Winner of first Cannabis Cup encourages farmers to pay attention to fertilisers

McDonald Simmons, winner of the first Cannabis Cup in St Vincent and the Grenadines has encouraged traditional farmers to pay attention to how they fertilise their plants.

The competition, which took place on December 10 at Pier 1, saw a total of seven entrants. The competition brought together advocates for and enthusiasts of cannabis with the growers and producers of medical cannabis.

Simmons shared that he had always been involved in agriculture, then decided to venture into cannabis production. “I had to learn from scratch about the plant, as I didn’t know everything about it. I was even thinking that it’s the leaves they would use to smoke or do whatever with it…over the past two years or so, I really got to learn a lot about it.”

He said that his initial plans were to grow the plant the traditional way then to seek funding from investors, until he realised that “the way traditional farmers grew it, wasn’t really what they were looking for…”

According to Simmons, traditional farmers did not give their plants some of the nutrients necessary for the plants to meet the standards of investors.

He added that some farmers feed nitrogen to their marijuana plants throughout all stages of the plant. He called on them to change the way they grow their cannabis plants.

Simmons won best in Indica for having the best bud. He also placed first and second for having the best taste, best aroma and best high. “My top strain is called the ‘Killer Kush’ and I have a second strain which is the ‘L.A Cookie’ and the third strain which is the ‘Monkey Meal’.”

Simmons expressed joy in being the grower of the year as he is looks forward to next year.

Danladi Lewis who was second overall in the Cannabis Cup placed first in the hybrid category for best bud and best high, placing second in terms of the best taste and aroma, all in hybrid.

Lewis also placed second and third for the best bud and third the best high in Indica. He placed second for having the best bud, high and aroma in the Sativa.

He cultivated marijuana as a hobby before he learnt the skill of breeding strains about seven years ago.

The strains entered in to the competition by Lewis were strains that were already bred.

Lewis mentioned that he entered one of his newest strains named ‘Headways’ “for the effects you get when its smoked.” That strain won awards in hybrid for having the best bud and high.

The third place winner, like Lewis submitted buds that he had in his inventory.

Brian Marks Dasent, won the best in Sativa for having the best bud, best taste, best high and the best aroma, he also had the best bud in the category of Indica.

Dasent, a large scale cannabis producer, shared that he started cultivation around the same time cannabis became legal. The Mt Grenan farmer shared that he had always been involved in agriculture production and said he would also like to see the by-products of cannabis legalised.

“Most of these products are medicinal products at the moment, I made a wine once and I cannot sell the wine to anybody…it’s [cannabis] only for medical use.” he added that he believes if cannabis bi-products are authorised for sale, “at least some of the people that do by-products off of the medicinal product, will be able to have a chance of marketing something else other than just the flower itself.”