Benjamin Morgan-Dillon, Acadia Farms

Benjamin Morgan-Dillon joins me “in studio” to share his advice from 14 years of growing his own cannabis. His business, Acadia Farms, is located in Massachusetts and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to help growers that need his assistance and enlist his services. Ben enjoys helping people in all of the ways that many of our guests have, whether it’s with top-shelf medical cannabis or with taking extra steps to build specialty equipment for his customers. Currently Ben is winding down his indoor grow setup as he ramps up the outdoor operation on his hemp farm and with his outdoor cannabis grow. He’s currently looking for that amazing phenotype with a pheno hunt to put the most amazing plants outside to stay within his plant counts outside. Right around 12 minutes Ben discusses how to spot the healthiest plants. Rich solid green, no fading or yellowing, praying towards the light with a slight curl. If your plants aren’t praying, take a look at your environment, temperature and humidity and the range of both of those throughout a typical day. Then take a look at your canopy, hot spots and lack of air movement. Then you should check your soil base for temperature, smell, and health, ensuring that you don’t have any bug infestation taking over the soil. Ben has recently made the switch to more of a regenerative organic approach, getting away from bottled nutrients. With help from the Regenerative Organic Cannabis Conference in Portland Maine, Shaping Fire and KIS organics podcasts, he has successfully built out a living soil set up inside, within tents and grow beds. What’s the one thing that a grower can do to increase the yield on their cannabis plants? Ecosystem – make sure everything is balanced with minimal fluctuations. Get your rooms/tents dialed in, and your plants will be happy and pay you back in an increase in yield. Any unique grow tips or tricks to share? Ben utilizes aloe vera in the garden for a cloning gel, a soil amendment, a foliar feed. Keeping it all natural, aloe vera combined with Epsom salt in a foliar spray will help correct any micro deficiencies you may be seeing as your plant grows. Ben thinks the silica combined with the magnesium in the Epsom help penetrate the plant cell walls and quickly turn things around in your grow. Patience and empathy are the answers to my favorite question – What type of characteristics make the most successful grower? You have to allow your plant to reach its full potential, and that takes time and patience. The role of the cultivator is not to water the plants, it’s to observe, and care for the plants, to replicate nature in whatever way possible. What’s Ben’s last bit of advice? Find whatever you are passionate about, learn it really well, and it will lead you to other parts for you to improve upon. Ben’s passion was the true terpene profile expression which has led him to the living soil where he’s able to get the best terpene profile out of his plants. That’s great life advice as well, find your passion and dive deep, everything else will work out just fine. If you like what Ben is all about, you can find him on the farm at acadiafarmsfamily.com, email him at [email protected] or call him directly 774-565-4077. If you are ready to enlist a grow consultant to help you set up, tear down, or troubleshoot a specific problem we encourage you to reach out to us and we can help match you up with the cannabis consultant that fits your style and personality, because ultimately that’s the important part when trying to learn something from someone. Also, If you liked this interview, and want to hear more from this week's Homegrown Helper please head over to http://thehomegrownhelpers.com/bonus and download the rest of the show! We’ll be releasing some “bonus” episodes here in the near future, bringing some snippets from our bonus interviews that we hope you’ll enjoy. Our www.mygrowpass.com partners for today’s show are The Amazing Doctor Zymes and Danny Danko. At www.doctorzymes.com you can save 10% by using code GROWCAST at checkout or save 25% by joining our membership and accessing the discount portal. The Amazing Doctor Zymes Eliminator is a revolutionary green solution that kills and eliminates soft-bodied insects, molds and mildews on your indoor or outdoor gardens. Eliminator is a proprietary formula, handcrafted to ensure quality control. Professional Growers use it all year to ensure pest-free, mildew-free plants. Many growers have realized an increase in yields by not having to combat pests and mildew with toxic or oil-based products and that when used as a preventative they did not see any pests or mildews even up to the day of harvest. Danny Danko senior cultivation editor at High Times magazine, industry legend, and all around amazing guy wanted to give back to our community a little bit so he joined us in offering up his books to be signed for BLOOM level members only! This is a great book for beginners, and the experienced grower because even experienced growers know that you must keep learning in order to stay on top of your game. Grab a book for yourself on Amazon by going to www.growcastpodcast.com/danko. As a BLOOM member of mygrowpass.com, you can have a book signed by Danny for free just by reaching out to us to help make that happen.