San Jose Medical Marijuana Collective Hosts Free Classes on Organic Growing

Jacob Bell

New Member
The Crop Circle Grow Club, a free weekly class for everyone from beginners to experienced growers, continues to be one of the most popular free services at Elemental Wellness Center, a San Jose medical cannabis dispensary. Every Sunday at 3pm, expert cultivator Josh Jones facilitates a hands-on, participatory session addressing various growing techniques and troubleshooting tips to help members successfully grow their own medicine. For the month of December, classes address organic gardening and composting techniques to get rich, healthy soil.

"December will be a great month. Holidays, New Year, and Composting!!!" says Josh. "We kicked off the month with a Recycling class, where we discussed how to reuse, and ultimately reduce how much we spend on our upcoming grows. Next we'll dive into Environmentally Friendly Growing, and then Soil Amendments."

The Environmentally Friendly Growing class, coming up on December 11, will teach the basics of growing medical marijuana organically. Josh asks, "Have you ever thought about where your store-bought soil comes from? Wow... let that sink in. This hit me like a brick when I saw little soil gnats in my expensive name-brand soil!" He explains this is a good reason to recycle, compost, and use organic soil.

The class will cover how to grow organically in various mediums; soil, coco, or hydroponically. "Growing outdoors can be easier because it gives you many options," notes Josh. "If you have really good soil to begin with, you may not need to add any nutrients. A lot of growers will make their own soil using all natural extracts from guanos or castings."

Growing outdoors also allows growers to compost. "If you can avoid using nutrients, and use compost instead, your end results usually have a very fresh, clean taste. Indoor growers have to flush all their nutrients out in order to achieve the same results," explains Josh.

However, growing outdoors has its own challenges. "The hardest part of using compost or organic nutrients in soil is providing a consistent medium year after year," Josh says. Each harvest ends up being slightly different than the last because the mixture varies. "My outdoor Blue Dream has a unique flavor each time, but I see that as a bonus."

Whether growing indoors or out, Josh finds growing organically can make the true flavors and terpenes more prominent. "Anyone who hasn't tried the organic route should give it a shot. They might prefer the flavor. And ultimately," Josh adds, "if you can grow your medicine and be kind to mother earth in the process, it's a win-win situation."

The Soil Amendment class on December 18 will teach participants methods for revitalizing the old soil used for mothers, ranging from adding additional soil to changing the type of pots the mother plants are grown in. The class will also outline how to create "cultured" soil for the whole garden. There will be no class on December 25.

Member participation in the growing process is essential to Elemental Wellness, which operates on a "closed loop" business model. Members of the San Jose marijuana dispensary are encouraged to cultivate medicine and sell it to the collective so that other members who cannot grow are able to procure the medicine they need.

Crop Circle Grow Club classes are open to medical cannabis patients with all levels of growing experience, from complete novices to experts. Josh provides a formal lesson plan and uses handouts, show and tell, and demos to give the session cohesion and structure. Students bring in photos of how their clones are doing, and all Crop Circle members are invited to troubleshoot problems and share experience and knowledge.

"We started Crop Circle because many of our members expressed an interest in having a club where they could trade tips. We have become well-known in the South Bay for our wide variety of clones and seeds, and we noticed a lot of patients wanted more in-depth advice on how to care for their babies once they got them home," explains Amanda Snyder, Member Services.

Popular strains available from Elemental Wellness include TGA Subcool seeds, DNA seeds, and Mother Chuckers seeds, as well as a wide variety of the popular Dark Heart Nursery clones.

For more information about the Crop Circle Grow Club, or for information about any of Elemental Wellness Center's products or services, call them at (408) 433-3344, view them on the web at elementalwellnesscenter.com or visit their collective located at 711 Charcot Avenue in San Jose.

About Elemental Wellness Center
Elemental Wellness Center is a state-of-the-art medical cannabis club in San Jose with an open, spa-like atmosphere; a warm, welcoming environment; and a highly trained, expert staff. The medicine is lab-tested to detect the presence of mold, mildew, and biological contaminants, as well as pesticides, and is analyzed for THC, CBD, and CBN potency. Elemental Wellness specializes in rare and boutique strains, and butane-free hash, bubbles, melts, and waxes. The collective is dedicated to holistic healing of the mind, body and spirit, and has a healing room, community outreach center, and a library, with all services and classes included free in the membership. Members can enjoy free chair massage by on-staff licensed massage therapists every weekday from 11AM-3PM. Elemental Wellness is committed to giving back to members and the community, and has a fixed mark up on all their products. All profits go back into improving the collective or are donated to charity. With paintings and sculptures from local artists featured on its walls, this San Jose medical marijuana dispensary is a local hub for creative, healing energy.

abb11.jpg


Source: San Jose Medical Marijuana Collective Elemental Wellness Hosts Free Classes on Organic Growing
 
Back
Top Bottom