once in a while I put a little amplify in my watering can for my house plants does a lot of lot of good that's that's the trick I I just started like providing nutrients to my house plants and it's amazing how quickly they just like started being productive and producing new leaves and looking fresh and I'm like oh yeah I probably should have I probably should have given you guys a little bit of attention uh in the past few months but you know definitely you know your house plants matter too I wanted to go back to what you said about um organite being a mineral-based uh nutrient and just talking about the pros and cons of mineral-based vers other types and um like what's available on the market for these different types of products that people might come across when they're looking to purchase new yes definitely okay so um so you can do more the like I said the lab synthesize where it's a liquid formula um we start everything with the powder component because it is mineral so we have powder options we have liquid options um that allows people to not have to ship water which is really nice um you know that's a big one but some people like to buy it in liquid form because it's just Blended but um as far as the different brands and different choices you end up with a lot of things on the shelf that are going to be more in the synthetic realm the liquid form that comes in that spot but there's quite a few companies that have shifted to this mineral I can't speak to exactly who they were or what their choices are on it but it is something where you just want to stick with something that's more reputable um you know that has that where it makes a difference now the other option you have you can also grow fully organically but if you're going indoors that's that's a little bit difficult but meaning that you're supplying plant food you you have a ton of microbials in there you're doing Banos you're doing Kelps doing fish which you can imagine the the aromatic properties of such a feeding program um and an indoor tent especially that would get that would get r a little rough so that's why we're kind of like this hybrid model where I'm like yeah we put the mineral not everything's labeled as organic for instance um but it is mineral-based and we love microbes we feel that you need to have microbes I know um different companies have different es you know they don't want microbials they want everything to be clean I have the philosophy our company has the philosophy you are going to have microbials no matter where you are it doesn't matter what you're doing so why not I mean we have risos feric which is root Zone microbials that we naturally cultivate and we cultivate put them into a ferment so you can add those in and sort of create the best healthiest root Zone possible doesn't matter where you are right so it's like great digestion for your plant that is like I'm all about that you get better quality your Turin are beautiful like it it's Rich it's it's just a wonderful approach to it and you get the different flavor you know different strains have different ways of expressing themselves and that's what we're doing in craft cannabis we're we're not trying to do bulk that tastes the same everywhere I want it to taste like the strain I want to know the expression of the plant itself so that's my take on on microbial so we're a hybridized company microbes minerals we're not fully organic um but we're definitely not synthesized I I love that because it goes back to it being a living organism and just like us we have microbes all over us and they're absolutely necessary for our health and survival and same thing with every other plant and organism so why would we try to take away that complexity you know it obviously does offer something to to the plant and also encourages the plant to produce more of these compounds to you know protect itself from these microbes and make sure that its own equivalent of an immune system is working you know properly and protect yes exactly it's a probiotic for your plant might as well take a good one yeah yeah um so is there any difference in the way we treat um plants with nutrients if we're doing an indoor grow versus an outdoor grow versus a greenhouse versus Hydroponics I would assume Hydroponics are a little different but you know are are they um are they different at all based on their environment as far as how much we have I mean if you're working in a living soil which means a really healthy soil you'll hear that word if the the translation means incredibly healthy soil um you can reduce some of your nutrient inpo it's which is nice um but in general you still follow the same regimen whether you know even in Hydroponics you know there's slight differences but you would still follow the feed chart essentially okay and that's the same thing for hemp as well hemp versus type one now there's new information like we're starting to look at nitrogen ratios for THC percentage and etc etc but we're we're not really there you can follow the same doesn't matter because I I am a I call it weed light but I am a hemp fanatic I love it because you know I'm a little bit old now I got you know things are different and so I love hemp I think craft hemp is amazing it's what I need in my body versus what I needed 10 years ago um and so the more that you can put care into that hemp the better the production it will um give you as well yeah this this joint I was smoking when you logged on this was a hemp joint and I'm actually going to take another puff of it cuz I've been really actually this has grown I don't know if you're familiar with Dr Alison justice but she's a really great hemp cultivator and scientist nice yeah craft hemp