{"id":30174,"date":"2018-10-29T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T13:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2018\/10\/29\/the-rise-of-cbd-strains\/"},"modified":"2018-10-30T00:50:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T08:50:00","slug":"the-rise-of-cbd-strains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2018\/10\/29\/the-rise-of-cbd-strains\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of CBD Strains"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

In the southern Oregon town of Takilma \u2014 a longtime hippie enclave just above the California border in the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains \u2014 one farm is focused on developing new strains of cannabis. Their mission is not to breed for maximum THC or any particularly trendy flavor expression, but to create strains with an optimal balance between CBD, THC and various terpenes to achieve tailored effects.<\/p>\n

The farm is called East Fork Cultivars<\/a>, and its CEO Mason Walker is a former journalist and editor at the Portland Business Journal who himself uses medical marijuana to control his pain from a serious neck injury in his youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur roots are in the medical approach to cannabis breeding,\u201d Walker says. \u201cWe started selecting varieties high in CBD for therapeutic effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pineapple Tsu: 13.7% CBD \/ 0.5% THC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In order to create strains that can best address specific ailments, East Fork Cultivars has focused on cultivating under three broad categories. First, they\u2019re growing out \u201cCBD-dominant\u201d varieties to find phenotypes that typically have less than 1 percent THC and subtle effects, including with Ringo\u2019s Gift, Sour Tsunami and Cenarius. Second, they\u2019re cultivating \u201cCBD-rich\u201d varieties have high CBD content but also around 5 percent THC, including Bubba Kush and an East Fork original strain, Pineapple Jager. Third, they\u2019re growing \u201cTHC-dominant\u201d varieties that are the more typically potent strains that outlaw growers long strove for, including Strawberry Satori.<\/p>\n

With this spectrum of cannabinoid<\/a> concentrations, Walker says their selections appeal to \u201cnew cannabis consumers who are curious,\u201d but not necessarily looking to get high.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Each fall, the team at East Fork Cultivars harvests one acre of CBD-rich cannabis from its farm in Southern Oregon\u2019s Illinois River Valley.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Through their work developing a wide range of CBD-rich phenotypes and breeding new strains, East Fork is at the forefront of the larger CBD trend, trying to ensure that the increasing crowds of cannabis consumers looking for CBD strains have more options to choose from than the handful currently on the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still early on in our breeding work,\u201d Walker says. \u201cOf our 15 top-selling varieties, three of them we bred ourselves and the other 12 are well-established varieties that someone else bred \u2014 but we expect that number to basically flip in the next two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Llamas to Cannabis<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Flowers grow between the rows at East Fork Cultivars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

East Fork was started by the brothers Nathan and Aaron Howard. Aaron, now the company\u2019s chief operations officer, moved from his native Portland to southern Oregon about 10 years ago to grow cannabis under the state\u2019s medical program. (Oregon voted to legalize medical marijuana in 1998, the second state to do so after California.) He initially cultivated as caregiver for a third brother, Wesley, who suffered from neurofibromatosis and epilepsy.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Aaron was among the first cultivators in the country to start growing high-CBD strains, and the following year, purchased the 9-acre property in Takilma. At the time, the property was a llama ranch, so the East Fork team inherited three llamas along with the land. The animals have since passed on, but the company\u2019s logo is still a llama \u2014 and the laser focus on CBD has not wavered.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bubba Kush: 13.3 % CBD \/ 5.9 % THC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe supply CBD-rich cannabis to other companies who turn it into infused products,\u201d Walker says. \u201cWe extract oils for chocolate bars, topical salves, tinctures and beverages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker says that East Fork is shying away from selling cannabis flowers to consumers, because he thinks the end of cannabis prohibition is changing the way people want to ingest the plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack during Prohibition [in the 1920s and \u201930s], people wanted high-potency moonshine,\u201d says Walker. \u201cWith cannabis prohibition, there was the same secretiveness and incentive for high-potency stuff. Now that we\u2019re moving out of prohibition, people are demanding more types of cannabis that are more nuanced. The same way we\u2019re consuming more wine and beer as opposed to moonshine. Nowadays, you don\u2019t hear people say, \u2018What\u2019s your strongest stuff?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Breeding for CBD<\/h4>\n
\n
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In 2017, the team at East Fork Cultivars harvested 3,300 lbs of cannabis uses garden carts and bicycles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

