Some states have passed legislation, but have yet to roll out a retail plan (as of this writing, Mississippi, Alabama, and Virginia, among others, fall into that camp). 

That has some thinking about home grows. Growing the plant can be a rewarding experience, and growers pride themselves on their ability to provide flower for themselves and their friends.

But which cannabis strains are best for at-home grows? Let’s take a look.

First, be warned that not every legal cannabis state allows for home grows. Before attempting to grow your own weed, know your state’s rules surrounding that activity. For example, Alabama has legalized a medical marijuana program, but possession is still a jailable offense!

But once you know you’re in the clear, here are five of the best cannabis strains to grow indoors—you’ll pick up on some themes quickly.

Blue Dream

One of the most popular strains period, sativa-dominant hybrid Blue Dream also happens to be an excellent plant to grow indoors. One reason? It’s fast grow time. This is a common refrain among the strains we’ll look at today. A fast-growing time means less time for you from setup to harvest, and it allows for a quick turnaround. Blue Dream’s harvest time is barely three months at nine to 10 weeks.

The plant is also tough, meaning you can screw up and still succeed. If you’re experimenting with different nutrients or nitrogen levels, you can go a little overboard, and still have a good, consumable plant.

Blue Cheese

Talk about a fast flowering cycle! Indica-dominant hybrid Blue Cheese has one—and some say it even has actual blue cheese flavor! If you do things right, you can harvest flowers from a Blue Cheese plant in under two months. Fifty days is said to be the average.

Like Blue Dream, the plant is tough and has a lot of foliage, so you can have a heavy hand when it comes to nitrogen and not screw things up too badly. Another plus? The plant is known for its affinity to LED lights, which use less electricity.

Northern Lights

Perhaps the most legendary strain of them all is also one of the best for growing indoors. It has a Blue Cheese-like flowering period of six-to-seven weeks. And another common theme is emerging: Northern Lights likes nitrogen, so it’s hard to mess up the feedings.

Gorilla Glue No. 4

This extremely sativa-dominant cannabis strain is best for growing indoors because of its yield. The CenturianPro experts say you can get up to 21 ounces of flower from one plant. The average is about 17, depending on who you ask. It also has a relatively short flowering cycle, just about two months from planting.

But beware: This strain is known for being extra sticky, making for difficult harvesting.

Green Crack

You can likely tell by its name, but Green Crack is a sativa-dominant strain with an eight-week flowering cycle. It is sensitive to every plant’s nemesis: powdery mildew. So, make sure you’re growing it in a generally dry climate. And again, it is a plant that can handle little mistakes regarding feeding.

So whether you’re the DIY type or just can’t yet buy cannabis over the counter, these five plants should get you well on your way to your own harvest—and within months. Enjoy!

The “weed” is tall, planted in tight rows and has the serrated leaf edges of your classic ganja.

As Hendrix’s 1968 epic “Voodoo Child” drifts from the phone, Norton jokes about having a suitable vibe for the plot. “We should have a speaker in the middle,” he says. “Would people go nuts? ”

Squash, cotton, peppers and watermelon are also grown at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. (Washington Post photo by Katherine Frey)

But this is not that kind of hemp. You don’t smoke this stuff. This is raised for its fiber. It’s industrial hemp, the kind Henry Ford sought to build cars with. And Mount Vernon has started growing it because George Washington did.

The landmark home of the nation’s first president, about 20 miles south of Washington, is part of an effort to return industrial hemp to its historical context and promote its use in the modern world.

Industrial hemp, while cannabis, is far different from its marijuana cousin.

While both contain tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, the substance that’s creates the “high,” industrial hemp contains only tiny amounts of THC and has no psychoactive effect,experts say.

Recreational marijuana has roughly 10 to 30 percent THC in its dry weight of flowers, said Michael Timko, professor of biology and public health sciences at the University of Virginia. Industrial hemp has .3 percent or less.

But the industrial strain, which was widely grown in colonial Virginia to make fiber for rope and other products, became lumped over time with the recreational strain. And both were stigmatized and suppressed in the early 20th century.

This gardener is working to preserve George Washington’s last surviving trees

“You have different strains for different things,” Norton said recently as he stood near his hemp patch, down the hill from Washington’s famous manor house. “They’ve really been able to come up with . . . really strong fiber plants, really strong oil plants and really strong recreational plants.”

Dean Norton, Mount Vernon’s director of horticulture, stands amid the estate’s newest crop, hemp. (Washington Post photo by Katherine Frey)

“But that’s not what we’re doing here,” he said. “This is totally for interpretation purposes. . . . You could a build bonfire with this, sit around it, breathe it, nothing’s going to happen.”

Still, Norton needed a license to cultivate. “My kids love to say I’m a grower,” he said. “I’m (license) number 86 . . . I think it’s really cool.”

Mount Vernon visitors are intrigued.

“The funniest thing is the people that are familiar with hemp, or the other,” he said. “They stop. They look. They go take pictures. [They’ll say] ‘Remember the old VW bug we had.’ It’s always a VW. It’s great. It’s really fun to watch the people that know.”

Industrial hemp was an important crop in colonial times. A sailing ship could require thousands of feet of hemp rope for its rigging, Norton said.

Hemp “is abundantly productive and will grow for ever on the same spot,” Thomas Jefferson wrote of it.

Jefferson invented a special hemp “break” for processing it. He wrote that he used hemp “for shirting our laborers” – his slaves – because cotton was too expensive.

