A new set of courses being offered by Coast Mountain College (CMTN) give a whole new meaning to the phrase green thumb.
CMTN’s Cannabis Cultivation Series is designed to give participants knowledge surrounding the rules and regulations pertaining to growing recreational or medicinal cannabis in Canada.
The series offers five different classes, from an entry-level Cannabis Regulations and Licensing course to ones on processing, harvesting and curing the plant, as well as sessions specifically on indoor and outdoor growing.
Speaking to The Interior News, Sarah Zimmerman, CMTN executive director of communications, said the series was created to help give people a sense of how to traverse the new recreational and medicinal cultivation laws in Canada.
“We know that in the new framework of legalization that there are a lot of people that are curious about how to grow cannabis … and with the legal framework still being fairly young there’s not a lot out there that’s teaching people how to do this,” Zimmerman said.
Once participants have finished a required Cannabis Regulations and Licensing course, they have access to a wide variety of courses on the preparation and cultivation of the now-legal plant.
Introduction to Indoor Growing of Cannabis, for example, “explores indoor and greenhouse Cannabis cultivation techniques for the small-scale grower [including] botany; the Cannabis growth cycle; growing systems and media; nutrients; environmental controls such as lighting; media; ventilation; [and] strain selection.”
On the other hand, Cannabis Harvesting and Curing offers participants information on things such as determining peak harvesting time for plants, how to trim a plant property and optimal curing techniques.
The courses are being offered at CMTN’s Terrace, Prince Rupert and Masset campuses.
But Zimmerman said based on the response to these initial course offerings they could be expanded to other campuses in the future, adding they would certainly consider running the courses in Smithers and Hazelton if there was a demand in the communities.
While enrollment tends to peak closer to a course’s start date (CMTN is offering these courses in September and early October) Zimmerman said they’ve already had a number of email inquiries and interest from the communities where the courses are being offered.
“We suspect that it will be a popular course,” she said.
