With a 4/20 birthday, it’s surprising to learn that Tim Stubbs of @nor.cal.kannabliss and his wife just started their cannabis growing journey a year ago. But they’ve certainly made up for lost time — on their popular Instagram account the pair highlights their successful cannabis grows in Northern California with gorgeous photos, growing tips, and highlights their favorite products. What’s not surprising is the big following they’ve gained! We chatted with Tim about how they got started growing cannabis, some things he’d wish he’d known as a new grower, and why growing cannabis has made him so happy. Enjoy and Happy 420 week (and happy birthday, Tim)!
How Tim & His Wife Got Started Growing Cannabis
We had been buying cannabis for years for medical reasons and after we bought our house we decided that we wanted to start growing it ourselves. We had a friend of ours gift us our first plants and that’s what started us growing. That was just last summer, so it’s been less than a year.
Growing For Health Reasons
My adoptive mother has multiple sclerosis and she's had it ever since I was adopted. When she was first diagnosed the doctors didn’t know much about MS, so over time they’ve given her countless experimental drugs and I’ve seen adverse side effects from all of that. So we were hoping the cannabis would help control spasms and other problems she’s having with it -- it’s progressively getting worse, not better, so — it’s definitely a hope that cannabis could eventually help take over the slew of drugs she’s taking from the pharmaceutical companies. Right now we’re working with a friend of ours on getting more high CBD-heavy strains and work with those to get her to try it.
One Thing Tim Wish They’d Known Before He Started Growing
One thing I wish I knew is that I needed a better support system because we had the plants growing outdoors in the winds and there were two or three different times I had to come back just to pick the plants up off the ground because they fell over. Another thing I wasn’t prepared for was dealing with all of the insects outdoors. We’ve been using The Amazing Doctor Zymes, which has worked really well, as well as a soapy water solution to help with insects. We also regularly use Monterey Bt for caterpillars because what a lot of people don’t know is that caterpillars can be devastating to your plants.
Biggest Difference Between Growing Outdoors & Indoors
Definitely pest control. There’s almost no need for it when growing indoors. We grew easily indoors without even thinking about it and then planted outdoors without thinking about it and went ‘oh my goodness,’ the pests are everywhere. As long as you prepare your area well and provide both structure and insect netting (along with natural pest control products) you’ll be fine.
Using C-BITEs To Grow Cannabis
We used C-BITEs to create this square frame for our outdoor plants — it’s a 5’ by 10’ frame. We hooked the stakes together with C-BITs and then made a double net over them so we string the plants up so we could have complete support for the big winds. Up where we are we can get 45-mile-per-hour wind gusts and 30 mile-per-hour sustained winds. So that was a big issue and with the C-BITEs we have that covered now.
My wife is very involved in the cannabis grow process; she did all of the work on the outdoor grow last year while I was more focused on the indoors. She was the one dealing with the plants blowing over, which is why we used the C-BITEs this year so it will be a little bit easier on her.
Tim’s Advice For New Cannabis Growers
Don’t give up. It's easy to make a mistake and it's easy to want to give up but if I can do it, anybody can do it. It just takes time and a little bit of attention — then once you figure it out, it's quite enjoyable and fun.
Mistakes As New Growers
When we first got going, we didn’t have the environment dialed in very well. We started with our indoor plants and they grew very slowly because we didn't have enough humidity in the environment. So we made a couple of changes to the way our systems worked and then once everything was dialed in, they started growing beautifully.
When we first started growing outdoors we had heat issues; we get 115 degree temperatures here in the summer and the plants couldn’t deal with the heat. So we had to figure out ways to get around that and what we found was seaweed kelp spray helped them fight off the heat and deal with it better.
So these are tricks and lessons that you just learn along the way.
Favorite Cannabis Nutrients
We’ve tried to stay organic with our grows so we’ve really been liking the FOOP Canna products. It’s really just fish poop that they bottle up. It’s a really easy mix — just two parts for the veg and two parts for the bloom — and it works really well.
Having 4/20 As A Birthday
4/20 is my birthday, my sister’s birthday, and my adoptive grandmother’s birthday. So it runs in the family!
On The Cannabis Cup
The Cannabis Cup was the first four-state autoflowering cup that’s been held. It had four different states with 420 contestants. Everyone sent samples in, the top 40 were tested, and when they did the rankings and we came 15th out of 420. That was only our second grow, too, so we were pretty happy about that.
Their Favorite Strain To Grow
Our favorite one that we've grown so far has been from the Humboldt Seed Company. It’s called ‘Squirt’ and it’s a cross between their ‘Tangie’ and ‘Blueberry Muffin’ that they are known for. It’s very citrusy; when you smell it, it literally smells like you packed up a can of squirt (the fruit drink). It is absolutely amazing.
Why Growing Cannabis Is Important To Tim
I used to be kind of a hermit; I would just sit around on my computer and play video games and stuff like that. We lived in apartments for so long so when we were finally able to buy a house I was like, ‘You know what? I need something better to do with my time.’ Then we started getting into growing and it’s been the most cathartic thing I’ve ever done. I’ve never been happier since we started growing and just getting out there, working with the plants every day and getting my hands dirty makes me happier than anything else.
You can follow Tim and his wife’s cannabis growing adventures on Instagram @nor.cal.kannabliss.