is amazing I mean the the beneficial properties of what hemp can provide and the functionality that we can have in the day um and it's just the more we're able to study it um understand the different properties and the strains themselves I mean we've got um one of our strains this year it's called Fantasia it's like one of the yeah it's it's an exclusive strain so we're going to keep tracking her this year She's a Beauty um we're really excited to be playing with her um and I I just can't wait to see how she expresses herself and then what the benefits and then looking at um the cannaboid profile once she's you know harvested of course um but looking at those variations you know again high-end nutrients that goes back to then you're creating a high-end result no matter what yeah that's actually part of our study called the science of smok ability where we're cultivating cannabis actually hemp we're cultivating hemp and then exposing it to different levels of nutrients and seeing how that affects the smok ability of the flower um so we're doing it with h because it's more compliant and a lot easier but we do expect to eventually you know translate this to THC dominant cannabis type 1 cannabis um to see if it's the same thing because we're trying to like really emphasize the quality of the smoking experience especially for medical patients because it's still the preferred consumption method of most medical patients and we need to make sure that they're getting quality product that feels 100% and these are the questions for instance go back to the micronutrient question we in our traditional a we have levels that traditional a understands what is a boron toxicity for example we haven't hit that type of information in the Cannabis world because again it hasn't had the opportunity for the study but those are the components we're looking at to say okay well how much borin is enough versus too much right and going back yes we have a general idea but we're still just getting into this place ferally where we can study all of this and thus hemp is really important on that um yeah and I feel like we're also just getting to the point in the industry where people are ready to like collaborate on this type of Science and like get the information out there because for a long time it was kind of this gatekeeping practice where especially like cultivators didn't want to drop all of their secrets because somebody else would just go and steal that and produce you know the same quality near them and they they that's kind of what drives the market is quality especially in the craft world so I think finally enough people are growing and sharing and learning that um we're starting to like want to do these studies and then finally disseminate them to all the Growers and even like hom Growers too like that's still translatable to Hom Growers who want to grow quality can is we'll definitely keep you hosted on that um you know we're really curious we call it the quantif fled grow where we actually look at you know tissue samples as we progress with a lot of our big Growers um looking at different strains to kind of look at how they respond to the different nutrient profiles in a very granular perspective um so we should definitely stay in touch a lot of crossover we will 100% stay in touch and um I guess I had another question about the growth chart um for nutrients and that's is or autof flowers and photo period are those both represented on the grow chart or are you using okay so they're both there so no matter what type of flower you're growing you can still follow exactly okay and everyone has like little tweaks here and there I mean everyone is a chef um and there are certain adjustments and once I think that's sort of um as folks become more proficient in growing they're going to see those subtleties um you know if there's purple banding you know you don't you've stressed it out type thing little things to work at um and you can always go back there's a lot of good resources I mean organite tech.com there's amazing Resources with different um here's some examples of nitrogen deficiency malum here's uh you know Calcium deficiency phosphorus Etc so there's great Forums on Reddit there's great resources now coming up because we used to all go to a grow store and ask these questions and now things are changing because we can have more open conversations as you were saying um so we're trying to disseminate that information as much as possible so that people have the tools in their Arsenal awesome do you mind if when I post this YouTube I show a couple of the clips from your website of these different deficiencies share the share the knowledge it's okay cool yeah okay great I'm going to put that right on the video over us so that um people can check that out because I'm definitely interested too uh in learning about that um so a some a little uh thing in our industry in the weed world and the stoner world is White Ash versus black ash and a lot of people think that um white ash represents quality and and black ash represents not quality cannabis and a lot of people are also attributing that to the the amount of nutrients um that maybe haven't been flushed in that flower and that's what kind of contributes to that uh black ash I'm not saying this is true or not I don't think we have the science for that but would you mind discussing the process of flushing Nutri nutrients um from a plant before you're correct that's that's a long Legacy of conversation on that of so at the very end of harvest I mean you're essentially you're prepping for you know cutting down the flour and what your goal is is that you want to taste the flour you don't want to taste anything it