Pest Management, Organic Pesticides and More For Cannabis and Hemp

We talk about Pest Management, Organic Pesticides and More For Cannabis and Hemp with Aaron Appleby , Owner of White Coat Laboratories. Aaron recently Spoke on "Understanding Cannabis Ecology to Better Manipulate Secondary Metabolites and Pest Populations" at NoCo Hemp Expo 2023. Aaron has consulted the cannabis industry since 2017, after earning a B.S. in organic agriculture from Washington State University. He has since earned a M.S. from WSU specializing in organic pesticides and is currently pursuing a Ph.D at WSU again specializing in organic pesticides, with an added chapter of his dissertation focusing on the hemp russet mite and another on fiber hemp. Aaron was the first to grow Cannabis, both in a greenhouse and outside on the organic farm at Washington State University’s flagship campus (Pullman, Washington). In 2021, Aaron became a licensed certified crop advisor with all of his required field experience in Cannabis, a feat that he may have been the first to achieve. Recognizing the lack of research and dissemination of information from universities and extension agents to the cannabis industry, Aaron created White Coat Laboratories a Cannabis research and consulting business focused on solving industry wide problems at a farm scale. As a Certified Crop Adviser, Aaron is licensed to consult on all aspects of Cannabis production, but a special interest and talent of his is creating custom integrated pest management programs specific to each company’s site of production and cultural practices. Aaron utilizes conservation biocontrol tactics, to create habitats including native plants that are attractive to native beneficial arthropods and deter pest species in a push/pull approach to combating pests. Working with several cannabis producers, White Coat Laboratories is also studying plant volatiles (including several terpenes commonly associated with cannabis) and their involvement in plant defenses as well as arthropod attraction or deterrence. Scientific experimentation and data collection with appropriate analysis and application remain essential elements to all successful agricultural endeavors. By applying his understanding of chemical and ecological interactions occurring throughout the growth cycle of Cannabis sativa and knowing how these interactions contribute to specific selected characteristics of the plant, Aaron aims to bring the best available science to the cannabis industry. Aaron also believes that proper vocabulary and nomenclature around the C. sativa plant is important and something that everyone should rally around with proper training and the sharing of information to drive public perception and further normalize the plant.