East Fork\u2019s most cutting-edge work is its on-site breeding program. When selecting and testing new strains, Walker says the farm is focused on creating strains with high levels of \u201cchemical diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of cannabis is it\u2019s one of the most chemically complex plants on the planet,\u201d Walker says. \u201cWe focus a lot of time and energy and money on developing the largest diversity we can, in terms of combinations of CBD and terpenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He notes that the linalool<\/a> terpene, which smells like lavender, is often used to reduce anxiety, while the citrus-smelling terpene limonene<\/a> is said to have an energizing effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cMultiple terpenes have synergistic interactions with each other, creating yet new effects,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes cannabis really fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of East Fork\u2019s original strains with notable limonene content is Wesley\u2019s Wish, named for Wesley Howard, who found the strain gave him relief from his neurofibromatosis and epilepsy before he passed away last year. It is a cross between Pineapple Tsu and Purple Hindu Kush, which Walker describes as \u201cone of the most popular THC-heavy strains in Oregon.\u201d But while Purple Hindu Kush is typically more than 20 percent THC, Wesley\u2019s Wish is only some 5 percent THC and 15 percent CBD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wesley\u2019s Wish: 12.7% CBD \/ 4.5% THC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another emphasis of East Fork\u2019s breeding program is to broaden the genetic pool of high-CBD strains, especially given the problem that high-CBD strains generally have smaller yields than high-THC strains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of genetics available that are both high-CBD and high-yield, so we\u2019re making them ourselves,\u201d says Walker. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a couple of hits \u2014 varieties that are high-CBD but also high-yield, and are promising in terms of appearance and other standards cannabis is generally judged by.\u201d<\/p>\n

East Fork has sourced their high-CBD genetics over the past five years from California, Oregon and Europe. The farm is currently expanding their genetic library by sourcing high-THC plants from Oregon growers and collaborating on breeding projects with other farms in the adult-use system, splitting the seeds at the end of the project.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ACDC: 17.9% CBD \/ 0.5% THC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Walker says East Fork is headed in the direction of growing entirely from seed rather than clone. This year, their ratio is about 50\/50.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlants grown from seed have more vigor, more pest-resistance,\u201d Walker says. \u201cA lot of people call them a truer expression of the plant.\u201d<\/p>\n

East Fork is also bred\u00a0with an eye on cannabinoids besides CBD and THC. Walker mentions tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), which is believed to have appetite-suppressing qualities. He also names cannabichromene (CBC), which has shown potential to inhibit tumor growth, and cannabigerol (CBG<\/a>), which research suggests may help with vision problems such as glaucoma and intraocular pressure.<\/p>\n

Business in the Gray Zone<\/h4>\n

Under Oregon cannabis regulations, the largest licensed cannabis grow can only cultivate up to 40,000 square feet of canopy, which is an area of just under 1 acre.<\/p>\n

In Takilma, East Fork Cultivars has reached that 40,000 square feet canopy limit on a section of their original 9-acre plot of land. On the new 24 acres, Walker says they\u2019re planning to grow hemp.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

East Fork Cultivars Co-Founder and COO Aaron Haward prepares a cannabis bouquet, combining a fresh cannabis cola with dried straw flowers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While CBD can also be extracted from hemp, this plant \u2014 legally defined as having less than 0.3 percent THC \u2014 falls under a different legal classification than cannabis. The cannabis strains grown on the original plot are overseen by the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, but the hemp plants on the new land will be overseen by the Oregon Department of Agriculture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The cannabis farm is grown in a fenced-in area with a security camera system, as mandated by state law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state figures the best way to keep feds at bay is to regulate the heck out of the industry,\u201d Walker says.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Canna Tsu: 10.6% CBD \/ 3.3% THC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But the gray area of difference between the cannabis and hemp regulations<\/a> on the federal and state levels is clearly not interfering with business. Walker says the farm brought in $830,000 in revenue last year, and is expecting $1.2 million this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sold just over 1,200 pounds of cannabis last year, and we\u2019re on pace to sell 3,400 pounds this year\u2014nearly triple,\u201d he says. \u201cAbout 98 percent of our sales are high-CBD strains.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just barely starting to scratch the surface of interest in CBD,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is having a fad moment, but I think it will have more staying power than the acai berry, for instance. I think our research over the next years will uncover extensive uses both therapeutically and in terms of just enhancing peoples\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, what is your favorite CBD strain?<\/p>\n

Originally published in Issue 33 of Cannabis Now.\u00a0LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post The Rise of CBD Strains<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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