In the 1700s, it was so valuable that Virginia paid farmers to grow it. Washington took advantage of that, writing in 1767, that he “applied to the fund for giving a Bounty on Hemp.”

He planted it in abundance, especially in one tract he called Muddy Hole.

But it was a labor-intensive crop.

A butterfly lands on one of the newest crops at Mount Vernon – hemp. It looks like marijuana, but it’s not for smoking. (Washington Post photo by Katherine Frey)

The outside fiber had to be separated from the inner core, or “hurd.”

It had to be pulverized, then soaked in water or dew, to help in the extraction. But when the process was completed, the fiber was long and strong.

The idea to return hemp to Mount Vernon came from Brian Walden, 37, a farmer in Charlottesville, who got the notion after a 2014 federal law cleared the way for academic research into industrial hemp cultivation, he said in a telephone interview.

Farmers were permitted to grow it if they joined a research program and partnered with a university that wanted to study industrial hemp, he said.

He connected with the University of Virginia. He “donated land, equipment, expertise,” he said, and began to grow it locally.

Last year, he came up with a hemp plan for Mount Vernon, to boost the crop’s image and illustrate its role in history. Norton was hesitant at first, but agreed this year. The first seeds were planted June 13.

The 6o-day crop should be ready for harvest soon, Walden said.

A similar plot has been planted at Montpelier, the Orange County, Virginia, home of founding father James Madison.

Virginia’s first hemp crop in decades could signal new opportunity

Hemp was a big crop in the colonial Mid-Atlantic, Walden said. “We couldn’t grow flax, like they can up north,” he said. “And we couldn’t grow cotton, like they do down south.”

But in the 20th century, with the rise of the recreational strain, all hemp became stigmatized. “They clumped them all together,” Walden said.

(Medicinal use of hemp/marijuana has been traced back to 1576, when it was recommended for use in treating an unstable Prussian duke, according to historian H. C. Erik Midelfort.)

In 1937, a huge “marihuana” tax was placed on hemp that “made every farmer drop it like a dime,” he said.

But in the 1940s, some production returned because of the wartime need.

In 1942, the Agriculture Department produced a 14-minute film, “Hemp for Victory,” urging farmers to grow it again.

For the sailor and the hangman, it had been indispensable in the past, the narrator declared. Now it was needed for shoe thread, parachute webbing, and 30,000 feet of rope for every battleship.

And in 1941, Henry Ford reportedly produced a short-lived “hemp car” with a body partly made of a hemp-derived substance.

But after the war, with the resurgence in use of the recreational kind, industrial hemp production fell back into disfavor.

Today, 15 states still ban industrial hemp cultivation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The other states allow its growth for commercial, research or pilot programs.

Congress is considering a bill that would legalize industrial hemp cultivation, Walden said.

But the United States remains far behind other countries in taking advantage of industrial hemp’s potential.

“The U.S. is one of the few developed nations that hasn’t looked at the use of hemp as a green, sustainable resource for any number of purposes,” said Timko, of the University of Virginia, the scientist who partnered with Walden.

“It wasn’t as if they didn’t know there was an industrial use,” he said. “It’s just that the federal government couldn’t figure out how to separate it easily.”

Industrial hemp is grown extensively in Europe, China and Canada, he said. The United States imports more than $500 million in hemp products a year. It’s used for clothing and backpacks, oils and additives, and in plastics.

“Why aren’t we growing that $500 million worth of hemp products?” he asked. “Why are we importing it?”

Americans “should learn that we grew industrial hemp . . . and it was really part of the culture that we’ve lost,” he said.

The prospect of growing hemp can sound quite intimidating, especially if you have never worked with the plant before. In order to grow a successful, plentiful hemp harvest, you will need to research and you will have to anticipate a few “trial and error” lessons.

As hemp has grown in popularity among experienced farmers and novices alike, hemp experts have developed a few tips to get the most out of a harvest.

Schedule a Consultation with an Agronomist

If you are new to hemp farming, you’ll want to consider calling an expert. An agronomist is an expert in the science of crop production and they can help a first-time hemp farmer understand the ins-and-outs of growing a healthy, profitable hemp crop. This expert guide can help you prepare soil for growing hemp, point out all of the needed equipment, devise an irrigation plan and provide insight into local and federal rules and regulations.

Choosing the Right Hemp Seed

Hemp is an extremely versatile plant with a seemingly endless number of applications. Hemp can be used to create fiber, fuel, construction materials, and various other products. Before you start growing hemp, you need to identify the product you are planning on producing. That way, you can find a plant or seed with the genetics you need to reach your goals.

Advances in agricultural technology have made it possible to choose seeds that have the genetics needed to yield the best possible outcomes. For example, if you are interested in growing hemp for CBD hemp oil, there are specific types of plants with higher resin yields to extract CBD. The same is true for other hemp products and that is why it is important to choose the right type of hemp plant for your specific needs in order to maximize your profits.

Only Trust a High-Quality Hemp Seed Provider

Not all hemp seeds are of the same quality. In order to maximize the success of your hemp harvest, you need to put real thought into what type of high-grade hemp seed you choose to work with. The best hemp seeds have a track record of successful yields. Make sure to reach out to other hemp farmers in your region to get their insight on the best hemp seeds for your specific needs and your specific area.

