Cape Town - South Africa has its first winners of a cannabis growing competition.
Verdon ‘Don’ Bence from Outdshoorn has been awarded the title of Southern Africa’s first Budmaster for his gigantic marijuana bud while Trevor Roussouw has taken home the Bushmaster title for his enormous cannabis tree.
The competition was launched late last year by enOrmus Bud to herald the release of the company’s cannabis growing kits.
Bence entered the competition after seeing it advertised on the Cannabis Growers Club of South Africa’s Facebook page, and decided to enter his tree, which was over three metres tall.
“It was grown outdoor with a lot of love and patience. This lady was part of a couple of other trees but she just took off and I could see she was a performer. So I decided to replant her at the height of two metres straight into the ground. That was when she really started to go crazy!” said Bence.
Bence’s bud, harvested from his plant, weighed in at 158 grams.
Picture: Supplied
The title of Southern Africa’s first bushmaster, for the largest marijuana plant grown, was awarded to Trevor Rossouw, for his massive tree.
Rossouw said he only entered for a laugh when a friend dared him to, and hadn’t grown cannabis before.
“I dug the plant out of a friend’s garden in Elliot (Eastern Cape naturally) when it was about 10cm in October 2018. Builders had discarded some seeds while working on renovations. I transplanted it to my wife’s veggie garden in East London. She only uses horse manure and home grown compost and her veggies are huge and superb. I added EnOrmusBud three times to the soil in December, January and February and she started budding mid February,” said Rossouw.
His towering cannabis plant measure 3.8 metres.
Bence won R1000 and Rossouw won R500.
The competition was run by TransfOrmus, manufacturers of enOrmus Bud, a concentrated microbial food for soil and plants.
Managing director, Peter Searll, said the competition was well supported and entries were received from all around Southern Africa. The winners were chosen by a panel of enOrmus Bud staff together with some cannabis experts.
“The Budmaster was selected as the most appealing big bud, taking size and weight into account. There were longer buds but they were not as thick or heavy as the winning entry,” said Searll. “The Bushmaster had the biggest bush – looking almost like a Christmas tree!”
Rossouw said he believed the future of legalised cannabis growing would have a positive impact on the country’s economy. “The legalised growing of hemp and marijuana by small scale rural growers to supply medical, clothing and building industries could create tens of thousands of much needed jobs. Eastern Cape and KZN have ideal climate and high rural unemployment,” he added.
Plans are already underway for next year’s competition, which Searll said would be “epic”. It will include the introduction of new categories such as indoor vs outdoor, seniors, biggest tree and possibly, a much requested ‘smokability’ competition.
Searll will be presenting a white paper on Cultivating the cannabis plant and growing the industry at the Cannabis Conference, taking place this week 27 & 28 June, at Emperor’s Palace Convention Centre in Johannesburg.