Interview with a Grower: Carnage

At PRO-MIX®, we love to get to know our customers. Watch their success stories with our Grower Profile series! Meet the growers, connect with their passion, and see how PRO-MIX is an asset to medicinal plants producers everywhere!

PRO-MIX®: Can you present yourself as a medicinal grower?

CARNAGE: I started my medicinal growing journey to be able to supply for self-consumption only 2 years ago. Although I had grown some random bag seed outdoors in my twenties, I never consumed it for anything that I sought out as medicinal, it was simply pleasure in my mind at that point. Fast forward to my mid-30s, and medicinal plants has just been legalized in Ontario. At this point I was purchasing through a friend, consuming for medicinal purposes, and thought that I would try my hand at indoor growing to save on the cost of purchasing.

Heartbreak. My father passes away. Leaving to the heavens after years of battling through losing a portion of his leg as a twenty-year-old after university in a transport truck accident. To the countless years of rehabbing to be able to walk, drive a car, ride a bike, swim. Through years of changing medications, misdiagnoses, and mental health. I can still remember my mother on the phone saying to the doctor “I don’t know why he is on diabetic medicine, he’s not diabetic.” It was too much of the pharmaceutical life that I believe played a major role in his cut-short time here with us.

From that moment on I poured myself into my grows. In my eyes, the benefits of this plant were still so untapped. So, I researched, I studied, I talked to people I knew, I talked to people I wanted to emulate online. I went to markets; I went to conferences. I have done the leg work over the last few years because I want to help you the person reading this right now to be able to grow the cleanest, most effective medicine possible to suit your needs. I want to show you it doesn’t cost a lot of money to return on your initial investments. If I can truthfully help to allow someone get the relief, they need medicinally and not from a pharmaceutical, then, in my eyes, I have accomplished a small portion of what I want to showcase to the world for years to come.

PRO-MIX®: Seeds or Clones?

CARNAGE: Personally, I enjoy the full growth process of seed to soil. Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy the process of growth a clone has to offer. Still, my heart falls for the full expression right from seed, to see the strength a seedling has breaking through the shell, showing its many variations of leaf formation, truly is some of my most joyful times in the tents, when the soil is breaking with fresh seedlings.

PRO-MIX®: Favourite strain to grow?

CARNAGE: So many avenues we could take this as to why. I am going to say my favourite strain to grow for its ruthless, pungent smell of dirty feet, gasoline, and wet fur, smoked with a sweet orange aftertaste along with that Mack truck couch lock was a strain called Pistilfoot x Gasleak x Gorilla Grodd from a very talented man from Oregon: Mr. Levi West of Pistil Positive Creations.

PRO-MIX®: Favourite nutrient line? 

CARNAGE: We all know this will be without hesitation, Emerald Harvest Nutrients! The marriage between Emerald Harvest and PRO-MIX has been a match made in heaven. Truthfully, when all the pieces to the puzzle fit, the plants grow with ease. I have had nothing but great results so far in my indoor grows, I am currently in the flower cycle now growing 4 different strains, very excited to start the transition into the true expressions of this amazing plant.

PRO-MIX®: Do you currently use any bloom/terpene boosters?

CARNAGE: Emeralds Honey Chome is something that brings the terpenes to another level of aroma and flavour that I haven’t experienced in other grows with other nutrient lines. With all the natural sugars involved, added NPK, and beneficial microbes to the roots. The combination leads to gooey, sticky, resin-packed buds, very high-quality consumption if I do say so myself. 

PRO-MIX®: If you use clones, what is your favourite method of cloning? 

CARNAGE: Hands down Root Farm seed starting kit sold in your local Canadian Tire comes with 50 peat moss-based plugs that aren’t loose in particles that could damage your hydro system. You will however have to add a dome top either sold in stock at the Canadian Tire or you may have to visit a local hydro store to complete the cloner. I like to add just enough nutrient solution mixture to touch the bottom of the plugs leaving the dome holes closed for the first few days. I open the top holes quarter turn and each day will gently lift the dome to let excess moisture out, after roughly 7 days I will open up the top holes half turn. I will have my clones growing under 18-6 light cycles and roughly within 6-14 days there will be root spores showing through the plugs enough that you're ready for transplant.

PRO-MIX®: How long have you been using PRO-MIX? Do you have a preferred product?

CARNAGE: I am now in my third year of using PRO-MIX® products. Here locally we can buy commercial bails of PRO-MIX available in a 210L bail. That has been my staple medium throughout all my grows. Now that there are away prefilled PRO-MIX® HP 7-gallon bags, that may change real quick.

PRO-MIX®: What should never be missing when growing?

CARNAGE: This is going to come out of left field for some, the number one thing that should never be missing when growing, is love! If you don’t love the process of the grow, then truthfully it will show in all stages. I’m not implying that you must have a flawless grow, and be completely happy throughout for it to be successful. But the energy they feel from you putting in the effort to check temps, check ppm, adjust light height, adjust fan placements, etcetera, etcetera, is priceless. Just like anything above the soil, they need to be attended to properly or they suffer.

PRO-MIX®: Favourite Instagrammer?

CARNAGE: This man has been a shining light from the very beginning, guiding me and discussing so many things over the years. His knowledge and expertise in living organic soil is something I truly am just blown away with. His medicine is grown as true to the outdoor living soil yet under the indoor settings. It is one of the most potent medicines I have had the pleasure to consume. @Qclassin I am very happy to have this wonderful soul in my life, not only socially but as a lifelong friend.

To visit his Instagram account: @carnagegrowscraft