doesn't matter if you're putting good stuff in ETC but we're you know prepping for um consumption you know just like anything that we're eating or consuming and so we recommend going through the last like 10 days or so of of not putting any nutrients we still do the biology we still have that because that helps with the digestion the mobilization but at the very end you just want to get down to the pure flour you know she's reaching the end of her life cycle she's not consuming those nutrients you're going to have a lot of excess anyhow that you would be wasting um so it's a great time to do that so that you can enjoy the flavor of that profile and and you're right and having the White Ash and say okay this was flushed properly and you know but there's a lot more to it I mean there's the curing and Etc but yeah definitely we recommend it flush your plants it's a good idea yeah she she doesn't want to eat that much anyhow right then so it's it's time so is Flushing like so you're providing your plant with water without nutrients is it is it actually flushing like do we have any like okay it is so we know that it's actually like removing those nutrients from the plant it's not just the it is and then you also see it in the soil as well you know as the runoff continues and it's sort of drenching the soil you're going to get that to to literally flush out Okay cool so that also leads to my next question about soil types and say I was somebody who wanted to like maybe I live somewhere that has dope soil and I want to just grow directly in that soil but I don't know what the Baseline of my soil is and what I need to supplement in there in order for my plant to grow properly am I still just following that grow chart and kind of ignoring what might already be there or should I maybe test what's going on in the soil first and then follow up with um nutrients so it's always a good idea to test and you can get soil labs and get a baseline um also test your water you know if you if you really want to know what you're dealing with those are your two good baselines um however you know I know that not everybody does that I mean I don't always do that um it's you know and I I have you put stuff in the pl in the ground and you're like okay in general you still want to follow that feature but there are things to start looking for at that point obviously you don't want to have excess nitrogen and burning and that's where say how do I have a reference of what I can see in the leaves use that you know go to organ.com look at that site look at the picture so you can actually see that um because that's what you'll be looking for it's you know the different coloration discolorations burnt tips Etc you have to still watch it it is still a living organism and I kind of back to my early Point yes we can create a system I mean that's what we have for our Consulting arm we have a system but there's still things that happen and it doesn't matter if you are the beginner grower or you're an expert grower things happen it's it's the natural course which makes it kind of the puzzle you know it's fun um but the more that yes keep your toes but the more that you can actually learn and have in Your Arsenal the educational part of it the better you're going to Faire yeah and I think that's that's a that's great advice especially like taking the time to learn from your plants and not just you know continuing to do the same thing it's kind of a metaphor in a lot of things in life think so the parts of the United States or the world that are really well known for growing great cannabis do we know exactly why like whether that's humble or whether it's I know like New York has some areas is it the micro macronutrients or is it just the microbial community in general or just a combination of all of this I don't know if we have the answer for this my opinion because I don't think I have the answer to that um but for instance the the science and the purpose behind amplify which is our microbial inoculant is going to certain areas where they have very healthy root zones certain plants have healthier root zones than others or I should say more diverse let's call it a more diverse consortia a more diverse I it's like a a fish tank of a lot of different fish that get along right and and you know I want that I don't want to have a fish tank of a single species you know and put and I put another one in and then they all eat it I don't want that I want I want a happy yeah exactly immediately I want a happy consorti of microbes so we actually really work on collecting those risos feric or root Zone microbes from very specific areas where we know that we have healthy incredible growth so that's that's kind of behind that and then we we culture those so I my opinion it goes back into the microbial components it goes back into the environmental in these certain areas which do impact the flower itself just smoking the flower from those areas you're like man there's something really special about this I don't know what it is or what constitutes it but it's almost like even like the spirituality component especially if people who take a lot of care into their grow it's like it really does it feels different it feels really amazing especially outdoor grow which I really really enjoy but I see why people enjoy indoor as well to I I really agree with that that statement too there's there's love that goes into those plants and a lot of care and you can tell and you know it doesn't matter where you are but there is a lot of Legacy love in that area um and it's a lifestyle it's people live by it yeah I love that would you mind discussing some common just like misconceptions that you hear about in with