Controlling pests and diseases in cannabis cultivation

New technologies can help growers overcome the difficulties involved in producing a healthy and profitable crop as the cannabis business continues to expand and change, says Thomas Walker.

- 

In this article, I would like to focus on a number of recent advancements in pest and disease management that are readily available to today's commercial cannabis producer. These include updates of tried-and-tested techniques, as well as high-tech equipment that uses the latest software and sensors.

• Integrated pest management (IPM)

This strategy helps to reduce the use of chemical pesticides, which can be detrimental to the environment and the finished product.

IPM integrates a number of pestcontrol methods, including observation and detection of pest problems, the installation of physical barriers, the use of natural parasites and predators, and the application of selective and targeted chemical treatments.

• Biological control

Being both a sustainable and effective approach to controlling pests, this is one of the most important innovations in the field of pest and disease management. More and more commercial cannabis growers are turning to it.

Instead of using chemical pesticide, biological control focuses on using natural predators, parasites or pathogens to control pests and diseases. Examples are ladybirds that control aphids, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacteria used to eliminate caterpillars, predatory mites employed to manage thrips, and parasitic wasps that control spider mites.