399. Good Earth Organics Soils | Lee Spivey | Cave Junction, Oregon

GEO-soil-products

Use code: OrganicGardener15 for 15% discount at Good Earth Organics

Listen to other interviews with Lee on these other great podcasts here.

Transcript

Unedited Computer Generated Transcript

Lee Spivey

Oh, so far so good. Absolutely. Just got back from Arizona last night. And now we're back in Oregon and back to work.

17s

JackieMarie Beyer

How was Arizona?

19s

Lee Spivey

It was really good. Actually. We went to an event out there called Earl camp, and it's a bunch of cannabis growers in Arizona's wall, get together every year and network and talk about what they did and how they did it and where we're going from there. So,

38s

JackieMarie Beyer

Hmm. That sounds interesting. Yeah, I've been so I'm in Northwest Montana. I don't know if you know that. And we finally legalized recreational use in January and I've been wanting to start a Montana organic cannabis growers association. And I am struggling to get that off the ground because of course, like, you know, people are like, oh, well, as long as you can't like, you know, put money in the bank and the fed still say it's, they don't want to touch it. The local like organic associations. But to me, I think that is important.

1m 22s

JackieMarie Beyer

So interesting here at camp for cannabis growers.

1m 27s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. It's it's Earl cup does the event. So Royal cup is like, Arizona's leading like cannabis cup award giver. So they, they hold like a couple, a few times a year and all the growers get to participate in, see who has to see, who wins the titles. I'm not going to say, see, who has the best product, because that's all opinion, but what are,

1m 52s

JackieMarie Beyer

How interesting? Yeah, it's a crazy planet. We are country. We live in these days. So anyway, I was like telling my guests that it's super easy to edit. So if you need to like, put me on hold, like to let the dog out, or you want to change an answer or think about something or get a cup of coffee or whatever, like don't hesitate to put me on hold. And then do you have any questions for me? Okay.

2m 17s

Lee Spivey

Not necessarily. I was listening to the podcast. Everything sounds good. I like to do my research and get comfortable with things before I start. So, no, not really.

2m 25s

JackieMarie Beyer

All right. Well, I wish I could say I was the same, but I, sometimes I find it's almost better if I have researched my guests, because then if I, it almost like gets, I fall flat on my face. So sometimes it's kind of interesting if I don't know as much, but anyway, I'll introduce you and we'll go from there. Sounds good. Okay. Welcome to the greener Gidic podcast. It is Tuesday. Wait, what am I saying? Start that over. Welcome to the greener. Get a garden. It is Tuesday, September 28th, 2021. And I have an awesome guest on the line. Who's going to talk to us about his business. Good earth organics.

3m 5s

JackieMarie Beyer

So from Oregon, welcome to the show Lee

3m 7s

Lee Spivey

Spivey for having me on appreciate it is a spiffy

3m 10s

JackieMarie Beyer

Or spicy or,

3m 12s

Lee Spivey

But that's okay. Sorry.

3m 16s

JackieMarie Beyer

The teacher means like I dash E Jack. That should be a long eyes. Anyway, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you got going and what is good earth organics?

3m 29s

Lee Spivey

Well, thanks for asking. So good with organics is a company that was founded in 2008 by a man named Roy Leon, who was a chemist. And he decided to develop soil blends that were good for people in the planets and that allowed cannabis to grow at its maximum rates. And so that being said, I've been with good organic since 2013, going on eight years now. And I've been growing in the product long before I was working there. I am 20 years married. I have two kids, 18 year old daughter, 15 year old son. And I have been growing cannabis since 2005. I've been growing all organic for over two years now.

4m 14s

JackieMarie Beyer

Wow. So Oregon is like way ahead of the rest of the country. And it was funny because like when Montana passed the recreational use last January, like my phone was ringing off the hook, like the first two weeks, like people were like, well, what do we do? And how do we do this? And I was like, I don't know. And so, so I'm really curious about how this growing process works because we've had medical use here in Montana for a while now. I think actually since about 2004, 2008 or somewhere in there, but there's not a lot. Like I was ma I talked to Terry Keaton down at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania in 2018, I think right after the, the hemp bill passed.

