Maximum Yield Cannabis USA March/April 2019 | Page 69

What is in your background that
drove you to start Dakine 420?
It is almost a curse, but I am a serial
entrepreneur. I also consider myself
a legacy grower — meaning, I was
growing lots of weed in the US before
growing weed was legal. I grew up
in the 1960s in a liberal household
where both my parents smoked
pot; neither one drank alcohol. My
Dad was a closet grower in the 70s
and by the 80s, I was firing up some
100-plus light grows. By the 90s I found
myself serving a four-year federal
prison sentence for manufacturing
a controlled substance (growing
pot). After my incarceration, I was a
successful landscape contractor for
nearly 10 years and had a good under-
standing of plants and fertilization.
In the 80s, growing weed was simple
trial and error. Other than a handful
of basic books, very few people were
willing to help a person grow weed. It
was a very underground community.
My friends and I were big fans of
Peters 20-20-20 all-purpose fertilizer.
What motivated you to
start a fertilizer and soil
manufacturing company?
In the late 90s and early 2000s, I was
amazed at the cost of liquid-based
fertilizers targeting the cannabis
community. There are some great products
out there, but it really pissed me off to
spend ridiculous amounts of money on
fertilizers. Many lines are broken down
into so many parts, it compounds the
price-per-gallon many times over. I first
started toying with the idea of a nutrient
line around 2010 but didn’t start the
research until 2013. I finally launched
Dakine 420 in 2014. There is a real science
behind quality fertilizers and I got lucky
meeting the right PhD chemist whom
I refer to as the “Mad Scientist.” I sent
him a nutrient line that I liked and asked
him to reverse engineer it and make it
better. After the testing, he called back
to ask me why people liked that line
so well because, in his opinion, it was
very watered down. We talked about
manufacturing powders instead of liquids
and I was reluctant at first. He assured
me he could develop a simple line of
powders that would “knock my socks
off,” so I agreed to R&D the powders.
“THE TIDE IS
TURNING
TOWARD
POWDERS.”
Maximum Yield
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