Growing Medicine and Food

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021

Intro and Background

(Cannabis in soil/medium & Vegetables hydroponically)

Franco Nerd

Friends who know me know that when I decide to learn something (Like I did with drones from 2009-2019), its 150% immersion and I am dedicated to learning. It was so with the first cannabis plant I tried to grow in a tent 4 years ago, and Now I have enough experience I would feel comfortable sharing what i have learned.

This is written in an informal 'How To' guide style. It is a living document and will be updated regularly. This information will eventually make it into a web page ;-)

If you are not interested in Cannabis, you can jump down to my garden tent! Jump to Garden Tent

Medical VS Recreational

I spent my youth age 16-20 smoking weed and hash recreationally, gave it up for about 5 years when I joined Hay River Fire and Ambulance Service and lived with an RCMP Officer, and began again when I moved to Fort Smith in 1994.

Why I advocate for compassionate cannabis

I have been a medical cannabis advocate since the death of my mother on may 15,2002. She passed away from small cell aggressive lung cancer and she was finally granted a legal medical prescription for cannabis 4 days after she died. For the last month of her life, I would provided her with illegal cannabis, which she smoked so she could spend time with her baby grand daughter. She was taking a staggering amount of morphine for her pain, leaving her in a drooling state and she could not be with my baby. When she smoked instead of taking the morphine, she was in pain, but she could talk and see the baby and she smiled her beautiful smile while they were together.

Why I advocate for THC/CBD as a treatment

About 4 years ago our girl cat Sarah was diagnosed with a bone cancer on her front shoulder, the Vet recommended we put her down the same day she was diagnosed. I went home to my wife with the news that we had to put her down. We were resigned to do the humane thing and proceed, but at the last moment, my wife convinced me to try and treat her myself with CBD oils. Today, Sarah appears to be a normal cat with no health issues other than an appetite that must be leashed at all times, we have been treating her to oral Cannabis oil for 4 years and she does not show any signs of illness. The Vet often marvels that she is still here, but he does not know I have been treating her with CBD. Beyond what many studies both formal and informal have shown, and my own personal experience with CBD/Inflammation with my intolerance of NSAIDs, this one thing, keeps me remembering how simple it really is and that it works.

Going down the medical cannabis path

When I started down the medical path, it was not for myself, but for my wife who suffers from not only Fibromyalgia, and PTSD but also from Adult Onset Epilepsy. Sleep is a huge factor in her well-being and quality of life. without the cannabis to counter and augment the drugs and even replace some of the drugs, she would be in a constant dazed state.

I had another friend who seemed like his health issues could benefit greatly the benefits of cannabis, so I introduced him to TCH/CBD as he had little to no experience other than the occasional ineffective puff or intense paranoia experience from his youth. He is now a legal medicinal user today who swears by the improvement to his quality of life.

In both cases I assisted my wife and my friend in following the legal and legitimate path towards medical cannabis, but the process with both was long, complicated, and full of govt and medical paperwork and red tape. there was also the stigma of doing this that they had to deal with.

in 2021 I finally decided i needed my own prescription for cannabis as I was actively treating several of my own issues with recreational rights only with the quiet consent of my doctors treating my Polycystic Kidney Disease, Chronic Prostatitis and Ulnar Neuropathy. With access to medical grade cannabis I started to really understand the difference between medical and recreational.

Medical Standards vs Recreational standards

The same providers who dominate the provider market for medical cannabis also dominate the market for recreational cannabis to government. So vendor x provides product to both patients and GNWT/Liquor store. The key difference here is that the standards and regulations surrounding the medical cannabis industry are not the same as those for recreational sales. For example, selling to the public for recreation you tend to see range values for THC content and CBD content because it is not required for them to test and label TCH/CBD content for every 5 gram container of recreational cannabis so values are based on lager crops or averaged for simplification on labels read by recreational customers. However for medical cannabis, it is treated differently, there is a prescribed amount, and to fulfil this, greater care is taken with respect to direct sales to patients. Exact gram by gram accounting. And since this is going to be administered medically, like other drugs, it is packages with THC/CBD Values with; in best cases, the exact tested value of TCH/CBD from the batch it came from with 25/75 Percentile values to at minimum a single value that represents the tested value for that Batch. I have these chemistry tests, they cost about 80$ each and do one CBD test and one TCH test.

