Rainy weather making B.C. pot crop rot

VANCOUVER - There's little hope for this dope. British Columbia's famed outdoor pot will rot if the sun remains a no-show, says marijuana activist and seed-seller Marc Emery.

That dire warning came Wednesday from Emery - the so-called Prince of Pot - on yet another cold, drizzly day.

"A couple more days of cold and rain and you can get root rot, or powdery mildew or the plants washing away," said Emery of the vast outdoor pot crops now in peril all over B.C.

He estimates the outdoor crop in B.C. is worth about $1 billion.

Big outdoor crops are harvested in the Kootenay area and the Okanagan. But the biggest bounty is said to be on Vancouver Island.

"If you grow outdoors, you need the sun to dry off the moisture in the ground and dry off the surface of the plants," he said.

He said with the heavy rain, the plants that have been put in the ground in the last few weeks may not survive.

"People are starting to lose their crops," he said of the weather-related problems growers are facing with their clandestine crops.

Even an end to the heavy rain is little help to the plants now in the ground, said Emery. "Overcast is terrible," he said. "You need sunny, hot and clear conditions and we've had just the opposite."

Emery said the record cold and wet conditions "came at the very worst time, when the plants are so small."

Typically, outdoor growers need to have the buds picked by early October before the return of steady rain.

"Once it starts raining in October you have to bring in the plants," he said.

Emery notes that about 15 per cent of the total amount of pot grown in B.C. is outdoor.

Legitimate farmers are also complaining about the soggy growing conditions. Berry farmers in the Fraser Valley say their crops are about a month late due to the cold and wet conditions the past two months.

John Colebourn, Canwest News Service

Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008