4m 60s

JackieMarie Beyer

And like I got back because when I first started my podcast in 2015, I couldn't find someone to come on and talk about growing marijuana organically or cannabis for four 20 day. And like, nah, I could not believe the explosion. And like what I've been researching this book and what I've seen going on in Oregon is amazing. So tell us some about growing cannabis organically. Cause it hasn't been questioned. I've been getting and just, and, and, and what are you finding? And it's interesting. I see, right on your people have talked a lot about bricks on our show and like, I see you guys have a product just for bricks.

5m 42s

JackieMarie Beyer

You've got veggie bloom and bricks product.

5m 45s

Lee Spivey

So with a lot of vegetation that produces fruits, vegetables, things like that, anything that's going to be consumable, have a sugar content, have a flavor, have a smell profile, anything like that. The bricks is a measurement of the sugars that are in that product. And so by increasing those sugars, you're increasing the carbohydrate production in the soil, allowing your fruits to be bigger, bolder, smell your taste here, stuff like that. So that's just a, the bricks itself in organic garden in cannabis, we're really talking about starting with the soil itself, the media that you're growing in. There's a lot of media's out there that aren't necessarily organic and or certified organic to be sure.

6m 31s

Lee Spivey

And so that leaves us in a lane of our own, pretty much to where. So starting with the soil, right? Organically growing, put your plants in whatever plant you're putting in peppers, cannabis, tomatoes, whatever. And essentially you want to feed the soil itself, microbial, compost, things like that, teas, whatever you're doing, you want to feed the microbiology so that the microbiology is giving the soil what it needs and processing those nutrients in a way that the roots uptake them even better than people can imagine because of the way that we're supporting the life in the soil itself. So organic growing essentially is, is that we're not using salts.

7m 15s

Lee Spivey

We're not using synthetic liquids, things like that, that are going to be a detriment to the earth, run off and they're going to damage roots. So some people have to flush when they use salty products, they have to flush the root so that the enzymes get away from there so that the nutrients can still be uptake. So they don't get lockout, stuff like that. So, yeah, organic gardening with cannabis really is a simplified process, but it begins in the soil itself.

7m 45s

JackieMarie Beyer

We just, is there some kind of like scratching sound going on in the background or like sanding or

7m 54s

Lee Spivey

Bouncing off my shirt.

7m 56s

JackieMarie Beyer

Okay. So let's see, I do kind of get lost if I don't stick to my question, but I don't know if that's really gonna apply here, but like, I dunno, like, is there something that grew really well this year? Like I don't, I don't know how, like, would there be like a strain or like something that too, I don't know. How does, how does that

8m 26s

Lee Spivey

As well? I can say that my wedding cake grew very well this year. My jalapenos did great. The pepper genies, the tomatoes didn't do as well this year as I would like them to. But

8m 37s

JackieMarie Beyer

Wait, what's wedding cake.

8m 38s

Lee Spivey

Wedding cake is a strain of cannabis.

8m 40s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh, interesting. So what do you think, what do you think made it grow? Really? What, what made things grow well in Oregon this year? What was your guys's weather? Like? We had like a super hot dry July. And then we finally got a little rain in August. It's been a weird year. Our garden did actually really well this year.

9m 2s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. We were in a bit of a drought, so it's been a little less water. We're finally getting some rain. So the ground is getting wet, which is good. But yeah, it was a good growing year. There wasn't really anything that, that lacked weather-wise

9m 18s

JackieMarie Beyer

Like, are you on the coastal side of Oregon or like

9m 23s

Lee Spivey

20 minutes from the California border on the coast side towards Crescent city.

9m 28s

JackieMarie Beyer

Cool. Do you, so do you have those people asked me about growing cannabis so much this year? Like, do you have some, like what, what, like, how does that process all where like where do you even get your seeds? That seems to be kind of a question people, it has to be feminized or something. Right.

9m 49s

Lee Spivey

I actually don't recommend feminized seeds. They just tend to not to be as consistent as a regular photo period seed. So I just tend to go with just regular non feminized seeds. I personally get my seeds from tiger striped genetics. They used to be in humble and now they're over in Oklahoma, but there's still pretty close. The, they still have a couple of representatives in Southern Oregon. So I still get my seeds

10m 17s

JackieMarie Beyer

From, yeah, it's like illegal

10m 20s

Lee Spivey

There. No, they actually, everything's all medical now recreational past or is going to pass soon and yeah, no Oklahoma's blowing up in the cannabis market. There's a lot of, a lot of stuff going on over there. We're actually getting ready to open up a new soil yard over there so that we can save our customers some money on the shipping.

