An international fertilizer business in Augusta Township is going to pot.

V6 Agronomy has developed a fertilizer kit for home-growers of marijuana to capitalize on what is expected to become a growth industry once cannabis is legalized in Canada this summer.

The husband-and-wife team of Ryan Brophy and Amy Fogo has developed a small three-stage kit designed with the home-grower in mind.

For $19.99 plus tax, they will sell three pouches of different fertilizers, measuring spoons and instructions to guide budding growers on the care and feeding of their plants. The kits will contain enough fertilizer for two marijuana plants. (Under Bill C-45, Canadians would be allowed to cultivate four marijuana plants at home for personal use.)

Brophy, a professional agronomist, said he adapted a fertilizer mixture that he had designed for large-scale commercial hemp production, using fertilizers imported from Holland and Latvia. He took the per-acre tonnage ratios and calculated them down to a per-plant basis, with some tweaking for size.

The result, Brophy says, is a product that produces plants with better roots, a longer, stronger stem and, most importantly, more flowers and seeds.

Their product is water-soluble and super easy to use, he said. 

Brophy and Fogo say they don’t grow pot themselves but they have field-tested their fertilizer with several medical cannabis growers, who give it rave reviews. And, they say with a smile. a number of friends and neighbours have been all too happy to do test trials of the product.

Although marijuana is commonly called weed, it doesn’t necessarily grow like one. Fogo said pot plants need the same care and fertilizing as tomatoes or any other garden-variety crop.

For now, the couple’s cannabis product is a very small sideline to V6’s main business of supplying custom-designed fertilizer to customers around North America. 

Fogo is the production and marketing half of the partnership. She hand mixes and makes up the kits herself from a small table in the family room of their farmhouse outside of North Augusta.

But although they are starting small, the couple has great hopes for their venture into Canada’s fastest-growing industry. Brophy said their product, which they are calling Vigradis, is the only fertilizer he can find that is designed for pot plants. Many Canadians who will be growing marijuana for the first time will be looking for help once it becomes legal, he said.

The couple launched their product last week, fittingly, on 4/20. Fogo said they will sell it on their Vigradis website, through the e-commerce Shopify site and through a wholesaler that will market it to cannabis head shops.

Eventually, the product might be available on Amazon, she said.

Through pre-orders, they have sold about 400 kits already and the couple hopes business will pick up when C-45 is passed and the work gets out.

Brophy and Fogo say they are aiming their fertilizer only at the Canadian market for now.