Many hemp farmers have gone through years of trial and error to find the right type of hemp seed, so make the process of choosing the right seed easy by establishing a network of hemp farmers and reach out to them for advice. If you are unable to connect with any farmers, do some research on popular hemp seed companies. You want to find a company with a strong track record of success and a high germination rate. Then, read through the online reviews for that company’s variety of hemp seeds.

Purchase Feminized Hemp Seeds for CBD and CBG Oil

There are both female and male hemp plants. CBD and CBG oil is harvested from the flowers of female hemp plants. On the other hand, male plants only have a very small amount of oil-producing resin, which means that male plants produce very little CBD or CBG oil. Also, male plants will pollinate female plants when the two genders are grown together, which will result in the female plant producing less resin for CBD and CBG oil extraction.

That is why you need to purchase feminized hemp seeds if you are looking to specialize in CBD or CBG production. Feminized seeds are seeds genetically modified to grow into female hemp plants. While no company can guarantee 100% feminization of their seeds, some can offer as high as a 99% feminization rate.

Farmers who choose to use regular hemp seeds (rather than feminized seeds) will need to be very astute at culling the male plants. If they miss even a few plants, they may find that many or most of their female plants have been pollinated. Pollinated female plants grow seeds within their buds, which lowers their CBD content and makes the buds less valuable as a smokable product. (Seeded buds make for harsh smoking. That’s one more reason to invest in feminized seeds!)

Stagger Your Harvest

If you plan on growing a large number of hemp plants, you will need to stagger your harvest. It may be tempting to grow all of your hemp plants at the exact same time, but if your harvest is too large, it will be impossible to give the plants all of the attention they need during the crucial phases of the growing process.

Staggering your hemp crop gives you a logistical advantage. You want to be as efficient as possible when growing hemp and the best way to focus your attention is to plant hemp in waves. That way, when it comes time to cultivate the hemp you won’t have an unrealistic workload. Additionally, this will help keep your labor costs down as you can use the same crew for consecutive harvests.

Avoid Specialization with Only One Hemp Product

It can be very profitable to put all of your focus into one type of hemp product, but it is also quite risky. If you are new to hemp farming, you should consider diversifying your down market products. Hemp can be a fickle plant, and changes in weather, legality, and the consumer marketplace can lead to hemp products once deemed valuable to decrease in value, and vice-versa.

Diversifying the type of hemp plants you grow will also give you more familiarity with different hemp seed strains. Over time, this exposure to different seeds can help you gain experience in identifying the types of seeds that work best in your farming environment and your personal preferences.

Consider Environmental Factors and Local Climate

Hemp thrives in very specific conditions, so before growing hemp, you need to research how environmental factors and the local climate will impact your crop yield. In general, your soil needs to be at least 46 degrees Fahrenheit before you try to seed hemp. The climate should be mild, as environments that are too warm can lead to a poor yield. You’ll want to consider the photoperiods your growing spaces have access to as the exposure to direct sunlight will impact the soil’s temperature. Ideally, the climate should also be a bit humid, with two to three feet of rain each year to make sure the plants have all of the moisture they need to thrive.

Know Your Soil

The type of soil you choose to grow hemp in can have a huge impact on how successful your harvest will be. The best way to identify your ideal soil type is by measuring the soil’s pH levels. Hemp should be grown in soil that has a pH level between 7.0 and 7.5, which is considered marginally alkaline soil.

The soil should also be well-drained. Hemp, like all crops, has its own water preferences. Hemp likes to have consistent water, especially in the first six weeks, but does not do well when it stands in water. The hemp plant cannot handle flooding, so attention must be given to all of your crops following heavy rainfall.

Know Your Varietal and Your Climate

Depending on the end product you are farming for, the use of your acreage will differ. Hemp grown for fiber should be planted densely as this varietal grows tall and thin. When farming for CBD, the specific strain and the local climate will guide your planting spacing. For instance, Red Bordeaux grows in a Christmas tree shape so needs to be spread out. Climate also plays a pivotal role. If farming in a very humid area, extra space should be left between the plants for airflow to limit the chance of mildew.  High Grade recommends planting hemp grown for CBD or CBG between 2,000 and 3,500 plants per acre. Knowing your crops needs, and your climate, will help you get the most out of your efforts.

Feed Your Hemp Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potassium

Hemp grows incredibly fast. A tiny seed can sprout up into a massive hemp plant in just a short amount of time. That much growth means that a hemp plant needs a healthy dose of nutrients to grow vigorously and produce the resin you are counting on.

In the first six to eight weeks it is essential to supply your growing plants with a large dose of nitrogen. During later stages, give your soil potassium and phosphate as well. Generally, you want to provide an acre of hemp with 80 to 100 pounds of nitrogen, 35 to 50 pounds of phosphate, and 50 to 70 pounds of potassium.

Harvest Your Hemp Once It Has Fully Matured

A hemp plant takes somewhere between 75 and 120 days to fully mature, and hemp should not be harvested before the plants have reached full maturity. While you are waiting for your hemp plants to mature, you need to regularly test them to make sure you are in compliance with required THC levels. Farmers are advised to test their hemp once a week and most regions require a full round of testing a month prior to harvest. Check with local officials for more details regarding the tests you need to complete prior to harvest.

After about 70 days, you need to keep an eye on your plants to see if they are mature and ready to harvest. You will know it is time to harvest when your compliance tests come back at the right level. Don’t give in to the temptation to leave the crop in the field to raise your CBD or CBG level, because this could also make your crop go hot. Finding the balance is one more nuanced part of growing hemp, but when the balance is found the rewards can be great.