10m 38s

JackieMarie Beyer

Tell us about the soil yard.

10m 41s

Lee Spivey

So the soil yard right now, we are blending guys gift cloud nine and Zen blend onsite in cave, junction, Oregon. And that is where all of our soil shifts out from. And we have been doing that since 2008, right there. All of our quality is combined in an effort where the same people have been making the soil for a really long time. And so our quality assurance is top notch and all the input materials are certified organic. So it just makes everything come together real well. Our clients out here in Southern Oregon have been super happy with all the products over the years, which is why we continue to expand into the market. And yeah, so the soils just seem to sell themselves.

11m 22s

Lee Spivey

Once people start using them and realize that the ingredients are what we say they are and the certifications matter and growing organic becomes a process. That's easier for people when they start using good organic products.

11m 33s

JackieMarie Beyer

That was another huge issue this summer I have, because I actually, like I took on this client, helping her like plant a greenhouse and grow her first vegetables here in Montana and trying to find a decent source for soil, for her to, she really wanted everything to be super getting. Cause my husband and I, you know, we do the compost and we, we buy quite a, we spend a small fortune on soil. And so that's a huge thing. So having a reliable source and so the website is good earth, organic stock com that people can go to.

12m 16s

JackieMarie Beyer

And then, and then you get your seeds from this tiger Stripe genetics. And, and then how does that, so like what do you do? You just put a seed in a pot with some dirt, like what's, what's the next step?

12m 30s

Lee Spivey

That's a great question. So starting from the beginning, I would germinate the seeds. You know, I would suggest a damp paper towel and a window. So let the seed crack open the tabs,

12m 42s

JackieMarie Beyer

Towel and plastic in a plastic bag or container, or like on a plater. W what do you mean a paper towel?

12m 49s

Lee Spivey

Or you can put it on a plate if you want not necessary plastic bag. If you want, again, not necessary. Humidity dome tends to work a little better than a plastic bag, but humidity is necessary when germinating a seed. So you definitely want it damp. I wouldn't call it wet because you don't want to rock the seed out. You don't want the life to begin with root rot, that would be detrimental to the whole growth.

13m 12s

JackieMarie Beyer

And how long does that take like a

13m 13s

Lee Spivey

Day 10 to 12 days, depending on Your methods and, you know, time and attention. And if you're using additional hormonal products like kelp or PGRs or anything like that, which would be a plant growth regulator. So yeah, they take about 10 to 12 days. And then once those pop, you just literally put your seed into the soil. And once it gets a stock and four little first leaves on it, the it's about ready to start looking at the life. You'll you'll know whether or not it's going to survive. And if it stays nice and green or starts to yellow out and wilt you'll know that you're not gonna save that one, but yeah, once they get that and once they get their second set of leaves on them, so you'll see four leaves on top and then they'll get another two leaves, sprouting up the sides.

14m 4s

Lee Spivey

And once that happens, you want to check the roots to make sure that they're growing well and starting to fill out the soil. And once the soil is filled out with roots, you then gonna want to up pot, which would be like, so you're going from your six pack and or your two inch nursery, pot, whatever you prefer to use, then you're going to up pot probably to a one gallon or two gallon pot and let those roots

14m 27s

JackieMarie Beyer

Can I quickly ask super quick. Cause my husband, like I'm technically the organic eater and I'm just learning about like the gardening, even though this is my seventh year, my podcast, but like last year I really planted like my first and like, my husband kept like, he's like, wait, you don't have to put that in. Like the seed starter mix. Don't put it like, and then the potting soil was for something like, do you, do you do anything like that?

14m 50s

Lee Spivey

Yeah, absolutely. So if you're to use good with organic soils, I wouldn't start your seeds and guidance. I would either use cloud nine or Zetland. So guys gift is going to be like our hot soil, right? It's the super soil. It's the cannabis derived soil. So it's the one that's going to grow those plants once they're established. So once you have like a good six inch plant, that's got an established root base. It can then go into the guy's gift and start growing vigorously until then you want to be a little gentle with the plant and make sure that it's, you know, becoming a good child being raised the right way. Good roots.