Medical pricing vs Recreational Pricing

Recreational pricing is controlled by governments and is seriously profit driven. To get a good deal at the liquor store you must buy in bulk, for example at the store:

buy Rockstar (TCH 19% Indica) for 15.71/gram (3.5 grams at a time)
or
buy Dubon (THC 18% - 24% Indica) for 5.60/gram (28g only)

Medical pricing is controlled by the medical industry and was originally driven by compassion. Typically medical providers charge the same per gram regardless of quantity and in general they are cheaper then the liquor Store.

Who Pays?

This is not intuitive, but is a fact and cannot be argued. When you buy from the liquor store, you pay out of your pocket, so you pay 100%. When you buy medical cannabis, you either get 100% back on your medical insurance, or the Govt will let you write 100% of the price off as a medical expense on your tax return. So Health care pays and You pay 0%.

Pricing Examples

Canaca 3.5g | GREEN CUSH - Profile: THC: 15 - 21% CBD: 0% to 1%

Liquor Store / NWT Online Sales
$10.99/Gram + GST if you buy the small size 3.5g

Dubon 28g | Indica Blend - Profile: THC 18 - 24%

Liquor Store / NWT Online Sales
$5.60/Gram + GST if you buy 28g at once

Grail Rockstar 3.5g | Indica - Profile: THC 19%

Liquor Store / NWT Online Sales
15.71/g + GST 3.5g at a time only

Haiduk 5g or 10g | Sativa Dried Cannabis - THC 16 - 22% CBD 0 - 0.1%

Aurora Medical
$8.75/Gram + GST any amount

PINK KUSH | Indica Dominant - Profile THC 21% CBD 0.07%

Cannafarms $9.75/Gram + GST

Cannatonic - High CBD - Profile THC:6%CBD:10.2%

Cannafarms $9.50/g

Tower (Cannatonic) - Tower - Profile THC 0 - 1% CBD 9 - 13%

Aurora Medical
$8.00/Gram + GST any amount

Medical Grow Licence

During the last few years I have often struggled with the 4 plant limit. It is nearly impossible to grow medicine for 2 people with only 4 plants. For this reason, I have had to apply many tricks to make it work, however, if you decide to grow your own medicine, there are some distinct advantages to the grower:

Medical grow licencees are more than fair and ample to accommodate needs
a 5gram/day prescription can be converted to a 25 plant grow licence.

I recently decided to get my own prescription and become legit, I was prepared to do it the hard way again, but thought, it has been a couple years, perhaps things are better now.

I found a cannabis care broker. OneOunce. I paid them a fee and with minimal effort, paperwork and red tape, i now have a medical prescription, a cannabis doctor, a care rep, 4 authorized cannabis providers with medical pricing and a growers licence from the federal govt for 25 plants. it was an easy process and a great decision. The grow licence takes longer because you are engaging the federal govt during covid but the prescription was very fast!

Easiest way to get a legitimate prescription

use OneOunce. Thats the firm I used. Assuming a 5g/day prescription

goto OneOunce and sign up
Complete Online Forms
pay a 100$/year fee (you get it back on taxes)
Choose medical providers
Meet Medical Marijuana Doctor
Obtain Medical Cannabis Prescription
Order Medical Cannabis

Easiest way to get a medicinal grow licence

Again, use OneOunce. Assuming a 5g/day perscription

goto OneOunce and sign up
Complete Online Forms
pay a 200$/year fee (you get it back on taxes)
Choose medical providers
Meet Medical Marijuana Doctor
Obtain Medical Cannabis Prescription
Order Medical Cannabis
Complete Medical Grow Licence Application
Receive medical grow licence
Grow up to 25 plants in your home
Store up to 1875g of cannabis in your home.

My Recommendation to go medical

If you use cannabis to manage your health, I strongly suggest you get a legitimate Prescription. The easiest thing is to follow my suggestions above.

If you grow cannabis to manage your health, I strongly suggest you get a legitimate Prescription and a grow licence. The easiest thing is to follow my suggestions above.

Growing Indoors

I dream of growing my own medicine and my own food year round so I tend to evolve my setups and my techniques to be as cheap and easy and healthy as possible.