cannabis and nutrients because whether it's from the like manufacturing side working kind of on larger scale or with the small grower of maybe Parts they get confused on Parts people make a lot of mistakes on or just like I don't know things you hear a lot from the community about this specific topic I would say that I think I used it earlier but uh going and saying oh it's a it's a grow formula that means it goes on at veg and then it's a bloom form and that goes in the it it doesn't work that way they all work together so um you know whether it's you know in our success nutrients line we have flowers trees Micro Bud strength as our primary a lot of times people go flowers okay great that's for the bloom NOP nope they all go together sometimes the names are kind of arbitrary um you know that we have a general idea for them but they all do work together so you you do need to look at the system as a whole understand what's on those labels um read the labels so you can kind of go look at the back everything shows you the macro and micronutrient breakdown um and come to learn those I think that's a good one um and I would say that was probably the biggest one the other is this tends to be an industry of a lot of hype um and it's just part of the culture nutrients do work it doesn't matter really you know whether it's Miracle Grow you know um or one of ours I mean but they are going to have differences like we are a craft nutrient company you know we're sort of small batch we're not that big it's just different way we process than some of the bigger ones but you know you'll hear a lot of hype but you get into a good quality one like we're not a hype company at all um I was over that after you know the ca 2010 um so you know look into the science look at the company that you're working with and and try to understand what they're doing that would be my my second little cool I think I always encourage people to look into the company cuz there are so many good people in cannabis and it's like people who are doing the right thing definitely have a banger like about us page or Instagram page or something where they want to show their craft like people want to show when they're doing quality work and people want to hide it when they're not doing quality work so just a little bit of digging can get you pretty far and just figure out just a little bit about a company so I love that um you you take pride and I love that you're a small company um when you're formulating these products or when people are formulating products at home what is the role of the pH in um in the soil microbi biology or is this something that people need to alter at home do they need to have a pH meter or do they need to have any other sort of specialty equipment in order to do this efficiently so I highly recommend getting a pH meter um because pH is going to be your digestion right you can put in a lot of stuff but if you're plant is off in their pH you're not going to digest as you should so then you're just wasting money at that point and you're going to have a dying plant um and you know every again you go back to the feed chart you'll see where your ideal your 6.0 pH is it's just a really good litmus test of is everything going to be in point and the plant is going to digest you always want to look at adjusting your pH to where that 6.0 Mark that's your goal um and I would say that some programs balance more easily than others you know we have a very well balanced program so it you know hits that 6.0 um but depending on your water what's going on there you might have if you're starting with water that's not an R water which means it still has you know a baseline of minerals and pieces in there components um you might be more challenged with your pH and so it's a good idea to just see where you're starting and it's an inexpensive tool um that becomes a really good piece of Your Arsenal and do people use pH strips ever or is it usually just a me like a pH meter that they're using pH meter is probably the best way to do it you know it's good to do and keep it easy yeah okay cool and um this is another question from patreon but somebody was wondering if there was a link between the nutrient levels of your PL of your plants and whether that is within where it should be and how many tests you have um they're specifically asking in a greenhouse setting and if nutrients having sufficient nutrients can help keep away some pests So in theory you know pests can be looked at as a bit of a digestion system of Mother Nature right so again um you know the healthier your plant it's not going to be um as susceptible let's call it to pests and pathogens um it's why we want to have a healthy microbial root zone right um and so it's that protection so yes going into if your plant is stressed and showing deficiencies you are going to be basically calling out to Mother Nature it's time to digest me it's not I'm not doing so well over here so if you can keep a well-balanced nutrient profile healthy microbials you're more protected and I'm not going to say it's a preventative 100% because you know things happen people come by you know it happens but the healthier you are the less likely you're going to deal with the bigger problems whether it's pathogenic um you know and diseases or pests themselves okay awesome thank you and um for my own brain um I use things like B guano and other things like ash maybe from the wood stove and things like that in my plants and I I know that they do things but I really don't know how much they do I don't know this I don't know if this is a question or just like a topic but is this something that you use in like supplementing your plants with this is this something