Common Cultivation Questions with our Cultivation Director - Spencer
Spencer Kendall, East Fork Cultivars' Cultivation Director
East Fork receives a lot of customer inquiries and questions, ranging from how we make our product formulations to what our business values look like. One of the most common areas of questions we get is related to our cultivation practices. We decided to turn some of the more common questions we get to our Cultivation Director, Spencer Kendall, for an update on our cultivation methods.
How do we optimize the native soil of the East Fork Cultivars farm in Southern Oregon?
Native soils contain a host of fungi, bacteria, and invertebrates who all play a role in their soil community. Some of these species really like to feed on the organic matter provided by cannabis, especially if that organic matter is provided to them consistently every year. A key component of maintaining native soil conducive to planting cannabis year after year is removing crop residues post-harvest and establishing a winter cover crop with a variety of species as quickly as possible. This will remove the food source of the most harmful pathogens and encourage a more diverse subterranean community.
Why is crop rotation, cover crop, and low-till important?
Crop rotation is vital to farming. When you rotate a piece of land out of production, you’re improving soil structure, reinvigorating native communities, and allowing that land to “rest”.
Cover crops are generally used on land that is being rotated out of production for any given period. Cover crops allow you to specify the species of plants that grow during non-production time while reducing the amount of unwanted plant species (weeds). Different species of plants used for cover cropping provide their own unique benefits, which allows for a somewhat tailored reset period for the soil. We often use crimson clover, rye, vetch, and sudan grass, however there are lots of options to fit a variety of crops and growing strategies.
Anytime you agitate the soil, you’re increasing its surface area, increasing its evaporation potential and reducing its moisture retention. Low till methods reduce water consumption, maintain healthy soil structure, and can reduce weed pressure.
Why is biodiversity important?
Biodiversity describes the presence of a variety of organisms in a given area. The more biodiversity present in an area, the less likely advantageous species have a chance to take over. This is true for above and below ground.
What makes up our fertilizer?
Our fertilizer blend changes each year, as we take soil samples from each field and have them analyzed by agronomists to blend a fertilizer that is tailored to our needs. We make concerted efforts to deploy the minimal amount of fertilizer (if any) that is needed each year. That being said, our fertilizer blend this year consisted of chicken manure, elemental sulfur, volcanic ash, and fish bone, all of which are OMRI-listed, meaning they are approved for USDA Organic Certified cultivation.
Are there any other inputs we add to our soil?
We don’t add anything to our soil besides our custom organic-approved fertilizer blend and annual cover crops.
What is our process for tracking plant health?
Our outdoor plants are visually monitored for pests and diseases. For indoor spaces, we keep logs of environmental conditions, propagation records, cloning success rates based on mom plant age, and pesticide/amendment records.
Maintaining plant health is a great way to minimize outside inputs, letting the plants defend themselves from pests and find nutrients (and water) that they need to complete their cycle of growth. Healthy plants also produce great cannabis.
How do we diagnose and treat plant health concerns?
Diagnosing plant health is done mostly visually. The most common issues that are visually diagnoseable are certain nutrient deficiencies, fungal pathogens, pH imbalance, and water stress. Treating cannabis symptoms is a skill that requires experience, support from professional consultants, and the wisdom of the crowd (aka Google searching).
Do we ever use sprays on our plants, including herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides? Do we use any synthetic fertilizers?
We spray our plants with two primary products. Both are made in-house using all organic ingredients. One product, JADAM Wetting Agent (JWA), is essentially a mild liquid soap used as a pesticide for the most common cannabis pests (aphids, spider mites, thrips) and is applied before the plants begin to flower. The other product we use is a species of bacteria that we culture on the farm called Lactobacillus (LAB). This bacteria is diluted 1:1000 in water and sprayed on plants to reduce botrytis (common mold) early in the plant's flowering state. We do not spray any nutrients on leaves (foliar feeding), nor do we use any synthetic fertilizers.
What are some ways that we mitigate common pests and diseases (such as symphylans and hop latent viroid)?
We utilize a lean management system called 5S to keep indoor grow spaces organized and clutter free. Hop Latent Viroid (HpLVd) is a huge concern for us as we rely on healthy plants for propagation and seed production. To address HpLVd concerns, we quarantine and screen all incoming genetics before introducing them into our main rooms as well as routinely screen our permanent mom block with the help from third-party testing companies. At times, we’ve decided to kill entire genetic lines due to contamination, a sad decision but one that keeps our program clean and healthy.
What are some of the techniques we utilize from Korean Natural Farming and JADAM natural farming methods?
The most reliable and effective JADAM solutions we’ve found are the in-house production of two liquid treatments, JWA and LAB. We rotate through various fertilizing methods from Korean Natural Farming (KNF) and JADAM practices, but have yet to identify a single and consistent system that is practical, efficient, and safe.
In your opinion, what has been something that we’ve done that has been revolutionary, or something that has drastically improved our flower over the years?
I think we’re doing good work in improving our flower curing and storage methods. I also think that we’re making good progress in our genetics program in terms of producing unique terpenes, genotypes and stabilized seed lines.
Incorporating regenerative farming methods at scale is difficult, and often comes with setbacks when trying new methods. We find it important to always try new things, and learn from each change, even if it fails.
What aspect of your work are you most proud of?
I’m proud that we are always striving to improve our practices around creating novel cannabis genetics and farming without chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.