15m 22s

JackieMarie Beyer

Okay. And then, and then what's next.

15m 26s

Lee Spivey

So after you bought the plants are going to grow, and then you're going to start seeing a lot more formations. You're going to start seeing branches, laterals nodes, and all those stuff start to form. And at that point, when those roots a node is a part of the plant that it's like in between the lateral branch and the vertical stock where the bud formation begins, I have a lot more information on pruning and nodal formations and vertical growing on our website under the learning lab section.

16m 7s

Lee Spivey

So yeah, after you up again, once the roots fill up that one or two gallon pot, that's really when you're going to start to see a lot of vigorous growth. And so a lot of people, especially if you're not in the Southern Oregon area and, or doing a big grow, you're probably going to leave it in a, you know, five to seven gallon pot to finish. And then once you start seeing little formations of buds about the size of your pinkie, you're going to want to start a little bloom fertilizer, a little bricks, stuff like that, to keep those sugars and those nutrients in that soil to keep the plant growing and producing cannabis in a, in a way that's going to yield better for you and to keep things going that way.

16m 49s

Lee Spivey

And that's essentially it until you're ready to chop it down, clean it up, keep it growing. And of course we're keeping this really simplified for your listeners instead of going into a deep dive on how to grow and what to grow. But, but yeah, that's about it. Hello.

17m 14s

JackieMarie Beyer

Sorry. I forgot to unmute my mic. I keep my mic. So I don't interrupt my guests because my listeners have told me, stop talking so much.

17m 25s

Lee Spivey

We got disconnected.

17m 26s

JackieMarie Beyer

No, I'm assuming, is there something that you would do different next year or something that you haven't tried before that you want to try that snail?

17m 37s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. So next year I definitely want to start, so let me, let me begin with saying, normally we do not spray anything on our garden, right? Not really. We like to have a no spray garden, so to speak so that the flavors are 100% intact this year. We were not able to accomplish that because we had a little infestation. And in order to get rid of that, we had to use a product called Redtail, which is on recertified product. So keeping the garden in a organic fashion, but still, I'm not a fan of spring, but we sprayed and everything is fixed now, but that was one thing I would like to do better next year is start my IPM earlier with more biologicals, increase the numbers and keep the plants a little cleaner.

18m 18s

JackieMarie Beyer

What is start? My IPM

18m 20s

Lee Spivey

IPM is short for integrated pest management. So it is simply a term that refers to how you care for your pests in your garden.

18m 32s

JackieMarie Beyer

How about something you're excited to try that's new or different that you haven't ever done before?

18m 38s

Lee Spivey

Well, our company's coming out with a new microrisal product and I'm super excited to try that because, you know, as a industry leader in certified organic products, it's not always easy to find one that has the proper colony forming units that you want to put in your soil to increase those, those colonies to, to allow your plants, to, to uptake more nutrients right from the get-go. And that's exciting for me is to be able to apply that microrisal to my soil that we developed, if that is going to be better than the competitors.

19m 9s

JackieMarie Beyer

Now, do you grow bright in the ground or in deep beds or pots or

19m 15s

Lee Spivey

Good question. So I've been applying guys gift to my grow beds for about 10 years now. So I grow in guys gifts on the ground, essentially. I wouldn't call it native earth because it's been so much soil put in that spot, but yeah, Gaia's gift right in the ground. I use key posts along the sides of my bed to hold the plants up there. If you'd like to take a look at them, you're welcome to at Canada dot scape on Instagram or five for one THC on Instagram. And they all have beautiful pictures of our garden. So

19m 56s

JackieMarie Beyer

What is it? Canada dot scape. Yep. I dunno. Okay. Oh, there it is. Founded in Southern or, and the other one was wet at

20m 21s

Lee Spivey

5 41 THC. Yeah.

20m 24s

JackieMarie Beyer

Cool. Oh my God. Those are huge plants. And then like, how big is your garden?

20m 35s

Lee Spivey

Let's see, we have three beds that fit four plants each. So 12 outdoor and then about 12 in the greenhouse.

20m 45s

JackieMarie Beyer

And then how much does that grow? Like, is that for you and your family or

20m 51s

Lee Spivey

Yeah, you could say it's more than enough for sure. We have not run out in many years.

