Contrary to public perception “pesticide” is not a four-letter word in the world of agriculture. Pesticides are any substance, or mixture of substances, used to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate pests. To simplify the extremely complex nuances of all different types of pesticides, in a general sense, pesticides fall into three different categories:
Better and safer than synthetic non-organic chemicals, biological pest control is based on utilizing highly specific, naturally-occurring insect-infecting bacteria, protozoa, viruses, and fungi. These products are very effective against their target insects but are non-toxic to humans, pets, wildlife, and beneficial insects. Biopesticides are also short-lived in the environment and are less likely to result in insect resistance than synthetic chemicals. In addition to fighting disease and pests, these organisms benefit your soil and plants by decomposing organic matter releasing nutrients for absorption and helping improve the tilth of the soil. We use an array of Biopesticides.
All of the products HOC uses are OMRI-listed insecticides, formulated and registered for use in certified organic production facilities. The OMRI seal ensures compliance with organic standards set by
the National Organic Program (NOP), a regulatory body within the USDA.
The second line of defense in any comprehensive “IPM” program is the incorporation of botanical pesticides. Botanical Pesticides are naturally-occurring chemicals (insect toxins) extracted or derived from plants or minerals. The most common and approved Botanical Pesticides for use in the cannabis industry include essential oils from citrus (limonene and linalool), cedar, lavender, and plant extracts such as pyrethrin and neem cake.
While these plants extracts are naturally occurring, often OMRI certified, (approved for use by organic gardeners), and range from zero to low mammalian toxicity, they should still be used with discretion. In general, they act quickly, degrade rapidly, (leaving little to no residuals on the plants), and have, with few exceptions, low mammalian toxicity. Given that products with neem or pyrethrin can leave residuals if applied to flowering plants in the last several weeks of the bloom cycle, resulting in a low level of human toxicity, we do not use any of these products in our IPM program.
We limit our botanical pesticide use to organic OMRI certified citric acid (citrus essential oils) base product
The USDA National Organic Program regulations defines synthetic as: "A substance that is formulated or manufactured by a chemical process or by a process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally occurring plant, animal, or mineral sources, except that such term shall not apply to substances created by naturally occurring biological processes." To put plainly, these are the four-letter pesticides. Synthetic chemical pesticides are typically broken into three main groups: organochlorine, organophosphate, and carbamate. Exposure to these types of pesticides can cause acute (short term) or chronic (long term) effects on animals and humans, especially in the reproductive, endocrine, and central nervous systems. These pesticides are highly dangerous and have no place in cannabis cultivation, ethically or compliantly.
Cultivar Farms does not condone or respect the use of such products