Ask the Experts for Advice

This serves as a healthy reminder that agronomists are not available just for consultations at the beginning of your hemp harvesting venture. If you are unsure what to do next or have a pressing question at any point during the hemp growing process, reach out to an expert. You do not need to go through this process alone. Work to meet other local or regional hemp farmers, reach out to your state agriculture department, professional agronomist or your Ag extension office and together you can grow in your knowledge of this amazing regenerative crop that is full of potential. Learning to grow this crop can give you short term success as well as lend potential to future generations.

About the author:

At High Grade Hemp Seed, we are inspired by the beauty & versatility of hemp. Our team of expert farmers is dedicated to producing the highest quality, farm-proven genetics. Our goal is to help farmers, help the planet and spread the good word about hemp.

Legislative Analyst’s Office calls for taxing marijuana based on potency and dropping cultivation taxes.

California’s struggling cannabis industry didn’t get the recommendation many hoped for — a call to sharply lower the industry’s tax rate — but a long-awaited state report did suggest a marijuana tax overhaul.

The report from California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office, released Tuesday, Dec. 17, says lawmakers should ditch the way the state currently taxes marijuana and, instead, tax cannabis at different rates based on its potency. Such a tax structure, the report said, would result in stable revenue and discourage cannabis abuse.

To read more about the report, click here

High taxes, outlaw competitors make it tough for legal operators to make a buck

As year two of legal cannabis sales in California comes to a close, shoppers are still more likely to buy marijuana from illicit sellers than from state-sanctioned stores that pay taxes and test their products for safety.

California’s 7,000 licensed cannabis businesses — and the state’s tax revenue — are feeling the pinch.

Prominent cannabis companies that a year ago were growing aggressively have, in recent months, laid off hundreds of workers. They say hefty taxes, onerous regulations and competition from a thriving illicit market are forcing them to scale back operations.

Now the industry, which is already operating under effective tax rates of up to 70%, is bracing for another hit. Starting Jan. 1, marijuana retailers will pay 12.5% more in taxes than they do now, while cultivator taxes will go up more than 4%.

The unexpected move announced last month is being described as shortsighted by many in the industry. Licensed business owners point out that their outlaw competitors — retailers and others who haven’t received state licensing — can sell tax-free cannabis for a fraction of the price.

Read the rest of this story on mercurynews.com.

With legislation allowing the growth of legal cannabis in many states throughout the U.S., many have wondered how easy it really is to grow marijuana. One of the biggest pulls for deciding to grow cannabis on one’s own is the fact that taxes still remain quite high in most of the states that have legalized the substance thus far.

With the accessibility of knowledge to grow cannabis on the rise, it seems as though marijuana horticulture is one of the best ways to combat the high prices of the substance in the current day.

Is Your Climate Right for Growing Marijuana?

One of the most important factors to growing weed outdoors is the climate in which one is growing. Cannabis is a plant that can adapt greatly to varying climates, but this does not mean any area is suitable for growing weed.

Just as cold temperatures in the 50s can stunt a plants growth, extremely high temperatures can also do the same. Additionally, large amounts of wind and rain can physically damage a plant as well as reducing the overall amount of the substance that can be produced in a given yield.

Another important factor to consider is how much daylight a plant will get. In more northern latitudes, plants will be able to get more sunlight upwards of 15 hours per day, with southern latitudes reducing that by a few hours. This also changes depending on the time of year as well.

Which Marijuana Plants Should You Grow?

Just as there are a variety of types of vegetables and plants, marijuana comes in a large range of strains. These strains can all grow differently depending on the climate, and some are more suited to certain areas than others. One of the good rules of thumb to live by is if others are growing weed in your area, there’s a good chance yours will grow as well.

Keep in mind that some strains are made specifically to be grown in certain regions. One of the best resources is a local dispensary. At these businesses, those behind the counter often have experience growing the plant and can steer you in the right direction in terms of strain and whether or not the substance can grow in a given area.

What to Grow In?

The cannabis plant can grow quite easily in the right climate, but it also depends heavily on the makeup of the soil being used. Soil is made up of several different compounds such as clay and sand.

These compounds in varying mixes can aid or destroy a plant. Cannabis plants need to have a large amount of organic matter as well as a solid way to drain excess water to prevent drowning the plant. If all of this is researched, it may make it easier than ever to grow a marijuana plant.

The reality is that growing marijuana is not nearly as hard as some make it seem. With the proper research and materials, marijuana growth may be able to work for anyone, and save you a few bucks in the process.

The trial which began Monday in Denver is the first time a jury will consider a lawsuit using federal anti-racketeering law to target cannabis companies. But the marijuana industry has closely watched the case since 2015, when attorneys with a Washington, D.C.-based firm first filed their sweeping complaint on behalf of Hope and Michael Reilly.

One of the couple’s lawyers, Brian Barnes, said they bought the southern Colorado land for its views of Pikes Peak and have since built a house on the rural property. They also hike and ride horses there.

But they claim “pungent, foul odors” from a neighboring indoor marijuana grow have hurt the property’s value and their ability to use and enjoy it.

“That’s just not right,” Barnes said. “It’s not right to have people in violation of federal law injuring others.”

An attorney for the business targeted by the suit plans to argue the couple’s property has not been damaged, relying in part on the county’s tax valuations of the Reillys’ land ticking up over time.