21m 4s

JackieMarie Beyer

Did we talk about something that didn't go the way you thought it was going to or didn't work so well,

21m 10s

Lee Spivey

We did. That was the pest management thing that I want to feel better.

21m 14s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. Okay. Do you have show if we were going to like that, I have like this thing called, like getting to the root of things. Do you have an activity that's like your least favorite thing you have to kind of force yourself to?

21m 27s

Lee Spivey

Absolutely. Oh my God. Yeah. So what's that during the like July to September phase of cannabis growing out here in Southern Oregon, the vegetation gets intense. Like just constantly, you're constantly pulling leaves off of that thing, clean it out, making sure that it can get light and air and wind through it. And they just get so thick so fast. I, I really do not like pruning the fan leaves off the plant, but it is completely 100% necessary in order to make sure that you plan to stay as clean as possible yield as much as they can and taste and smell as great as they can.

22m 3s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. I really like paid attention to that. As much as I did this summer, since I guess I kind of got out there and grew more food this summer than I ever have before. So that really does make a huge difference. Like I did it with white tomato plants, but I was surprised at how like getting that airflow underneath really kept things cleaner and, and, and working better.

22m 25s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. You know, a lot of the tactics we use to grow cannabis really work well for a lot of other vegetables as well. I mean, pruning for maximum yield works great for tomatoes, peppers, anything fruits like that on the vine. Right. For sure. Okay.

22m 38s

JackieMarie Beyer

I had no idea. So on the flip side, what's your favorite activity to do in this?

22m 45s

Lee Spivey

Cutting it down and hanging it up? Definitely. My favorite activity to do, I like to go out when the plants are all done and we, we check the tricombs to make sure everything's just ripe enough and all, all the smells are there and that the, the density and the hardiness, and just cutting it off in the, into the sections that, that make me feel great before we hang it up. And it feels like you've accomplished the task. You know what I mean? And you can be proud of yourself at that point. So

23m 11s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yes. And it takes a lot of what would you call it like here and guide and just like, I think, you know, really just like nurturing your plants, right?

23m 28s

Lee Spivey

Yeah, definitely. You know, when your time and attention you give them the better they treat you.

23m 32s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. That end of the year. It's just like, wow, I really like did something here.

23m 38s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. That bounty that you get, you're like, Hey, my hard work paid off.

23m 43s

JackieMarie Beyer

So what's the best guarding advice you've received. Lee,

23m 47s

Lee Spivey

The best gardening advice I've ever received. That's a great question. So feed the soil and the soil feeds the plants. I mean, that's really the best organic gardening advice I've ever received. There's there's, you can literally put things in the soil that will feed the plant all year. Right. So how you build your soil, the products you use in them will allow that soil to feed the plant. So you don't, I mean, you can literally water and do nothing else. If you've put into the soil, what the plant is going to need already. And so if you feed the soil, the soil feeds the plant and it just really makes gardening a lot simpler.

24m 31s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. Like, I don't know why I always thought like that because we composted and like started out with really healthy soil. Like that was all you did. And like, not this past summer, but the summer before, it was like, really the first summer I was really paying attention. And like, I literally felt like my zinnias were like smiling at me when I edit compost to them in the middle of this year, my husband was like, you need to add some combo. You need to give him some, like, I dunno why I always thought, like, in the beginning, as long when we started with healthy soil, we were good, but I it's so true. What you're saying, like feed that soil, your plants will love you.

25m 9s

Lee Spivey

Absolutely. And that's why we developed the bloom, the veg and the bricks, the way we did so that you could make a compost tea with them, feed the soil and then the plant is going to be a lot happier.

25m 19s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. I think my listeners are going to love this because we talk a lot about getting that right. Compost tea to add to your soils and that you guys have like a nice solution that you can just order, because either, I guess I just didn't realize until I was like trying to help that lady this summer with her landscaping, her garden, that like how hard it is to find this stuff. And just like, cause like the compost that we have here, my husband, and then like, we've always had chickens for the manure and he make compost tea out of them, just like, but like trying to source it for somebody else was so much harder.

