Remo Colasanti is a YouTube cannabis sensation.
The Maple Ridge growing guru has long produced both B.C. Bud and videos about cultivating. His blend of teaching and entertaining has sprouted a crop of 243,000 subscribers for his YouTube.com channel urbanremo. His World’s Biggest Joint video has been viewed more than 2.1 million times. Spoiler: it uses a lot of newspaper and masking tape.
More typical of what he does these days is the Garden Update of July 3, where he is in his “garden” on Day 42. He is staking up plants so they don’t fall over, dubbing one “The Leaning Tower of Bud,” and telling his audience “look at this beautiful girl” as the camera zooms in for her closeup.
At the same time, the veteran grower answers viewer questions like how long he leaves his lights on during flowering, and talking about air purification, temperature, light distribution and other topics. Then there is a segment of trip hop music playing while the camera zooms in for more tight shots of his impressively flowering plants, or “bud porn” as his wife Sandra calls it.
Her husband has become a celebrity, and when they are walking down the street in Amsterdam and other international cities, he will be recognized. Ironically, that doesn’t happen much in his hometown Maple Ridge, she said.
Sandra said the collection of thousands of videos has an audience that is about 60 per cent American, but is a widely diverse international audience.
“We get messages from people all over the world,” she said. “It gives them hope that it’s something they can do.”
Sandra said Remo is a natural teacher. He did cement finishing before a car accident and broken back turned him down a new path. In that career he wasn’t shy about giving away the tricks of the trade to new guys.
“The old guys didn’t like it. They thought he was giving away secrets, but he believes in teaching and sharing information.”
They also have done a lot of what Sandra calls the “Larry King thing” with an interviewer and an expert guest.
“We wanted people in the cannabis industry to be shown in the most favourable light,” she said.
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Sandra said the YouTube channel is not monetized in any way – refused because it promotes what is still illegal drug use in many countries.
But it is great advertising.
The couple are the brains behind Remo Brands, and the videos help them sell their products including Remo Nutrients.
They send their products around the world, although not to places like Saudi Arabia, where cannabis growing is illegal.
Sandra said they keep an eye on legalization efforts across the globe. They generally know when the prohibitions are relaxing in a state, because they start to see sales increases.
“We’re the canary in a coal mine. We see sales and know things are happening there.”
ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
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