Vulnerability to similar lawsuits is among the many risks facing marijuana businesses licensed by states but still violating federal law. Suits using the same strategy have been filed in California, Massachusetts and Oregon.

Mirroring the Reilly complaint, several claim the smell of marijuana damages neighboring owners’ ability to enjoy their land or harms their property value.

The question now is whether jurors accept the argument.

“They can claim a $1 million drop in property value, but if a jury does not agree and says $5,000, that’s not that big of a deal,” said Rob Mikos, a Vanderbilt University law professor who specializes in drug law. “That’s why there are a lot of eyes on the case.”

Congress created the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — better known as RICO — to target the Mafia in the 1970s, allowing prosecutors to argue leaders of a criminal enterprise should pay a price along with lower-level defendants.

But the anti-racketeering law also allows private parties to file lawsuits claiming their business or property has been damaged by a criminal enterprise. Those who prove it can be financially compensated for damages times three, plus attorneys’ expenses.

Starting in 2015, opponents of the marijuana industry decided to use the strategy against companies producing or selling marijuana products, along with investors, insurers, state regulators and other players. Cannabis companies immediately saw the danger of high legal fees or court-ordered payouts.

That concern only grew when a Denver-based federal appeals court ruled in 2017 that the Reillys could use anti-racketeering law to sue the licensed cannabis grower neighboring their property. Insurance companies and other entities originally named in the Reillys’ suit have gradually been removed, some after reaching financial settlements out of court.

The case focuses on property in Pueblo County, where local officials saw marijuana as an opportunity to boost an area left behind by the steel industry. Most Colorado counties ban outdoor grows, forcing pot cultivators to find expensive warehouse space.

Pueblo officials positioned their sunny, flat plains as the alternative. They created financial incentives in hopes of drawing growers to outdoor fields or cavernous buildings left vacant by other industries.

Parker Walton was among the early comers, buying 40 acres in the rural town of Rye in 2014.

Barnes said the Reillys made three separate land purchases between 2011 and 2014, gradually reaching more than 100 acres. They learned about plans for the marijuana business bordering their final purchase four months after completing the sale, he said.

Walton put up a 5,000-square-foot (465-square-meter) building to grow and harvest marijuana plants indoors. The Reillys filed their lawsuit in early 2015. A year later, Walton announced the company’s first harvest via Instagram, snapping a photo of a strain dubbed “Purple Trainwreck” hanging to cure in a dim room.

Fewer than five people including Walton work for the company, which sells its products to retail stores, his attorney, Matthew Buck said.

Buck said he’s confident jurors will decide the Reillys’ property has not been harmed. Buck warned, though, that defending against a similar lawsuit comes at a high cost for marijuana businesses while plaintiffs with support from a large law firm have little to lose.

Cooper & Kirk, the firm handling the couple’s suit, has a conservative reputation, including a founding partner who worked for the U.S. Justice Department during the Reagan administration. Barnes said members of the firm were “troubled” as states began legalizing the adult use of marijuana because of the inherent conflict with federal law, and they brainstormed legal strategies.

Walton created a website this month to raise money for his defense. He wrote that a loss could jeopardize “all legal cannabis operations in all states.”

But some lawyers who have defended companies in similar lawsuits said those fears are overhyped.

Adam Wolf, a California attorney, said he believes the suits are primarily intended to scare third-party companies into cutting ties with marijuana firms or persuading cannabis companies to shut down. But long-term, Wolf said the U.S. Supreme Court has curtailed lawsuits making civil racketeering claims against other industries.

Courts could apply the same logic to cannabis, he argued.

“What the plaintiffs seemed to be saying is anybody who touched, in any matter, any marijuana business is potentially liable,” Wolf said. “And that is a soundly rejected argument by the courts.”

Barnes, though, said the number of racketeering lawsuits awaiting action suggests attorneys with no ties to his firm believe in the strategy.

Marijuana is emerging among the vineyards, not as a rival to the valley’s grapes but as a high-value commodity that could help reinvigorate a fading agricultural tradition along the state’s Central Coast. Brushed by ocean breeze, cannabis has taken root, offering promise and prompting the age-old question of whether there can be too much of a good thing.

Cannabis has been fully legal in California for less than a year, and no place is generating more interest in it than the stretch of coast from Monterey to here in Santa Barbara County, where farmers now hold more marijuana cultivation licenses than in any other county.

The shift in legal cultivation patterns is coming at the expense of the remote Emerald Triangle, the trio of far-northern California counties where an illegal marijuana industry has thrived for decades. The Central Coast is not growing more marijuana than the Emerald Triangle, but it could be on track to grow more legally, if trends hold.

“We’re nearly right in between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the two big consumer hubs,” said John De Friel, whose 17-acre Raw Garden Farm and seed lab sits among cabbage patches and wineries. “We really didn’t foresee how advantageous that would turn out to be.”

Related: Inspired by wine industry, California cannabis growers seek to protect regional identities

The regulated California cannabis market is a $4-billion-a-year industry, a boon to the local tax base and to a generation of entrepreneurial farmers more schooled in the agricultural sciences than in the dark arts of deception.

But legalization already is reordering the business and geography of cannabis cultivation, pushing crops into places they have never been. The new cultivations are challenging long-held beliefs in some conservative communities, including this one, where a rural libertarian streak is confronting a crop still stigmatized despite its legality.

The novelty of cannabis here also is a benefit. In northern California, the marijuana industry’s decades-old outlaw culture has proved a major obstacle to transforming the black market into a legal one. With so much lower-cost, unregulated marijuana on the market there, farmers complying with the stiff, expensive new regulations are struggling to make it into the light.

