Marijuana Business Magazine September 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | September 2019 150 By Omar Sacirbey SHAWN DENAE Founder & CEO, Washington Bud Co.— Arlington, Washington Each month, we survey a group of marijuana industry executives and ask them to share a favorite item—such as a strain, top-selling product or edibles ingredient. We welcome your suggestions for topics. Email us at magazine@ mjbizdaily.com . Since September is when outdoor-grown cannabis enters flowering and needs lots of potassium and phosphorous, we’ve asked executives about their favorite sources of those two nutrients . My Favorite Things | Potassium & Phosphorous To maximize the efficiency of potassium and phosphorous, we focus on optimizing temperature, pH and beneficials like microorganisms that improve uptake. You don’t want your water temperature to be too low; you don’t want your pH to be above 6.2, because everything in the solution starts reacting. I’m a big fan of phosphoric acid, which we use for pH control. We use Elite nutrients, which is a five-part system, so it’s all in there. On the raw salt side, I would say Yara, which is an agricultural-grade product. Washington Bud Co. relies upon the Dominion Organics line of fertilizers. They are formulated fresh and delivered to us biweekly out of Ferndale, Washington. Their Blossom Rocket gives us the phosphorus and potassium we need to create big, resinous buds. SHAWN HONAKER Founder and owner, Yeti Farms—Pueblo, Colorado I’ve been using Down to Earth (products) for about eight years now. It has a consistency that I’m looking for. Some companies are cheaper, but the concentrate of the product doesn’t match what Down to Earth has. It’s much more reliable. When it comes to potassium, we use burnt hardwood ash that gives us the pH we’re looking for. We put that in our tea bags and let it bubble for about 18 hours. It’s extremely concentrated, so then we add it to our irrigation system. For phosphorous, we use a seabird guano from Down to Earth. They’re eating a lot of fish and crustaceans, and we want those oils from the fish. We also add fruit bat guano. Those three things are added to our flowering garden at different stages, depending on where they’re at in the flowering stage. GRAHAM FARRAR Founder and CEO, Glass House Farms—Carpinteria, California