Grow Tents

I have 4 active growing tents in my home. Typically they are mylar reflective tents, with LED lights, Fans and Humidifiers. My Home is predominantly wood heated so the ambient RH in my home is very low during winter. Typically below 20% all the time.

Garden Tent

The purpose of this tent is to grow vegetables and start seedlings. I am currently growing Tomatoes, Bell Peppers and Giant Swiss chard here hydroponically using the Deep Water Culture (DWC) Method. DWC uses nutrient water and a small fish tank air pump to pump air into the water which creates bubbles that pop and splash micro-droplets onto the air breathing part of plant roots. As you can see, this low-maintenance, scaled-down approach works well. More info on DWC

Virtual Video Tour of my Garden Tent

Hydroponic Food

I feed my plants charcoal filtered water and use the following two plant foods to feed them:

MaxiGrow @ 1tsp/litre - I feed this to veggies in the growth stage (Usually swiss chard but tomatoes and peppers before they bloom)
MaxiBloom @ 1tsp/litre - I Feed this to all Blooming and fruiting veggies (Tomatoes,Peppers)

I have had great success with the GH Maxi products and the vegetables can be eaten directly off the vine, no washing is needed as these veggies are 100% organically grown, untreated and with no soil there are no insects in the tent.

Giant Swiss Chard Tomatoes

My garden tent is a 48"x36"x72" hybrid tent, with a controlled grow room and propagation room:

Garden Tent Lights

The garden side uses a Viparspectra P2000 200W

Each of the two levels of the propagation side have a
SunBlaster LED Strip Light HO 6400K 24W 2ft

Garden Tent Fans

This tent has a Progrow 4" Fan with speed controller, it is located on the top of the tent and is run at its lowest settings. This assists with pollination of Tomatoes and Peppers wile providing strength to branches and limbs.

Budding Tent

My budding tent is a Quincent 4'x 4'x 6.5' Tent. it sits on a raft of milk crates to keep it off the floor. The purpose of this tent it to take mature cannabis plants into the flowering stage through to harvest. There have been 6 harvests out of this tent, each better and bigger.

Virtual Video Tour of my Budding Tent

Budding Tent Lights

The I am using two LED lights in this tent, An older Hollandstar

and a Viparspectra P1000 100W from above

and two 48 inch light bars from beneath.

Budding Tent Fans

This tent has a Progrow 4" Fan with speed controller, it is located on the top of the tent and is run at its lowest settings. This assists with temperature and humidity control wile providing strength to branches and limbs.

Cannabis Soil/Medium Nutrients

I feed my cannabis plants charcoal filtered water and use the following nutrients to feed them:

MediONE 4-3-3 @ 18ml/litre - I feed these organic nutrients to cannabis in the growth/vegetative stage
MediONE 4-3-3 @ 20ml/litre - I feed these organic nutrients to cannabis in the budding/flowering stage

I have been using Organic MediONE 4-3-3 for cannabis for the last two harvests. This is a great single application nutrient that gives good yield and healthy cannabis plants.

Mother tent 1 - UnderDawg OG

Virtual Video Tour of my Mother Tents

This tent is normally for hosting a mother plant. Currently it is in use to structure an UnderDawg plant.

It is powered by a older Vivosun 300w LED with separate veg and bloom control

there is a very small fan pulling fresh air into the tent, it sports a mesh grid for shaping and a simple humidifier that keeps the RH between 20-30%.

Mother tent 2 - White Rhino

This tent is normally for hosting a mother plant. Currently it is in use to structure an White Rhino plant.

It is powered by a Spider Farmer SF-1000 LED with a dimmer

there is a very small fan pushing tent air into the other mother tent,

it has a mesh grid for shaping

and uses a large humidifier that keeps the humidity between 30-50%.

This tent is also using a temperature controller that maintains a day temperature and a night temperature. This controller controls a cold air fan that pulls cold air from a place near the basement wll that is usually cold.

Equipment and Supplies

I have purchased from all over the world to learn what is best, but ultimately i found a single vendor in Canada that can provide most of what I need at reasonable prices and with good shipping to Fitz (I use the fitz postal code to get the cheapest shipping), so while I tend to shop there, I will include some ebay/amazon links too.