Demystifying cannabis nutrition with Peters Canna+

When the U.S. cannabis and hemp industries first took off, quite a few ornamental growers took the leap to either add cannabis to their production schedule or move away from ornamentals entirely. At the same time, many people without any horticultural background started growing commercial cannabis, too. Not surprisingly, the cannabis cultivation business saw some significant ups and downs.

As the dust settles and the cannabis landscape brightens, we’ve seen renewed interest in cannabis nutrition from our traditional ornamental customer base and dedicated controlled environment agriculture (CEA) cannabis growers. We’re excited to be able to respond to that interest with the new Peters Professional Canna+ Fertilization System.

A fresh, focused approach to cannabis nutrition

Ian Bateman, our ICL Growing Solutions Western Region Territory Manager, began his horticulture career as a researcher, growing plants in controlled environments and testing different fertilizer formulations for one of the cannabis industry’s leading hydroponic fertilizer providers. That was followed by a stretch in horticulture tech services, also in the commercial cannabis industry, working closely with leading growers.

Since Ian joined our team in early 2022, he’s poured the knowledge he acquired from research and field work with CEA cannabis into the development of the Peters Professional Canna+ program launching now.

Seeing fertilizer issues manifest in the field solidified Ian’s understanding of what growers were doing, what was effective, and what was not. That experience helped inform what you see in the Peters Canna+ program today. One thing cannabis growers will notice immediately is how different this focused approach is from what’s come before.

Unlike the time-proven nutrient regimens experienced ornamental growers know well, many cannabis fertilizer companies promote dozens of different products to meet the plant’s basic nutritional needs.

“Rather than putting a lot of components into a few finished products, they chose to space them out into a myriad of products,” Ian explains. “Then growers had to buy the whole blown-out line to get the kind of results that you could otherwise get from a very simple, streamlined fertilizer series.”

The Peters Canna+ Fertilization System is a simple, cost-effective holistic program designed for CEA cannabis growers. Focused on specific specialized components, it helps you hit nutrient targets at every stage of cannabis growth, without complicated product regimens.

“When it comes to the plant essential nutrients—which is what fertilizer is—we can absolutely simplify that into a few components and make it very simple for the end user,” Ian adds. “That’s what we can do. That’s what we have done with the Canna+ series.”

Simple, targeted products you can trust

With the Peters Professional Canna+ CEA program, you get a simple approach to plant nutrition backed by the Peters name. The Canna+ program relies on six straightforward products chosen specifically for hydroponic cannabis culture in controlled growing environments:

• Peters Professional 5-11-26 Hydroponic Special – The industry standard for greenhouse hydroponic production, this classic water-soluble formulation is the program’s foundation, delivering NPK, magnesium, and essential micronutrients with M-77 chelation for fast, efficient uptake.
• Peters Professional 14-0-8 Hydroponic Boost – Created for use with the Hydroponic Special, this product lives up to its name, delivering elevated levels of key elements most needed by plants grown in hydroponic CEA environments.
• Peters Professional 0-5-30 Hydroponic Finisher – This no-nitrogen formulation supports a strong finish for cannabis in hydroponic media, allowing growers to reduce N levels 30% and hit other nutrient targets with less fertilizer.
• Peters Professional STEM Liquid – Highly soluble, this micronutrient supplement provides a blend of 100-percent-plant-available chelated trace elements and EDTA micronutrients, without clogging irrigation lines or emitters.
• H2Pro Liquid Surfactant – Designed especially for irrigation systems, this concentrated wetting agent optimizes water holding capacity, and improves penetration and distribution of water and nutrients in the growing media, even with difficult-to-hydrate substrates.

More growth. More quality. More profits. More sustainability.

As Ian explains, the driving purpose behind the Peters Canna+ growing package is to help CEA cannabis growers achieve their growing goals more efficiently, effectively, and profitably—and more sustainably.

“What separates this program from the competition is you can do more with less. The program was put together so we’re able to hit the targets in terms of the nutrients the crop needs at every stage of its lifecycle—but you don’t have to use so much fertilizer to get there,” he says.

“This just speaks to what I call ‘balance.’ There’s a good proportion of all the different nutrients. You don’t have to go off the deep end. My hope with this program is that growers will be able to use less fertilizer, still grow the same great plants, and be in a better place when it comes to their pocketbooks and to the environment in general.”

Whether you’re a cannabis grower looking for a better way or an ornamental grower testing the waters of hydroponics and CEA, our team is ready to help you move forward with a system custom-tailored for your needs. Contact your local ICL Growing Solutions expert and learn how Peters Canna+ can work for you.