Fred Renteria thought he had a pretty good cannabis farm going. But then an unstoppable outbreak of russet mites two years ago convinced him he could be doing things much better.
“We used to spray everything with chemical crop protections, like most of the other growers,” he said. “Then we couldn’t beat these mites and had to destroy all the plants in two rooms.”
So he looked into other methods and learned about beneficial insects, a natural growing approach that uses a variety of “healthy bugs” at different stages of the plant’s development to eat more harmful insects. Their life cycle is timed perfectly so the bugs are dead and removed by the time a crop is ready for harvest.
“We learned these kinds of natural methods are the only way to beat this, and once you start doing it, you can’t go back,” he said. Renteria, head grower at Growing Like a Weed (GLW), then looked for other areas of the operation that could benefit from a pesticide-free approach, a constant focus on quality, constant sanitation and overall sustainable best practices.
Read more at spokesman.com
