Now that medical and recreational marijuana is legal in Massachusetts, more people are interested in growing their own. And while many Islanders are in tune with their green thumb, some are not. Paul Lazes, a Vineyard Haven resident, wants to help make home growing accessible to everyone.
Last spring, Lazes launched We Grow Your Own, a venture meant to help people grow their own marijuana. He can offer a range of services, from general advice to going to people’s homes to start gardens, and tending the plants as they grow. “I’ll help to the degree people want or need help,” Lazes said in an interview with The Local.
Lazes is a longtime advocate of people growing their own — food, pot, everything. He’s been doing it since the late 1970s, and locally the past eight years. “If you can grow a tomato plant, you can grow pot,” Lazes said. “It’s super-easy. I liken it to a combination of cooking and cleaning.”
There are a lot ways to grow marijuana, and like anything, the more you do it, the better you get. It’s a continual learning process, prone to modifications, alterations, and trial and error.
Growing cannabis is legal in Massachusetts, and state law permits six plants per adult (age 21 and over), and up to 12 plants for two or more adults. Backyard growing has a couple of other legal restrictions — the plants must be grown in an area equipped with a lock or security device, and the plants cannot be visible from a public area, according to the Cannabis Control Commission.
Lazes recommends growing outdoors, but said indoor growing can be fun too if you have the space for it, “like a science project,” he said.
The outdoor growing season begins around now, and Lazes said you want to start your seeds by April 1. Seeds can be ordered online, and are about $20 per seed. Lazes recommends ordering presorted feminine seeds — you only want female plants growing in your ganja garden.
But before planting, Lazes makes sure he’s got great soil. He suggests sending a sample to the Soil and Plant Nutrient Testing Laboratory at UMass Amherst. For a small fee, the laboratory offers amendments, and tells you which of the three essential nutrients — nitrogen, potassium, or phosphorus — your soil needs more or less of. Lazes recommends doing this in the fall before planting, and then letting your soil “simmer like a stew” over the winter. And if you don’t have time to test and amend your soil, fertilizer is a viable alternative. Lazes recommends Cold War Organics, a brand with four different fertilizers meant to support each stage of a maturing cannabis plant. Mitchell Posin of Allen Farm is a distributor for Cold War Organics. The fertilizers are sold at Allen Farm.
Cannabis plants need as much sunlight as possible, according to Lazes. “What brings a plant to maturity isn’t size or age,” he said. “What brings a plant to maturity is the length of day.”
If you’re growing outside, pick a spot that gets plenty of sun. That’s why many opt to grow in pots, so they can move their plants with the sun. Others decide to build fresh beds. Some clear areas in already existing gardens. Many decide to start their plants indoors, and then move them outdoors when the weather gets warmer. Lazes caters to each client, and offers advice and follow-up along the way.
Cannabis plants go through stages as they grow and mature. Different stages call for different kinds of care. There are five stages, according to Lazes. Leafly.com describes them in detail:
The first stage is seed germination. This stage can take anywhere from 24 hours to a week. Germination is the process where a new plant begins to grow from the seed. The most common method for seed germination involves four sheets of paper towel, two plates, and water.
Step 1: Soak the paper towels with distilled water.
Step 2: Take two of the wet paper towels and place them on a plate. Place your seeds on top of the paper towels, at least an inch apart from one another. Cover them with the other two paper towels.
Step 3: Take the second plate, flip it over, and cover the seeds and paper towels like a dome. This creates a dark area for the seeds to germinate.
Step 4: Make sure the area is kept warm, somewhere between 70° and 90°F.
Now, wait. Make sure the paper towels stay saturated, and apply more water if they feel like they’re losing moisture. Once you see a small “tap root,” the seed is ready to be transferred to its growing medium.
The second stage is the seedling stage (two to three weeks). The plant will begin developing its traditional fanlike cannabis leaves. Be careful not to overwater during this stage, and pay particular attention to mold. “Mold is especially an issue here,” Lazes said. “Keep an eye on them. If you see black mold, pull the whole plant.”
A mature cannabis plant will have five or more “fingers” or leaves per plant. When your plant develops full leaves with five or more fingers, it’s entered the vegetative stage (two to eight weeks). If you’re growing in pots, this is the stage where many people transplant their plants to larger pots. Plants also need more water and nutrient soil at this stage. Feed them with higher levels of nitrogen, and water them farther away from the stalk so water is absorbed in the root tips. You can also determine the plant’s sex during the vegetative stage.
“Get rid of the male ones,” Lazes said. “You can see it in the growth patterns.” Female plants have hairlike prongs growing on buds, while males produce little sacs with pollen.
Many start pruning the plants during the vegetative state. Leafly.com recommends getting rid of the lower branches that receive little sunlight, as well as leaves that are dying off, and bud sites that are low on the plant’s main stalks.
The plants then mature to their flowering stage (six to eight weeks). “When the length of the day changes, they go into full flower,” Lazes said. This is the stage where the resinous buds develop. Plants can be staked so they stay supported as the dense buds develop, according to Leafly.com.
And then, it’s time to harvest.
We Grow Your Own helps clients grow, trim, prune, and harvest, as well as make hash or edibles. Lazes can also assist clients with cloning — another method of growing. “You grow one mother plant, keep its cuttings, and then make clones,” Lazes said. Cloning is for growers who have found specific strains they want to reproduce.
“There’s a galaxy of different strains,” Lazes said. “When you have a plant that produces as much as you want at no cost … that’s seeing abundance. Gardening is a lesson in the abundance of the universe.”
Lazes is a longtime proponent for marijuana’s medical uses, and can help clients grow strains that are high in CBD. He said he’ll also give clients advice on what they’re already growing in vegetable or flower gardens.
Lazes studied horticulture and chemistry at West Virginia University in 1974. His main gig is cabinetry. He designs kitchen, bathrooms, and other architectural concepts. He’s working on a proposal for the Tisbury School — a greenhouse project with a zero-carbon footprint.
“All I’m interested in is spreading the good word,” Lazes said. “For people who don’t know how to garden, this is an opportunity to learn.”
For more information on We Grow Your Own, email wegrowyourown@gmail.com.