‘You get what you put in’: Cannabis consumers greet first outdoor growing season
Moe Brondum lifts the rope that holds the gate to his backyard closed.
He gingerly walks through and heads over to a patio table where two chairs sit ready for guests.
Birds chirp as he leans back, donned in a Saskatchewan Marijuana Party T-shirt.
Resting behind him in large brown sacks held off the ground by black and yellow milk crates sits two cannabis plants. One is about three feet tall, the other, closer to two.
The federal Cannabis Act allows individual households to cultivate up to four plants inside or out. While Manitoba and Quebec outlawed the practice, green-thumbs outside these jurisdictions are taking advantage of the opportunity to bloom bud under the sun.
“It is really nice,” Brondum said. “This is the first season we will be able to do it outdoors, which is the most practical way to grow cannabis instead of in your basement or in a closet under $100 worth of electricity every month.”
Growing outdoors, he said, can be a half-baked ordeal, as you get the benefits and disadvantages of nature.
“Inside you can control your environment quite well. Out here, if you got your plants in the ground and it hails, it is hailing,” he said with a laugh. “But it is intended to be grown outside.”
Nursing the plants, Brondum said, is not dissimilar to grooming tomatoes. He said gardeners can become obsessed with the plant in the same way. And while it can be fragile, it can be as easy as throwing a seed in the dirt and adding water.
“You get what you put in,” he said.
Some big box stores and garden centres have started to carry new products that cater to would-be home growers. Brondum found some product at Peavy Mart that is specially formulated for growing cannabis.
In Saskatoon, Early’s Farm and Garden Centre carries hydroponics and stocks a handful of fertilizers. One is Plant-Prod MJ’s Boost, Grow, Bloom and Finisher, which brands itself as an “essential formulation to cannabis production.”
“This high phosphorous, moderate potassium formulation encourages full bud set and improves bud filling,” their website says.
Early’s Agriculture Advisor and Social Media Manager Audra Cooper said they have had a few customers inquire about hydroponics and products for nurturing cannabis, but most rarely admit what they are growing.
“Some people will admit it to us, but either way, we are happy to help people grow plants,” she said.
But like any other herb, good soil and adequate water goes a long way.
The four plant rule has drawn enforcement questions, with many curious how police will ensure no Canadian is potting over the legal limit.
Brondum called the rule quite confusing on a number fronts, starting with the difficulties of growing anything outside in such small quantities. Seeds will either have to be obtained at the store, which carries a high price or by growing a male plant, he said. And not every Canadian even has the opportunity to produce their own cannabis, as some landlords and rental agencies have barred tenants from growing.
“We didn’t get any kind of personal rights [in the law to grow]. It is some sort of wacky policy associated with a household, whatever the legal definition of that is,” he said. “Now we have this incredible odd system in Canada where because I have someplace that is amenable to growing four plants, I can, but you may not be able to.”
Despite living in the city with plants bearing the iconic leaf in plain view from the back alley — and producing a slight aroma — Brondum has little worry of thieves or the law. A greater fear lies with other households.
“If the police come jumping over the fence, I have the law on my side. If the neighbours come over my fence, it is just the bad old days,” he said. “But for myself, I don’t care. If someone comes and steals my plant then someone comes and steals my plant. I can just grow another one.”
Brondum has grown legal cannabis since Oct. 17. And for someone who never thought anything was wrong with the herb, he is glad he no longer has to make allowances for the law, hide or act shady.
He said prohibition forced many who are law-abiding citizens to bend the books.
“It has been at best annoying, and at worst, it has coloured mine and others I know, their view of the law,” he said.
Brondum has long advocated for an end to prohibition and was an active member of the Saskatchewan Marijuana Party after it registered with Elections Saskatchewan on June 7, 2006. The party wound down over a decade ago.
At the time, he was motived to become political due to the lack of progress from the provincial government on the file. He said Saskatchewan was a no zone for cannabis talk at the time, despite great movements in Toronto and Vancouver.
“We knew practically and pragmatically that we weren’t going to be much a political force, but at the time it was an attempt to get media,” he said with a laugh. “Now it is interesting. I love the fact we have legal stores. It brings access to people who otherwise were dealing with people they didn’t want to deal with and that is good.”