By The animals found a home and a special sanctuary on a very unique weed farm in Colombia.
Cannabis growers and environmentalists are not always in talk, despite their mutual love for all environmental protections. If unregulated or poorly managed, cannabis farms can cause significant damage to the surrounding ecosystem.In California, for example, many people The river runs out During the summer, trespassers divert water to the facility, endangering state salmon and trout populations.
The same is true for foreign countries that export weeds, such as Colombia. Healthy europe Matt Yukie, editor and Colombian cannabis investor, wrote that the country’s isothermal climate may be optimal for weed cultivation, but the soil quality is not very good. Anecdotal evidence from growers claims that the strain “has a hard time adapting to soil contaminated with pesticides and tropical pests that have never been encountered.”
As Vice President of Agriculture at Floragrose and General Manager of the company’s picturesque weed farm in the Andean town of Bucaramanga, Javier Franco is the ideal growth condition for plants while sleeping. Can be told. “It’s 18 degrees Celsius at night and 26 degrees Celsius during the day,” he said. High Times Zoom over. “The humidity is about 72% and the coastal wind is blowing at 0.5 mph.”
As Vice President and GM, Franco also knows one or two things about the importance of sustainability to cannabis producers, not to mention the rather poor examples set by his direct competitors. Within a 20-mile radius of where Franco conducted this zoom interview, he said, there were about 6-7 weed farms, none of which respected the local flora and fauna as much as he did.
Franco’s farm covers about 361 acres. There is a forest next door, and residents frequently jump, crawl, and jump over to make amazing visits. Every morning, Franco is greeted by a sloth (also known as Stoner’s spirit animal) who sees him work from the top of a tree. From 5 pm to 6 pm, you can find a porcupine family scuttled around the farm and playing with the guards stationed there on sunny days.
Animals as friends and helpers
Franco is also tracking the number of snake seeds encountered in the emerging flowers. So far, he is 7 years old. The seed that seems to like his farm the most is the non-toxic, but still quite dangerous boa constrictor. Boa constrictors choke their prey with a 10-foot-long body and inhabit the jungles of many South American countries.
When Franco isn’t on the farm, he asks two environmental engineers stationed there to keep an eye on the creatures. Together, they keep a detailed list of animals that visit the farm, along with the time they usually appear. Franco directs his growers to pay homage to the animals so that they are guests of their world. He also knows that their well-being is inextricably linked to the success of Floragrose farms.
“All we want is to provide our customers with natural and organic products,” explains Franco. “It’s actually from nature.” To do that, Franco and his growers need to make sure that cannabis grows as close as possible to the natural environment of the plant. There is little or no interference from humans and the way they kill their trees.
Today, cannabis is often grown indoors, where cultivators become chemists and gardens turn into laboratories. Franco respects the art and science behind this kind of micromanagement, but doesn’t think it’s the best way to go. “When we grow indoors, we want to manage everything, but doing so also eliminates the symbiotic interaction between animals and microbiology.”
At this point in the conversation, Franco drew a circle with his index finger and asked me to guess how many microbes lived in soil less than an inch. The answer he revealed could be somewhere in 10,000 to 30,000 unique species, depending on the quality of the soil. Franco likened cannabis to wine in this regard. Fine wines are not made indoors, but are grown in vineyards in the French sun.
Cannabis is, after all, a crop, and like other crops, many growers frequently use harmful pesticides to protect their plants from unwanted invaders from the outside world. Therefore, these producers protect their valuable cargo with rodenticides and carbofuran. Carbofuran can kill a bear with a teaspoon.To look at this issue: 79 percent of dead fishermen Discovered in California over the last five years (animals like weasels) died after consuming pesticides from weed farms.
Not only is Floragrose a pesticide-free company, farms employ wildlife to protect their flowers from pests. Ladybugs (known to Spanish-speaking people as mariquitas) eat spider mite that has returned many cultivators. Franco calls these insects his “greatest ally”, indicating that the blood sugar levels in his plants are where they should be. Anteaters roaming the farm eat ants, as you might expect, and obsolete pesticides such as Termidor and Taurus.
Without becoming too pedant, weeds always feel like they have helped people become more in harmony with Mother Nature. Think of the endless time spent enjoying a soothing spriff while watching the parade of clouds and the tops of the trees blowing in the wind. It’s no wonder that the cannabis industry should strive to be as environmentally friendly as possible, and Flora Growth’s Franco is on the road to a future where stoners and wildlife can coexist, attracted by the same sweet floral scent. Is carving out.