you kind of calculate or do you just kind of toss them on top and hope that it's supplementing in a positive way so those are those are great supplements I mean that's organic gardening at its heart right you're taking and think about it bat guano bats eat so much like they eat bugs they eat fruit they have everything so the guano you know they their as it processes through their body and then it's sits here for you know hundreds of years that is rich in micro and macr nutrients so while you're adding the B guano to your garden you're depending on those microbials that are in your soil to digest that and then make it into a translatable bioavailable nutrient for your plant so you're basically taking like what we do which is we go out and we target all those micro macronutrients you're like hey in this pile of they're all there I'm going to let the microbes do the work right but we so we just sort of bypass that step we kind of get right to the heart of it we like here's the minerals well you're letting the microbes extract those minerals from what you're putting on there in the guano or the fish or the kelp um so I'm a big hybrid grower I love organic gardening and living soil because that is the process of digestion for the soil right I also have to you know have production so that's why I supplement with my minerals and my mineral program so it's like I kind of do both worlds and so it's not magic it's actually worked and it worked for you know eons that's how we grew things um and I think it's a great way of getting a really nice diverse profile you're feeding the soil food web and you're keeping that going which is great and beneficial for ongoing farming um and so good choice on that cool thanks I um we have a couple bat boxes at our house where we put like on the side of our pole barn which for any of the listeners if if you want to put up a bat box it's just somewhere for bats to have a place to live and build their you know little home um but we typically put them in the sun because they do need a lot of natural heat and if you are either purchasing one or building one make sure it's like compatible with what a bat does which if you're watching this on YouTube my my Vaseline will be the the bat box but bats bats will like fly and then they come right below it and then they crawl up so you need to make sure that there's no like big lip here or something CU they need to be able to crawl up into that but what we did is like we have a garden right below the bat box so they can just like their droppings will go D directly in the garden and then if we want to collect the Guana we have this little board that we put under it and then we just collect all the poop on the board and then we bring that over to the P the plant so we just like are obsessed with our bats Jake and I will sit in our yard with lawn chairs when the bats come out to like feed at night and we just like stare at them because they're just so magical they really are we have a lot of bats around here and I love it too I have one back box on the North you know or actually the south side of the house um and it's the same thing every night I sit on the back porch and just wait for him to come out and I'm like hi guys it's good good to see I really enjoy it they're amazing and they're helping with your mosquitoes which is amazing likes mosquitoes yeah they eat like a ton of mosquitoes a night or something and the other one is the magic is chickens chickens are nature's little Velociraptor digesters and so chicken poop is like black gold you know let that now you know I I mix mine into the compost pile because I want it to age you know I want that so it's not as as harsh um but man those little suckers are amazing and the soil once you start turning that you'll see if you have a chicken coop and you know that's why the moving chicken cop and they just they eat all the bugs and then they digest them right there on site it's magic I love it so cool and they they eat ticks too which we also love uh for you know lime disease prevention at least here in the in New England it's very serious topic but yeah I um we used a lot of horse manure which whenever I tell people that they're like and then I'm like but it's aged it's aged horse manure like we let it we actually get it from a horse farmer where it's been sitting there for like 5 years so it essentially just looks like regular soil and then we mix that in with our other soil and compost and it's like our plants are so healthy because of that aged manure it really is amazing that is amazing and then you want to mix in a little micara think about that as like the highways for the bacteria and you know get that in there so you have a really good um this is building the living soil like this is where what you want with a goal and uh that's why I'm really very sensitive about what I put in if going to put nutrients into our soil I want to put in really high quality because I spend all that time with my chickens and and I don't have a horse yet but one of those days I can't wait I can't wait bucket list bucket actually I want a mini horse I want a mini donkey that's what I want they melt my heart every time I see them I'm just like fluttering so I want I want a goat someday that's that's my goals having a goat maybe four There You Go goat yoga they like to be social they do um I would also love while you're here and we have you know 10ish more minutes um can you also just help people understand lighting a little bit better I didn't know you had you know such a background in lighting but um this can also be a little confusing for people when they're just getting going is there some sort of metric we should be looking for when we're