Outdoor Grown Cannabis is Coming to NY

Think New York’s climate can’t handle outdoor grown weed?

Think again.

New York Small Pharma, a non-profit centered around regeneratively grown cannabis, is pushing for New York’s cannabis market to start off on the right foot. This includes growing cannabis outside, in a living soil, with a polyculture of other plants.

But let’s back up a minute.

Regenerative agriculture refers to growing plants in a living soil, or a soil with a healthy microbial population that works in tandem with the plant for an exchange of nutrients. Regenerative techniques are similar to organic in eschewing chemicals and fertilizers, but go a step further by highlighting the soil as the most important part of the growing process. Growing plants together in a shared space, also called a polyculture, ensures an exchange of vital nutrients between the soil and all of the plants.

I sat down and talked to two NYSF members who were happy to share their expertise on cannabis and farming as it pertains to the NY cannabis market.

Jason Green is a permaculture expert and owner of Olema Arts & Design, a landscaping company on Long Island. He gained experience as a gardener and cannabis grower out in California, where he helped clients integrate the plant into their larger garden and landscaping.

Brian Farmer is a farmer who has worked with third party organization to create cannabis production standards. His work has been used in the Sun & Earth Standards funded by Dr. Bronner’s.

Tell me about regenerative agriculture

Brian Farmer: On a regenerative farm, cannabis is planted alongside vegetables and herbs. Unlike indoor production or a monoculture of hemp, the soil culture is critical for regenerative techniques. Without a living soil, there is no environment for regenerative agriculture. There’s no plastic mulch, no chemicals, and no tilling. You’re constantly laying more soil and building up the soil.

In Western growing, the soil is a sterile medium for fertilizer and water; a very artificial system. It’s carbon heavy whereas regenerative is carbon-sequestering. Regenerative techniques are similar to or based in Native American techniques. These are not new techniques; they’re very old techniques that we’re just getting around to.

Jason Green: Regenerative design is all about small scale and slow farming. It’s a process that makes us work with nature and gain a better and deeper understanding of the plant. Regenerative agriculture is all about the land- how big is your land, what kind of soil do you have, where does your water come from? How can you create what you need on the farm? We have an opportunity to start an agricultural economy and trade from the ground up, creating a cottage industry that is supported by small businesses.

Can New York support outdoor grown cannabis?

Brian Farmer: Yes. A lot of the dissent is based around a general misunderstanding of agriculture. Many people who are cannabis-specific growers have only grown inside. They’re knowledgeable about the plant, but fearful of growing outside because you lose a certain amount of control. Indoor grown cannabis is a very different plant than outdoor cannabis, in the way that the terpenes and cannabinoids are expressed.

Outside, you have a much more complex relationship with the plant and the earth. It’s indicative of the industrial culture in our country, where we’d rather control the plant than let it grow and work with the earth and the weather.

Jason Green: Yes. Growing cannabis inside came from the necessity to hide it. The illegal market drove it inside, and it’s really easy to follow a formula to grow weed inside. You don’t have to understand the biology of the plant or the growing process. You can follow a guidebook and a formula and be completely detached from the process. Most people who don’t support outdoor grown in New York probably wouldn’t be able to. There’s plenty of time in the growing season- cannabis grows at 10,000 feet in the mountains! People are attached to the practices they know, but we can have a market and supply consumers with enough cannabis with outdoor grown.

What’s unique about the New York market?

Brian Farmer: We have a very different climate in the Northeast, compared to somewhere like California. We get a lot more rain, which is a good thing and a bad thing. As the market opens up, people are quickly going to discover which cultivars work in the Northeast and which ones don’t.

Jason Green: The New York bill really put the focus on co-ops and employee-owned businesses. They’re not allowing for monopolies; there’s a focus on keeping the businesses separate. So you can be a farmer and grow cannabis and have a tasting room and sell your product onsite, but the small scale allows your to incorporate regenerative techniques. This allows more people to enter the industry because it lowers the barrier to entry.

New York also has great soil types for cannabis. From the Adirondacks to the Appalachian trail, we’ll be able to see soon what cultivars are best suited for our soil types and growing season.