Here, along the Central Coast, growers complying with the licensing process are having an easier time without a thriving black market as competition. California farmers have only until the end of the year to meet the licensing and regulatory requirements – a process that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – or face the law.

While expensive, the commercial logic to get legal is undeniable. In approving recreational marijuana use in November 2016, California voters vastly expanded the legal market, which previously was accessible only to the roughly 200,000 residents with medical marijuana cards. Now, marijuana can be sold to the entire drinking-age population of the nation’s most populous state.

The initiative allowed counties and cities to make their own rules, including outright bans on sale and cultivation. As a result, hundreds of potential growers are still “jurisdiction shopping,” trying to find counties with the lowest cannabis taxes, the right climate, an experienced labor force and a favorable location.

Santa Barbara County set its tax on cannabis revenue at 4 percent, the lower end of the scale, hoping to attract farmers to a place where many agriculture jobs have been lost to the economics of free trade.

The approximately 330 acres under cannabis cultivation here is a tiny fraction of the land devoted to vineyards, which once helped replace a declining beef and dairy cattle industry in the valley. But government officials and growers acknowledge that more cannabis will come, in part because the “Santa Barbara brand” built by its pinot noirs could help sell the locally grown product to new consumers.

Just how much more is a concern to some government officials, all of whom see the need for new crops to boost the tax base but worry whether marijuana in the county’s northern hills and southern greenhouses will change the local culture.

“What sets Santa Barbara County apart is our willingness to face reality – that marijuana is already in our communities and that pretending it will go away on its own is fantasyland,” said Das Williams, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, who opposed state legalization. “But I’ll be the first to say I hope it doesn’t get too big.”

Along the southern tip of the county, up against the Pacific Ocean, a cut-flower industry once thrived. Acres of greenhouses nurtured carnations, daisies and orchids, supervised by the descendants of Dutch and Japanese immigrants who generations before picked this place for its climate.

The decline has been precipitous. Since the U.S. free-trade agreement with Colombia was signed six years ago, what was once a historic element of the county’s economy has been decimated.

Graham Farrar, in a pair of Vans, has stepped in.

A Santa Barbara County native, Farrar is the operating partner of Glass House Farms, which owns about five acres of greenhouse space just outside Carpinteria.

It is a state-of-the-art cannabis farm that produces thousands of pounds a year and has 50 employees, who unlike vineyard farm hands can work full-time because of the more frequent cannabis harvest schedule. Three annual harvests are common in cannabis greenhouse operations.

Standing in a greenhouse that once grew Gerbera Daisies and is now row after row of cannabis, Farrar notes the irony of his position.

The free-trade agreement was designed in part to help Colombia fight its problem with coca, the plant that supplies the key ingredient in cocaine. Instead, it opened up greenhouse space thousands of miles away, where he is growing what the federal government classifies as an illegal drug more dangerous than cocaine.

“Here we’re just replacing one cut flower with another,” Farrar said.

Farrar’s operation here is more clean room than farm.

A rack of dry-cleaned lab coats awaits workers, who pick, dry and package the flower for sale. There is a small nursery for research. And each greenhouse, rigged with drip irrigation, is fitted with a $100,000 odor-control device to keep the pungent cannabis smell from nearby homes.

“Hiding is no longer a valued skill,” said Farrar, 41, who worked in the software industry and has a degree in molecular biology and biochemistry. “The net of all this – the government, the climate, the compliance culture – is that this is a very goldilocks spot.”

Farrar also has secured one of three cannabis retail licenses that the city of Santa Barbara is issuing for recreational sales. His goal is to transform the traditional marijuana dispensaries, which often have the furtive feel of an adult book store, into something appealing to new customers.

There will be a Santa Barbara County-grown section, but the store will have flowers and oils from all over the state. Eventually, Farrar said, it will evolve into a showroom as more and more first-time users find what they like and then choose delivery services. California-grown cannabis cannot be legally delivered outside the state.

“Most customers have not even walked in the door yet,” he said. “And Santa Barbara, as a brand, rings a lot more bells for people than other places.”

The initial quarterly cannabis tax revenue is due soon at the county treasury. Some early estimates say it could run between $2 million and $3 million, money that will go toward enforcing the cannabis law with some left over for public services.

In recent weeks, sheriff’s deputies have carried out raids targeting farms in the backcountry areas of Tepusquet Canyon and Cuyama Valley, the county’s two traditional if small-scale marijuana-growing areas, seizing plants worth millions of dollars.

Large cannabis plants washed down into Montecito, just a few miles from Farrar’s greenhouses, during the catastrophic mudslides earlier this year. They served as clues that there are farms amid the avocado and citrus orchards that authorities have yet to find.

“I get that it’s a whack-a-mole approach, but we have to do something to make this fair for those complying with the law,” said Dennis Bozanich, the deputy county executive who manages the cannabis portfolio. “Our job is to make life as hard on them as possible and hope they may just go somewhere else.”

Williams, the board chairman who opposed state legalization, said the cannabis tax revenue also will help “to pay for some mental health services and save a few public libraries.”

But, given marijuana’s high profit margins, he worries that it will wipe out what remains of the cut-flower industry. He also worries about the cultural message that the proximity of cannabis production might send to the county’s young people.

“I grew up in this community, and I do not know, for any practical purposes, how marijuana could be any more accessible than it already is,” he said. “But I do see as a danger anything that legitimizes it any more.”