25m 59s

JackieMarie Beyer

And just, and then also with like, we did this grow life thing. And so there were people from different places on the line and they were asking and like, these are questions I hadn't really faced before. So it's really nice to have a source in Oregon that I can point listeners to. And now it's expanding to Oklahoma. And just cause there was this one company, the Vermont compost company, but Vermont for me in Montana, like it was just so far away. And that wasn't

26m 26s

Lee Spivey

Right. Yeah. There's a lot of good compost companies out there. You know, we don't own compost. So we purchased it from somebody else who makes really good green waste compost. And then we use that ingredient in our products. So there's a lot of different compost companies around the country that really do make a good product, a nice organic product. And

26m 45s

JackieMarie Beyer

We ended up bordering or I ended up buying happy frog, which is from humble in California. So it's kind of close to you guys

26m 53s

Lee Spivey

Kind of close to us. Location-wise I wouldn't say it's close to us product wise.

27m 0s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh really?

27m 1s

Lee Spivey

Really. So right now we're doing a peer review with a retired scientist out of North Carolina university who is doing a side by side with our soils Fox farm soils, route 7 0 7 soils, stuff like that. And we're blowing all the competition out of the water right now.

27m 20s

JackieMarie Beyer

Hmm. All right. Well, I'm going to order some then. Maybe I'd try some of that.

27m 26s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. I'd be happy to supply you and your listeners with a coupon code for our website.

27m 30s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh really? Cool. Don't like that. I never get coupon codes. Awesome. Wow.

27m 35s

Lee Spivey

Yeah, we'll call it the organic gardener 15. You know what I mean? Give them 50% off.

27m 39s

JackieMarie Beyer

Wow. Well cool. There we go. Listeners, because like I said, we were like, cause there is a place in Montana that my husband, I go that's like, what is it? It's Pico or something. I dunno, we drive like 60, 70, 80 miles. I don't know, down there and get like two giant bags of dirt that he uses for all his potting soil needs.

28m 6s

Lee Spivey

Do you mean like super sex? Like the big one yard tote. So you're talking like three.

28m 10s

JackieMarie Beyer

Okay. I think they're the big one yard. I don't know. Two of them fit in the back of his pickup and it costs us like 300 and something dollars to buy these two totes. And that's what he uses for a lot of his, the first year we bought like one and then we bought two. I tried to get him to get four this year, but we ended up only getting two and then cause we would've got four, then I would have had some for that lady and then my truck broke down. So then I couldn't go get some for her,

28m 41s

Lee Spivey

But

28m 43s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. So anyway, yeah, 15% can make a big difference. So let's see. How about a favorite tool if you had to move in, can only take one tool with you. What could you knowledge?

28m 56s

Lee Spivey

Oh, the garden cultivator for sure. Would be the go-to there. That's my

29m 1s

JackieMarie Beyer

Too.

29m 2s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. It's just such a wonderful tool to use, especially with the products that, and the way we're growing with. We just like top dress our soil with the products and then use the garden cultivator to scratch it in and water and just really makes everything super simple and gets it right near the feeder roots so that you don't have to get your hands all, you know, solely when it's not necessary. I love playing in the soil, but sometimes it's not.

29m 26s

JackieMarie Beyer

I'm completely nodding my head. How about a favorite recipe you liked to cook or eat from the garden?

29m 34s

Lee Spivey

Oh, my wife's pickled jalapenos are by far my favorite and every year we make sure we grow an over abundance of peppers that we can have many, many jars of jalapenos to last a year. So

29m 46s

JackieMarie Beyer

When we get off the phone, I'm going to make some homemade salsa. And the one thing I didn't grow this year, a jalapenos, I did grow these like Johnny or Delos sweet peppers that were just, oh, they're so good. That girl really well. But yeah, I might try help. He knows next year, especially I found a really good salsa recipe, pickled jalapenos. I have a friend Mike made those one year and he like would just drink the juice. Like it was

30m 12s

Lee Spivey

Delicious.

30m 15s

JackieMarie Beyer

I want a favorite source. Where do you find yourself surfing on the web?

30m 19s

Lee Spivey

Well, you know, I really use Google a lot for stuff and I really like to go over to epic gardening. He, Kevin, his burrito does a great job with his blog and he grows a lot of different stuff that I don't. And so I'm able to go over there and get a lot of great advice on how to do different things with different plants that I'm unfamiliar with. You know, my, most of my experiences with cannabis listen. So it's nice to have advice for growing other things that, you know, as a gardener, I like to grow everything, not just cannabis. So it's, it's nice to have a spot to go to.

