If you care about what food you put inside your body, then of course the same should go for your cannabis! The market for organic cannabis is also growing amongst recreational users and for medicinal marijuana users, suffering from a disease such as cancer, chemical-free is not just desired but essential.
Growing cannabis is still illegal in many parts of the world, meaning the market is unregulated and users are unfortunately at the mercy of the marketplace. There are far too many large scale commercial growers that are more interested in your money than your health in this respect and will use whatever they can to boost their yield.
Grow Your Own For Organic Quality Control
If you really want organic, the only solution is to grow your own. That way when you are pulling on that sweet joint you know exactly what went into the growing of the herb! Of course there are numerous excellent ‘organic’ nutrient products on the market, but we are going to take it right back to Mother Earth and suggest three uber-organic natural fertilizers:
1) Compost Tea
Do you compost? It’s amazing how quickly those scraps of food, coffee grinds and old teabags will fill a domestic compost bin, and with periodic turning nature will soon be doing its magic! The food rots down and you are left with a rich earth like substance packed with growing power. Expert grower Jorge Cervantes writes that just ¼ of a teaspoon of well made compost tea contains more than a billion bacteria and 15 feet of fungi strands. This beneficial bacteria is not only rocket fuel for your cannabis plant growth but will boost your plant’s immune system to defend against pests and diseases.
Method: Brew the compost tea in a bucket (1 part compost to 4 parts water), stir it well, let sit for a few days. Return to the tea and stir it a few times a day with a stick to get some oxygen in there and keep it fresh. Apply as much as you like (unless you have nitrogen rich content, such as manure, within your brew).
2) Seaweed
This one goes out to anyone living near the coast. You have a super fertilizer right on your doorstep - you just have to go and collect it! Best time to do this is after Autumn/Winter storms when big surf dumps fresh seaweed onto the beach. Seaweed can be dug into the ground, placed on top of the soil at the base of plants (deterring pests like slugs and snails) or made into a tea. Yes, it does stink, but boy does it pack a punch – it contains trace elements, growth hormones and nutrients, has anti-fungal and disease properties and is known to correct soil imbalances. A diluted solution can also be sprayed on plants to deter garden pests.
Method: To prepare a seaweed tea, stick in a big container (bucket or bin) and let it ferment for a minimum of three weeks (to make it even more effective give it some oxygen with a pond aerator).
3) Rabbit Poop
The benefits of well rotted horse and chicken manure are well known to cannabis growers. However, rabbit poop is often overlooked. It‘s a ‘cold’ manure, so it doesn’t have to be aged before you put it on (or mix it into) the soil, and it can also be made into a tea. The benefits of this super cannabis fertilizer are that rabbit poop is rich in nitrogen and phosphorous and provides a slow releasing fertilizer for your plants.
Method: 1) Buy a rabbit. 2) Make friends with someone who has a rabbit. 3) Find out where the rabbits hang out and scoop up what they leave behind!
Remember, mankind has been growing this plant since the dawn of time and it is only very recently that nutrients appeared in a bottle with a fancy label. Growing organic is about working with what nature has to offer and just because it doesn’t have an Amazon review it doesn’t mean it isn’t less effective!