A few of the hoop houses at Iron Angel Ranch – steel, semicircle rings topped with plastic canopies that shield cannabis plants from the sun and wind – are high up a steep hill overlooking the Sanford Winery.

They are a legacy of the gray-market days, when farmers could grow marijuana for medical use. The risk of a raid was high. These were out-of-sight, out-of-mind “grows” that today are a small part of what the farm is producing.

Rows of hoop houses stretch out below, just along Santa Rosa Road, which connects Iron Angel to Highway 101, the main north-south artery just a few miles away. Mathew Kaplan, who helps run the farm and markets the cannabis under the name Vertical, said the 20 acres now under cultivation will grow to five times that amount by spring.

“We get lumped in with farmers in this county, and this county takes care of its farmers,” Kaplan said. “That just isn’t the case in other parts of the state.”

But Kaplan and his partners plan to make Iron Angel a destination, as well, borrowing from the model that Sanford and other neighboring wineries have used for years.

He said tourists might one day be able to stay in cabins around the 1,500-acre hillside property, which overlooks the Santa Ynez River, racehorse training stables and vineyards that stretch into the middle distance. Oaks dripping with Spanish moss cluster around the land. There are a few Black Angus cattle and a bobcat, though he calls the latter “the laziest or slowest in the world,” given all the deer around.

“I absolutely want more of us to come here; it would be great,” Kaplan said. “It’s always better to be part of a broader community.”

How many more? The high price of land here will limit the number of new cannabis operations in the valley. But the economics are appealing: One acre of marijuana yields a product worth about five times that of an acre of grape vines.

The county has considered capping how many licenses to allow. But for now, local officials are letting the market decide who comes and who survives.

“Agriculture is always changing,” said Joan Hartmann, the county supervisor who represents much of the Santa Ynez Valley. “For me, this is about keeping agriculture here and keeping it profitable.”

Nearly two years after California voters chose to legalize recreational marijuana use and sales, Novato is considering giving residents more options on how to grow their personal cannabis garden.

On Monday evening, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to advance an ordinance to the City Council that would allow for both indoor and outdoor cultivation for personal grows, according to city officials. City officials believe Novato is one of the only — if not the first — local jurisdiction in the county to allow for both indoor and outdoor personal cultivation for recreational cannabis.

Commissioner Peter Tiernan said Tuesday that a majority of Novato voters chose to legalize recreational cannabis under Proposition 64. Personal grows are just the start, with regulations on commercial cannabis businesses expected to follow in the coming months.

“So we’re carrying forth with the outcome of the election more than anything,” Tiernan said. “We do also acknowledge a lot of the medicinal purposes are just unfolding and could become a bigger benefit as time goes on.”

The City Council is set to take up the ordinance at its Oct. 2 meeting.

California’s cannabis laws passed under Proposition 64 in 2016 allow adults over 21 to grow up to six plants for personal use indoors and gives local governments the leeway to determine whether they want to allow outdoor cannabis gardens.

Shortly after the proposition passed, Novato adopted a moratorium that banned outdoor cultivation and an urgency ordinance that regulated indoor grows. Indoor grows had to comply with odor control, security, power, structural and building regulations.

The ordinance advanced by the Planning Commission on Monday refines rules for indoor grows and opens the door for outdoor grows as well.

“Again, there are a number of restrictions on outdoor; most important it would only be allowed outdoors at a single-family residence or duplex residence, but not multi-family,” said Novato Community Development Director Bob Brown.

Outdoor grows are also not permitted within 100 feet of any school, church, park, library, or child care center. Tiernan said while public attendance on Monday was sparse, one speaker asked a poignant question of what happens if a child care center opens near an existing personal grow. After some research, Tiernan said Brown told the commission that the grow would then be illegal under the city’s ordinance.

Tiernan said he thinks indoor cultivation is actually more hazardous compared to outdoors because of security issues, electricity use and the potential for year-round growing.

“I just see too many moving parts that could go wrong whereas outdoor you put a seed in the ground,” Tiernan said. “And it’s a shorter growing season.”

Meanwhile, Novato is working to finalize a draft of its commercial cannabis laws before the end of the year. Before then, the City Council is set to decide whether to renew the moratorium on these commercial businesses in October, Brown said.

In the two years since recreational cannabis businesses have been legalized, several California cities and counties have embraced it as a business driver and a tax revenue generator while others have taken a more cautious approach. Novato falls into the latter category, Brown said, in that it has been studying how commercial cannabis has played out in states like Washington and Colorado, which legalized recreational cannabis years before California.

“It’s been sort of a methodical process in that sense,” Brown said.

Personal grow rules

The following is a summary of the city of Novato’s proposed regulations for personal cannabis grows:

Indoor

• Plant limit set at six per residence regardless of the number of occupants
• Grow must be at least 10 feet from property lines
• Cultivation area must be locked and must not be accessible by minors
• Cultivation area cannot be visible at ground level from public right-of-way or nearby properties
• Lights and other infrastructure must comply with city building, fire and zoning codes and standards
• Generator use is prohibited, as are extension cords and light fixtures over 1,200 watts per fixture.
• An odor ventilation and filtration system is required
• Property owner must consent to grow

Outdoor

• Six-plant limit per property with a maximum cultivation area of 50 square feet
• Grow must be 10 feet from property line
• Grow must be screened with a solid fence from all public rights-of-way, exterior property and private access easements
• Grow not allowed within 100 feet of any school, church, park, library, or child care center

Source: Novato Planning Commission

One group hoping to launch Napa’s market for medical cannabis hopes to open its doors by year’s end. Meanwhile, another would-be seller is seeing more than three years of effort put on hold.