30m 53s

JackieMarie Beyer

Nice. How about I figured reading material like a book or a magazine or anything you can recommend.

30m 60s

Lee Spivey

So when I say it is, please take it with a grain of salt. There is a book that's out there that has a lot of great information in it, but it's also a bit misleading and it's called the 10 pound ganja plant. And it's all about how to set up your spot so that you are maximizing your grow and it literally gives you the recipe to grow a 10 pound plant. Right now. I never recommend growing a 10 pound plant because the amount of work it takes to process a 10 pound cannabis plant, you're going to need an entire team to make it happen. So if you're doing it yourself, just grow them small.

31m 43s

Lee Spivey

But yeah. Great book, lots of great information.

31m 48s

JackieMarie Beyer

10 pound plant is that I guess I have no references that really big.

31m 55s

Lee Spivey

You could imagine like a 15 by 15 foot tree, 20 by 20 foot tree. That would be like a 10 pound plant. So in my experience, on average, I cannabis plant will yield about half of its weight, right? So if it's like a 10 foot by 10 foot plant, you could probably expect five pounds off of it. If it's a five foot by five foot plant, you could probably expect two and a half pounds off. But on average.

32m 21s

JackieMarie Beyer

Hmm, interesting. Cause I'm thinking like, you know, a tomato, one tomatoes like a half a pound. So that would be like 20 tomatoes, but that's not the way it works, I guess.

32m 32s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. Cannabis doesn't exactly work that way either. So tomato, you can keep plucking tomatoes off and it'll keep producing tomatoes. Right? You cannabis, you grow it until it's finished. You cut it down. You're processing.

32m 45s

JackieMarie Beyer

It's kinda more like flowers,

32m 46s

Lee Spivey

Right? Much more. Yeah. Much more like a flower that doesn't come back every year.

32m 53s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. I guess, I guess like some flowers actually, you deadhead them and they grow more flowers, but I guess I'm thinking like, you know, like a single stem flower that you, you know, like a sunflower, like you can cut to some flower and it's done

33m 8s

Lee Spivey

Right. For sure. Exactly. I've seen people that had cannabis and grow it back. I don't recommend it. It's it's a very long, difficult process and it can be done. It's just not what the plant wants to do. So you're really going against its nature.

33m 20s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah. Isn't that what they call them cannabis flowers anymore. It seems like I've been seeing things. I call them cannabis,

33m 26s

Lee Spivey

Flowers, cannabis flower.

33m 28s

JackieMarie Beyer

All right. So my final question is kind of a duty. If there's one change you'd like to see lead to create a greener world, what would it be? For example, is there a charity organization your passionate about, or a project you'd like to see put into action? Like what do you feel is the most crucial issue facing our planet in regards to the environment, either locally, nationally, or on a global scale?

33m 55s

Lee Spivey

I wish I could pick one on a global scale. We really need to be giving back to our, our environment and our soil erosion problem. That's one of the ways our company helps the world is by creating this soil and building it ourselves. We're giving back to the planet and putting soil back into the earth. The other issue that I see a lot is even with our company, you know, is a sustainable as we would like to be. We can't get away from plastic bags yet. And it kind of weighs on me a little bit, you know? So I'd love to see all the plastic turned into compostable hemp products. So that way the world can really start healing itself in a bigger fashion.

34m 34s

JackieMarie Beyer

Right? The whole hemp thing is just driving me insane. Like I just want to be able to grow my own hemp and have hemp seeds. And like, I would love to make like a hemp seed. So I make a really killer hemp seed salad dressing, but I just can't afford the seeds. My husband wants to build a hempcrete house. Like, and we're so frustrated here at Montana, cause we're such a big agriculture state. And like we had a hemp business way back in the early nineties. Like you can make so much stuff at, I have like clothes and backpacks and books, paper, and, and it doesn't mean chemicals.

35m 15s

JackieMarie Beyer

And just like, what was I reading the other day about how much water it takes to make a pair of Levi's he's like insane. Like it's like 1500 gallons of water to make, to grow the cotton, to grow a pair of Levi's. And I don't think you need that kind of water to grow hemp. You know, I think it grows and, oh, that's a great answer. I'm a big hump, bad MCAT. And that would be cool. Yeah. Plastic is just the one thing we do do with our soil. Like those happy frog bags I was telling you about and I bought some other, the Pico soil bags was we at least recycle them for garbage right.

