Cannabis Cultivation and Science Podcast · Tad Hussey

Episode 137: Cannabis and Giant Pumpkins with Matthew DeBacco

·1 hr 9 min·4 clips

Cannabis and pumpkins do not need as much phosphorus as most growers think.

Tad Hussey opens by introducing Matthew DeBacco and tracing his path through pathology, horticulture, agronomy, and education. DeBacco also started the first cannabis course at a public university at the University of Connecticut. The show frames him as someone who can move between academic language and day to day grower decisions. The conversation begins with a shared interest in giant pumpkins. That detour is not just filler. Hussey and DeBacco use it to compare two grower communities that care about record setting plants, careful inputs, and the practical side of plant health. DeBacco's work on powdery mildew in cucurbits and the raw milk discussion that circulated through the pumpkin world gives a way into that overlap. The talk then shifts into nutrition. Compost and worm castings come up as a way to buffer nutrients and keep organics available over time. DeBacco argues that some growers may spend money on inputs that do not give them much more than a steadier organic system would. Phosphorus is the main case study. He notes that many bloom fertilizers are extremely concentrated and may not match what cannabis actually needs. The conversation suggests that cannabis trends more toward potassium demand than toward very high phosphorus. Hussey brings in his own soil testing experience and describes how a soil test can show one number while a saturation paste or water extraction shows much less available phosphorus. Even so, healthy plants can still grow in that range. When faster phosphorus is needed, fish hydrolysate becomes part of the discussion because it can deliver phosphoric acid in an NOP approved format. The environmental side matters too. Excess phosphorus can become a freshwater and groundwater contaminant, and imported phosphorus is a limited resource. That widens the frame from plant performance to stewardship and efficiency. The result is a patient conversation about how growers decide what to add, what to leave out, and what the plant actually seems to reward.

As heard by us

A soil-first discussion that links giant pumpkins and cannabis through practical nutrient choices.

Matthew DeBacco and Tad Hussey keep this grounded in practical grower talk: soil tests, phosphorus availability, and when compost or worm castings make sense as a slower, buffered source.

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Why you'd press play

You want practical cannabis nutrition advice filtered through a giant pumpkin grower's hands-on lens.

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