Alternatives To Pesticides When Growing Marijuana
Posted 7 years ago by Sera
Whether you use marijuana to chill out or to treat a medical condition, the main objective is therapeutic use. What’s particularly worrying is that pesticides are often found (and in large quantities) in a lot of the weed that Americans consume. It isn’t that farfetched for commercial growers to use pesticides to protect their crop, and a large proportion of those chemicals end up in our bodies when we consume it. One of the best things about growing your own weed at home is the freedom to make it chemical free, and the first thing to do is avoid using pesticides.
Sure, pests do make it into the garden and they like to make a mess in there. But it doesn’t need to be a full-blown chemical take over to handle the situation. There are natural alternatives that don’t hurt your plants so that they don’t finally end up hurting you. Pesticides don’t just cause catastrophe for the environment, but they also cause a lot of harm to your health.
The legal dilemma
There is a complete grey zone when it comes to the legality of using pesticides in the USA. The reason for all of this is that marijuana is federally illegal, meaning there’s no real federal standpoint on using pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency has no guidelines about what is permitted or not permitted. That means it’s all left up to the state – and each state has different rules. While some states require that the level of contaminants is labeled, some states have no such rules. And in other states, recent legalization means that they haven’t even gotten up to that stage yet.
Products in Colorado and Washington have an alarmingly high rate of pesticide contamination, according to studies. It’s kind of terrifying when you think about all the riff-raff that Americans are making about GMO foods when a lot of those same people are smoking contaminated buds. So what’s a smoker to do other than grow their own weed at home?
This dilemma leaves a lot of marijuana users completely oblivious to what’s going into their bodies – and that’s a bit strange for a community that preaches consciousness. The sad truth is that a lot of growers are using chemical pesticides in their growing operations, and an awful lot of that ends up in your body.
What’s the harm in pesticides?
A lot of growers might squirm when reading this article because it almost seems necessary to use pesticides. And yes, admittedly, growing outdoors (or even indoors) without the use of some sort of pesticide can leave your crop vulnerable. But if we neglect to see the impact pesticides have on the environment and the human, then the whole point of using marijuana disappears.
Environmentally, the use of chemicals to kill pests is a real hazard. They completely contaminate the soil which is the growing medium for – well everything! Once soil becomes poisonous, so does everything else that grows in it. These contaminants don’t just kill the insects, but also are hazardous to the surrounding wildlife, such as birds and fish. Growers might be using them to protect plants, but the environment is a complete ecosystem where everything is affected.
It shouldn’t be alarming that pesticides that end up in marijuana finally end up in your bloodstream when you use it. In fact, when you ingest something orally, there are all these gut bacteria which help you to detoxify your body. But when you inhale something directly into your lungs, you lack that protective element, which makes inhaling pesticides much worse than eating them. It’s actually more dangerous for you to be smoking all the chemicals in your marijuana than the chemicals you end up swallowing in your food.
Ahh, pesticides that you smoke end up in your body. It’s simple. They go all around it – from your liver to your brain. An overexposure can lead to respiratory problems and other diseases such as diabetes. It’s something to think about when you’re growing your own dope.
The natural alternatives
So how can you protect your marijuana garden without potentially damaging the environment and your body? Thank God nature has a solution for so many different things. If you’re growing your own weed, try some of these natural alternatives to pesticides, and see if they don’t work just as well.
Garlic
It’s not just your lover that can’t stand the smell of garlic on your breath. Insects also can’t stand the smell of it. And what’s better is that spraying a garlic solution on your plants doesn’t actually kill any insects. It jsut makes them go far – very far away. Process the garlic with some water and make a solution and spray. It’s that easy.
Neem oil
This plant does wonders for the human when he ingests it, but that aside, it’s also a great pesticide. Aphids, caterpillars, grasshoppers and spider mites are all removed from your growing system if you spray a little bit of neem oil. It also helps to prevent mold and fungi from coming for a feed on your plants.
Diatomaceous earth
Diatomaceous earth is made up of fossil dust. It is extremely fine but very sharp, which means that when insects eat it, they die. It would be like swallowing a bunch of molecular-sized razor blades. It sounds like torture, but it’s a natural pesticide nonetheless. It can be applied to the top layer of soil or on a vegetative plant, but should definitely not be put on buds.
You can be creative with different ways to deter pests. Use covers or greenhouses to block out insects, too. Companion planting is also a great way to rid your garden of pesticides. And heck, if you’re the kind of grower that has a lot of time on their hands, you can comb through your plants and make sure they are insect free. But please – don’t use chemical pesticides.