Integrating pest management into cannabis production
As you likely know, growing cannabis for medicinal purposes requires excellent hygiene. That’s why it’s good practice to integrate your pest management and hygienic measures into your cultivation methods.
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Integrated Pest Management and cannabis production
The success of your integrated pest management roughly relies on three elements. By keeping a close eye on your plants, and acting quickly if something is amiss, you can avoid a lot of issues. Let’s go through the elements of integrated pest management one by one.
A clean environment
We would advise starting your pest management approximately one month before you bring any new plants into your facilities. Make sure that your cultivation site is free of any possible sources of contamination, such as weeds, clutter and uncleaned equipment.
Airflow and humidity
Try to avoid the use of oscillating fans and plug-in dehumidifiers. These machines can quickly spread pests around your facilities.
However, do make sure to cycle air often through filtration systems. Closely monitor and control temperature and humidity to avoid swings in conditions. Unstable growing conditions can lead to the development of powdery mildew.
Clean plants
Make sure to quarantine any new plants that you bring into your cultivation site. Thoroughly check at least 1/3rd of the new plants for possible contaminations. Work with suppliers that value quality as much as you do and start off with a clean mother plant and healthy nursery stock.
Also, make sure to work with high-quality substrates to avoid possible sources of contamination coming into your facilities that way.
Transfer infected plants to pressurised rooms to diminish the spread of pests and spores to other plants.
If you would like to read more about the importance of hygiene for cannabis cultivation, and hygiene through substrates, check out this related article.