purchasing grow lights and um are there any that you just recommend based on your personal experience that might be like you know new user friendly and not too crazy complex well it's obviously a lot different than it was 15 years ago um I'm dating myself but you know nowadays the LEDs have come a long way um and they do a really good job I want to say photob bios is the line that we were carrying or that we're running um and I know gavita has a good one that's out but the LEDs now are so efficient they do have a really good Spectrum um which was the difficult part 15 years ago um and so having a good Spectrum obviously you know a lot of people still deal with HPS metal highight um because it's just tried and true um it it does work but the LEDs work in a much more elegant Manner and you know now it's you don't have to just turn up the volume you know you can do it you can listen at a good level that's very healthy for the plant because the Spectrum has been adjusted in the LEDs to be able to be specific for plants so they've done an amazing job with it um and I you know I thumbs up on the LEDs when you are dealing with lighting you do have to realize that led is different than for instance High Press sodium for your environmental components so the temperatures your climate control all of that it gets a little bit more complex when you are indoors um so you just have to make certain adjustments if you are changing lights you're going from something like an HPS to an LED you're going to see that and if you if your temperatures for instance drop because it's not running as hot your metabolism of your plant is going to change so if you start having problems after shifting you you just need to look at your environmental that would be my biggest tip on that one that's a great tip I actually haven't thought about switching lights and what that does to your plant but that makes a lot of sense um so yeah thanks for that I think I think there's a lot of great information in this episode for a new grower cuz I genuinely think when people look at the nutrients specifically I mean lighting too but when people look at the nutrient part they're like that's too sciency I don't want to deal with ph I don't want to deal with you know nitrogen phosphorus all of these um all of these different you know nutrients that the plant needs it seems really complex but as you've been talking about it's really outlined really well on these packages and these different companies you know websites and infograph graphics and if you just take the time to try to understand it for just a few minutes I think it would do you a lot of help and like obviously this episode will be helpful too but um the resources are out there to make it a lot simpler than people think that it currently is well said and don't don't hesitate to reach out I mean I know it's hard because you know we had the the big conglomerate of a lot of companies were acquired um and it's a different environment but there's still companies like us out there there's a few of us still that that are craft that are there to have the conversations that you know don't be afraid to send an email hop up on chat put us give us a phone call um and ask that question you know it's nice to see people inquiring um and there's different tools I mean there's I mean like one of our websites uh three elite.com you know there's a whole book and there's tutorials on how to do this and different techniques for undercutting and cool and there's a lot of resources so don't be afraid to ask that is what we're here for and um and and have fun with it you know it's it's it should bring you Joy in your day oh I love that yeah definitely have fun with it like you take time to enjoy the learning process too because it is cool to see a plant that wasn't doing that well you know come back and start doing really well and and show what you learning and like changing something really small can do for the for the quality of that flower and how final product turns out yes absolutely exactly you know and um and then mix in some of the organic processes like you're doing be friends with the bats you know um get take on a few chickens get a bat box a few chickens um it's worthwhile and it really does matter and and what you're going to find is that you will start seeing if you if you follow good programs you put the right food in there you're going to start to see the expression of the different strains come out where you're going to have a favorite you're going to go wow that was amazing um and you'll watch you know that particular strain really flourish and find those results and when you can correlate that and you can start growing the best you can and then when you start doing the feeding programs and you can start producing three to five pounds of light you know that's that's the level where we're at from a professional standpoint a homer grower doesn't have to do that but you can still do really really well yeah that's a great point and I was just thinking of something if you've ever experimented because you're were talking about these organic approaches if you've ever experimented with like co-planting nitrogen fixing plants like legumes or you know these different types of of beans um next to cannabis plants and if you've seen any like noticeable difference if you've tried that I don't know if you've tried that before I haven't I haven't personally tried it other than I am very aware of it and yes you can absolutely do that um and I think it's a great crop rotation especially in the seasons Etc it's very good because that goes back into again soil Health yeah and communication in the roots because they talk to each other there wasn't there