35m 57s

JackieMarie Beyer

Bags, buy, I know tons of people that do not do that.

36m 1s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. So recycling them is good. Put your bottles and cans in them if nothing else. But yeah,

36m 6s

JackieMarie Beyer

Exactly. Yeah. Well, we don't really have recycling in Montana. We have, we do have like, yeah, we do put our cat food cans in there, but yeah, no plastic since 2018, there's been no plastic and we have an, a glass and like, I don't know when, I don't know if we ever had glass or so it's ridiculous. It drives me crazy. And I'm like, we pay our, our landfill is like 80 miles away. So we P to ship the recycling to the landfill, whereas we could pay. I mean, I'm like, why can't we recycle and send it to the other direction if we send it south, at least because like where we live, we're in a rural area.

36m 52s

JackieMarie Beyer

And so most of us haul our garbage to the green boxes. And then it goes to the, if you take the recycling to the dump, they'll take the cat food cans and the dog food cans. But most people don't recycle even those because we're a newspaper or cardboard or any of that stuff because you have to haul it to the actual dump. Which for me, meanwhile, it ends up like laying around my house forever. Like I'm like we aren't there like one bag of garbage every two weeks. And we go through like a bag of recycling of that cat food and dog food cans and whatever other tin cans that we have. Like once a day we have four cats and two dogs. So we go through quite a bit of that stuff

37m 33s

Lee Spivey

Anyway. Yeah. That's, that's good. Yeah. It sounds like maybe cut like seven dogs and two cats. So,

37m 41s

JackieMarie Beyer

But trying to figure out that plastic thing is just really, since they quit recycling plastic in Montana, it's really tough. And I was just talking, I just got off a call with guy who has like, like a food glass jar can salad food delivery. And they, everything comes in glass jars and you're like do a subscription model. And like, I was just, we were just talking about the plastic thing. Like I hate buying salad and plastic containers and the stupid clamshell things. And just, we were talking about how to get away from that. Anyway. Anything else we didn't talk about today that you want to share listeners?

38m 21s

Lee Spivey

Yeah. I want to share, you know, where to follow us on social media is as a company. So on Instagram, we are at good earth organics soils also on Facebook at good earth organics, soils, Twitter, we're at good earth, O R as good earth, Oregon. You can also follow us on Tumblr Pinterest, Tik, TOK, anywhere else. But our main site is good with organics.com. We're also on hydro builder, Amazon and Walmart marketplace.

38m 49s

JackieMarie Beyer

Wow. So they can get your stuff at Walmart,

38m 53s

Lee Spivey

Walmart marketplace, which would be walmart.com.

38m 56s

JackieMarie Beyer

Oh, I didn't know that. That's cool, man. You guys are all over and talk to you guys are the first people to talk on my show.

39m 4s

Lee Spivey

Okay. Well, yeah, we are not what you would call the dancers of Tik TOK. Right? We are sharing product information on Tik TOK and trying to make that work for us, which is not as entertaining as some of the other stuff, but we're trying. So

39m 18s

JackieMarie Beyer

Yeah, but that's what my listeners are interested in is learning how to grow the best. They always tell me though, like Jackie, ultimately what we want to know is how to grow the best tomato or the best cannabis or the best pepper or the best, you know? And so that's the information they're looking for. So I think you guys are going to be ahead of the game there.

39m 36s

Lee Spivey

Perfect. Then we're finding our target audience.

39m 38s

JackieMarie Beyer

Cool. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us Lee and keep up the awesome work and, and thanks for sharing with my listeners. And what was that code that you said they could have again,

39m 49s

Lee Spivey

The code will be organic gardener 15, so it'll be 15% off for you and your listeners.

39m 55s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, thank you so much.

39m 57s

Lee Spivey

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. I enjoy the podcast a lot.

40m 2s

JackieMarie Beyer

Well, thank you. All right. Well, I'm shutting the recorder off and.

About the author, Jackie Marie

I'm an artist and educator. I live at the "Organic Oasis" with my husband Mike where we practice earth friendly techniques in our garden nestled in the mountains of Montana.