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Seaweed: A Potent Superfood Fertilizer For Marijuana Plants
Seasoned cannabis growers know that seaweed is perhaps the best way to increase crop growth and boost the health of marijuana plants.
Seaweed is one of the healthiest and tastiest ingredients used in cuisines around the world. It’s a potent source of many nutrients, including iodine, B vitamins, vitamin K, iron, zinc, and even antioxidants; all of these offer tremendous health benefits for us. But did you know that seaweed is a potent superfood for your marijuana plants too?
In fact, seaweed has been used for agricultural purposes for centuries now. Since ancient times, people have been using seaweed to fertilize the soil and even make infertile soil, fertile. Research into the use of seaweed (as well as kelp) has boomed in modern times, proving the efficacy and usefulness of this humble weed to strengthen the growth of many crops, including marijuana.
What Is Kelp and Seaweed?
Seaweed, also known as macroalgae or algae, is an umbrella term that refers to thousands of species of plants that grow in water. They can be found in different bodies of water including the ocean, lakes, and even rivers. Some species are microscopic and thus can’t be seen with the human eye, but they still serve an important purpose in marine ecosystems by supporting the food chain.
Kelp is a popular type of seaweed. It’s a large kind of seaweed that commonly grows in sea forests. Many seaweed fertilizers are made from kelp or a combination of other seaweeds.
Seaweeds do not contain internal vessels that transport nutrients around them. Because of this, they are able to absorb everything from the water directly, which is why they need to stay in water in order to survive.
Benefits of Using Seaweed Fertilizers
While there are many tried and tested ways to grow healthy marijuana plants, adding seaweed fertilizer to the mix can make it even better. It’s certainly a much better alternative to conventional fertilizers, and it can help your plants thrive despite being exposed to environmental stress including disease, pests, salinity, and drought.
Seaweed is considered a biostimulant for cannabis and other plants. Biostimulants refer to natural products, not limited to fertilizer, which can help promote the growth of plants when given in small quantities. In agriculture, biostimulants have been used to assist with responsible and sustainable agriculture.
Here’s why you should be adding seaweed as a superfood fertilizer for your cannabis plants:
- Excellent nutrition: When seaweed grows in bodies of water, it absorbs many macronutrients, micronutrients, and minerals that it passes on to plants. No other fertilizer can match the nutrition profile of seaweed!
On top of the nutrients mentioned above, it also contains potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron, phytohormones, and fatty acids. When marijuana plants absorb these through fertilizer used, it gives them a serious nutrition boost that helps them grow and tolerate stress efficiently.
- Improves moisture: When you add dry seaweed to the topsoil of cannabis in the same way you do with mulching, it’s an effective way to trap moisture within the soil. As a result, you will need to water less but you can have peace of mind that the cannabis roots are thriving.
- Germination: Apply seaweed to marijuana plants will promote germination of seeds while also helping regulate the pH levels in the soil. In addition, it will improve marijuana metabolism when it increases the trace minerals within the soil so that the plants and roots can easily absorb the nutrients.
- Fights bacteria: Using seaweed fertilizer provides excellent defense against microbes such as bacteria, parasites, and fungi. All of these are detrimental to the growth of any plant including cannabis, so you want to keep them away as much as possible while stimulating the growth of healthy bacteria within the soil.
How to Use Seaweed as Cannabis Fertilizer
There are many different kinds of seaweed fertilizers already available in the market:
- Liquid: Liquid seaweed extracts will likely need to be diluted, but to be sure, check the manufacturer’s guidelines. The dilution ratio will vary from one product to another though it is always best to check because you don’t want to risk overfeeding marijuana plants. Underfeeding is less risky than overfeeding.
- Powder: Feeding your plants with a seaweed foliar spray offers numerous benefits. Just add around ½ teaspoon of powder for every 5 liters of water. You only need a small amount to feed the cannabis leaves.
- Meal: Kelp meal is best added directly to the soil four months before you plant the seedlings. Doing so in advance will give the soil enough time to break the nutrients down, so that it’s efficiently absorbed by the soil. The typical volume for kelp meal is around 0.5kg / 9 cubic meters.
Below are ways you can use the fertilizer to improve the growth of cannabis plants:
- Use seaweed to feed the roots of cannabis plants in all stages of its life cycle;
- Soak seeds and cuttings in a seaweed solution;
- Add kelp meal into the root zone;
- Spray the foliage with seaweed extract – though this is particularly helpful when the plants begin to bloom. This should also be done during the start of the lights-on cycle;
- Adding liquid extract or whole seaweed into compost together with other bio feeds;
Conclusion
Seaweed and kelp are wonderful organic fertilizers for all plants including marijuana. Seasoned cannabis growers know that seaweed is perhaps the best way to increase crop growth and boost the health of marijuana plants. Why not give it a try today?
Source: https://thefreshtoast.com/cannabis/seaweed-a-potent-superfood-fertilizer-for-marijuana-plants/
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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