just a study that was released that there was like an an a recordable snapping sound that can be heard did you see that it was a yeah I did I love these types of studies there's been a few kind of similar like in other in different types of plants and I just really really enjoy reading them it's incredible and and and you can tell and people you know have always known it but now that we're getting the scientific kind of evidence so to speak um you know we don't have to speculate we can know yeah just like you know providing your plants or maybe your unborn child with like music and talking to them it's like yeah of course that makes them stronger and better you're literally showing them love and you know of course it comes back to like what's being released from your he as far as gases and how that plays a part but I think it's more than that I think it's more than just what you know gases were giving off I think it's a lot of the component component of Our intention and love towards that plant and how well it grows and even if that's not true scientifically it's true in my brain I like that that's enough for me that [Laughter] work yeah um last well one of the last questions is we talked about cannabis being these really complex biological system and same with us we're really uh complex have you found any strain or cultivar that like really meshes well with your body where it almost feels like this perfect personalized beautiful medicine um I know some people have had that that moment before I'm curious if you have I have and the sad part is I know it was um it was a it wasn't ACDC um it was a strain I tried growing this was years ago I can't remember the name of it and I could never find it after it was one of those amazing moments where that was my first like my path started to shift towards more of that CBD dominant that was my first Awakening moment of because you know it's just different I was I was maturing you know in a different level um and it was an amazing moment where I was like ah so it it started that Quest down okay now looking at the hemp and the CBD dominant um it became more intriguing on that but it was definitely eye opening for me um just to try something that was it was just it clicked it clicked perfectly yeah I I'm glad you I'm glad you're speaking about um also this relationship between us as humans as we age and our endoc cannaboid system changes and matures that the products we react to also change you know a lot of people become very sensitive to THC is even when they hit around 30 you hear a lot of people saying like listen I used to Chief every day I used to be like the biggest Stoner and then one day it just hit me where I was like I can't smoke this weed anymore like I have anxiety attacks it doesn't mesh well with my body and cheers to everyone listening to their body and saying oh like I should pursue finding something else and so many people don't know that there's quality smokable hemp on the market whether that's CBD dominant CBG dominant thcv dominant like you have all these options of flour now and you can mix them together and make salads or you can smoke one that's you know just straight up CBD whatever you prefer but like as a consumer especially a flower consumer we have the ability to choose what types of flour and chemical profiles we want to put into our body and which ones might be most medicinal for us and that might not be the same for someone else but that Journey towards finding products and being open to changing products as you age I think is really really beautiful and looking at it in a positive light of yay I found CBD not oh no I can't use a lot of THC anymore like that's that's a good perspective yes yes and it is you're right it's like to being able to acknowledge that things are changing you know as as we mature and Age and and being okay with that I'm in a different chapter now and I love it it's great but I also know that I prefer to take a craft hemp as my product and that that makes me so happy to be able to have that so um you know it it it works well awesome well I appreciate apprciate you sharing your life and your expertise and thank you so much for coming on the podcast if you have any social media that you want to shout out or just any topics you want to talk about at the end of this episode the floor is absolutely yours and I will be tagging um Organo Tech in the anything I put on social media and I'll also make sure uh to put that in the show notes of the episode so if anybody wants to purchase uh your nutrients that they can and knowing that they can also call you up on the phone if they have any question questions about your nutrients and um get more information that way definitely so organite Tech their success nutrients is another line of nutrients that we do which is again it's just a different option um and then also the three aite site three light.com is a great resource I would say um there's a good system in place there and that's one we work with a lot on the commercial side of things where we're going into the larger facilities we really dial them in and we get them into you know full production mode that's that's our pathway there so yeah keep in touch we like to hear from everybody too okay cool yeah we'll definitely be in touch especially about uh the science of smok ability experiment I think it'll be really really cool and phase one is going on right now and we're working on phase two next so it'll be an ongoing project probably for the next couple of years but um yeah thank you again and and mad love to all the listeners thanks for being here for another week appreciate each and every one of you thanks for having me this is wonderful [Music] [Music]