Local Grower Interview

Greetings Folks,

It is Monday night and I hope you all enjoyed your beautiful day. Are you perhaps thinking about  starting a new project or perhaps eager to begin a project that could end up being a company! Well, this post may be for you! Today I want to share with you an interview that was conducted with a home grower who happened to learn from it and gather a lot of valuable information through his trail and errors! 

Questions for interviewee:

Interviewer- Adonis Alcantara

Interviewee- Tom Whelan

Short bio about yourself and how you got into this field:

Greetings I’m an entrepreneurship student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. I got into this industry after suffering a back injury and needing to be issued a medical marijuana card. Once I had entered this field I saw a low entry barrier and a large profit margin. Then I quickly began researching and assembling my own grow room legally, before eventually starting my own grow.

Are you in the medical field?

I currently in the works to get my license to grow more marijuana but currently I am only growing for plants in my grow tents at this time but in the future I plan on having a full scale operation.

Are you licensed?

I am not license yet but I would consider myself a start up who is researching potential opportunities to determine what direction to take my company in.

Are you only based in MA?

Yes, due to current laws and restrictions I am only seeking to grow my business in Massachusetts at this current time but things could change depending on local laws and regulation.

What’s the most challenging aspect about being a grower?

The most challenging aspect about being grower is that not only are you a business man trying to grow in the most profitable way but also having to become a gardening expert on analyzing possible diseases bugs and weather conditions which may decrease the quality of your products. If I could give anyone advice, I would say to find someone else that grows and have them hold your hand through the 1st harvest in order to get the gist of things to guarantee a smooth start.  

Which type of strains do you grow?

Currently I grow two strains, one of which is called “Barneys Blue Cheese” which is an indicator sativa hybrid and won the cannabis cup in 2011 and 2012. I also grow a strain called “Cookies Kush” which is a cross between girl scout cookies and OG Kush. All of my seeds come from a license seed bank and are certified.

Have you grown indoors or outdoors/ both? What have you noticed in terms of differences amongst the two if so?

On my first harvest I grew plants indoors and outdoors. I immediately noticed that indoors in a hydroponic set up there aren’t no dirt bugs and a much decreased risk of diseases in the plants indoors all grew at a steady rate as it is sunny every day in the tent and they get watered and fed at the same time every day and the bud came out very good. However, on my outdoor plants I noticed that the sun itself is much more powerful than the lights inside my growing habitat and the plant outdoors grew exponentially faster than the plants indoors. On the other hand, my outdoor plants all grew very fast but the bud was not nearly as potent as the indoor products. Also I was unaware that outdoor marijuana plants are not supposed to be rained on and that you must construct tents around them in the event it is going to rain. These are things I wish people told me before my first harvest.

How often do you need to tend to plants?

Indoor plants must be tended to every single day at least once a-day but tending to the plants doesn't necessarily mean you have to do anything, it’s more or less a check up because the light and the watering process or both should be automated so you're really just checking for diseases to make sure the process is going smoothly but outdoor plants just require water.

What makes for best quality when growing?

Making sure the plants aren't over fertilized or under fertilized is key when growing potent buds. On my first grow I had the PH level off in my water reservoir and was unaware for several weeks in a couple of my plants suffered due to the PH imbalance.

THANK YOU,

I want to personally thank Tom for his time and efforts. He is a great example of a person who jumped in on a project, without knowing much yet managed to learn from his mistakes! I hope this post served as valuable information and perhaps inspired you to try growing on your own.