In the 10 months since Napa opened a path for merchants to open medicinal marijuana dispensaries, planners have received seven applications to open storefronts within city limits. Three applicants have been granted certificates to sell smokable and edible cannabis products to customers with a doctor’s recommendation, according to records from the city Planning Division.

But the path to over-the-counter sales has not been as kind to other would-be sellers. Records indicate the city has turned away three proposed marijuana outlets at least partly due to parking and other issues — and even some sellers already established in the North Bay argue that Napa’s ordinance is at best a half-step that will set up its local market for failure unless the city also allows the sale of recreational cannabis, which California voters legalized by passing Proposition 64 in 2016.

Even within those limits, a handful of candidates have stepped up to try to establish the city’s first legal retail weed economy.

Among those in the running is The Higher Path, which intends to operate from a 650-square-foot space at 1963 Iroquois St. Pending a use permit and a city business license, the dispensary should welcome its first visitors by November, according to Jerred Kiloh, a partner in the dispensary, which is an outgrowth of The Higher Path in Sherman Oaks outside Los Angeles.

Napa’s Higher Path outlet likely will open with 17 to 20 employees and a target of reaching 200 to 300 customers per day, Kiloh said Tuesday, adding that the dispensary is expected to operate “every hour Napa allows us to” — 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, according to the city’s cannabis retailing ordinance.

“When we look at Napa it’s one of the highest-revenue areas for tourism, and we feel it’s in our best interest to capitalize on that, whether (for) medical or recreational cannabis,” he said. “… Napa’s trying to bring younger demo into wine industry so it’s imperative Napa bring younger generation to table. I see it as complement to bringing more of the younger wine and cannabis users into Napa, and I think it’s great for both industries.”

While conceding that a city framework to legalize the sale of adult-use products would make life easier on dispensary owners, Kiloh described The Higher Path as well-positioned to work under Napa’s rules — in part because of its roots as a medically oriented outlet in Southern California. Despite voters’ 2016 approval of recreational marijuana sales, Kiloh’s dispensary — like others in Los Angeles — was not cleared to sell to those without doctor recommendations until Jan. 19.

While Kiloh’s Higher Path was building an audience in greater Los Angeles, Alicia Kelley was founding HerbaBuena in 2015 to market organically grown cannabis products. As Napa slowly progressed toward an ordinance to legalize medical marijuana sales — replacing an earlier ordinance it repealed in 2013 amid fears of clashing with the federal marijuana ban — the entrepreneur, who is also known as Alicia Rose, became a frequent advocate at city meetings for widening the therapeutic use of marijuana.

Despite her presence in Napa circles, however, Kelley has yet to gain the city’s clearance to do business.

Planning officials sent back HerbaBuena’s application citing inadequate parking at her proposed retail site, a commercial condominium at 20 Enterprise Court in south Napa. According to Kelley, her business was close to satisfying the city’s request by adding two more parking spaces at the site — until neighboring businesses intervened.

“There are three owners in the condo that also own units there, who needed to approve the two extra slots, and they voted it down,” she said Wednesday.

While Kelley conceded that Napa council members are unlikely to overhaul their cannabis ordinance less than a year after passing it, she pointed to the lack of legal recreational sales as a major roadblock to establishing a local market — as well as zoning rules that largely keep cannabis retailers to industrial and office-park areas and out of mainstream commercial areas.

“The two major issues with the way this ordinance as written is, one, they don’t allow adult-use licensing, which limits our ability to scale up, and two, they’ve relegated us to light industrial zoning which, by definition, will not have enough parking for a retail space,” she said.

Kelley’s concerns have been echoed by some sellers of marijuana products in Vallejo, the nearest legal market to the city of Napa.

“They are settling themselves up for failure; there’s not going to be a market for anyone to make any money” selling only to doctor-approved clients, Morgan Hannigan, owner of the Better Health Group dispensary in Vallejo, told the Napa Valley Register earlier this month.

California’s legalization of “adult-use” or non-medical marijuana products has apparently led to a strong focus on that section of the market, according to figures from the state Bureau of Cannabis Control. While 417 dispensaries have active state licenses, only 49 sell exclusively medicinal cannabis products.

Joining The Higher Path in gaining city dispensary certificates are Harvest of Napa, which plans to do business at 2441 Second St., and Korova Cannabis, which has filed to operate at 954 Kaiser Rd.

Joe Gerlach, listed as a consultant to Korova, declined comment in an email to the Register. Attempts to contact Harvest of Napa representatives were unsuccessful.

As to whether the advantage may go to the first mover into local marijuana sales, Kiloh expressed little concern about the timing of The Higher Path’s opening. “I think the cream will rise to the top,” he said, “no matter who’s first to market.”

As of Friday, The Higher Path had received a notice of intent to grant a cannabis-selling clearance but had not yet been granted the clearance itself, according to city assistant planner Jose Cortez.

This story has been modified since the original posting to correct the proposed retail address of Korova Cannabis, a medical marijuana dispensary that received a clearance to operate in the city of Napa.

© 2018 Napa Valley Register (Napa, Calif.). Visit the Napa Valley Register at www.napavalleyregister.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.