Feature

The The Take a tour of Flower Flower cannabis cultivation Path Path

from seed to weed

By Leah Shaffer By Leah Shaffer

You can smell BeLeaf Medical’s cannabis growing facility before you see it. A strong scent of weed hovers in the air blocks away, like an outdoor concert festival. But inside, it’s all business. Pristine grow rooms beam brilliant LED light over cannabis in various stages of progress. Workers hammer away, building walls and floors to expand the facility, which opened on Cherokee Street last year. Demand for cannabis is sky high in Missouri, as the medical marijuana industry just begins to ramp up.

Aaron Abrantes, the director of cultivation at BeLeaf, spends his days hustling from room to room in the retrofitted warehouse, handling new stages of construction, checking on top-of-the-line equipment for irrigation, lighting and air filtration. When he’s not chasing down supply-chain knots, there’s piles of regulations to tend to and, of course, working with his staff to grow, clone and sort their way to a top-quality product.

The business of selling weed is complicated, but the process of growing it is even more so.

Local growers, dispensaries and consumers are feeling their way through this new terrain. So, let’s take a tour of how that flower gets from seed to shop. Cannabis for beginners

To understand how the business of cannabis works, start with some cannabis chemistry. Forget what you may know about indicas, sativas or any types of strains.

Cannabis contains more than 400 compounds, some of which have yet to be fully analyzed. For instance, it was thought that the main component of the plant that gives the high includes more than 60 cannabinoids, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). More recently, though, some evidence suggests that compounds called terpenes and terpenoids may also factor into how people experience the high of marijuana.

Terpenes are what gives weed its “flavor.” Nonsmokers may not realize it, but different strains of marijuana offer different flavors, like comparing different bottles of wine. Those flavors may also give a hint as to the type of high a person may experience. On cannabis trade site Leafly, people can consult both illustrations and written descriptions of the effects of these terpenes. For instance, if a strain is dominated by the terpene “limonene,” it will have a citrus aroma, possible fruity scents, and could provide the smoker some good mood and stress relief. On the other end, if a strain is dominated by the terpene “myrcene,” it will offer a musky or earthy smell and provide more of a sedative effect — basically the Sleepytime Tea of weed. Keep in mind that all these descriptions of the different highs of marijuana are still mostly anecdotal and subjective. The classification of marijuana is in a state of flux at the moment.

Imagine if the apple industry worked the way the United States historically handled cannabis. Scientists would only have access to study the mushiest of Red Delicious. Meanwhile, illicit growers would be making up new varieties on the fly. Nobody is tracking all the varieties, so one guy might sell you a Honeycrisp, but it actually resembles a Gala. Or another seller offers Pink Ladies that are actually pears. That’s the state of

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Cannabis flower at the BeLeaf Medical warehouse. is strain is called “Frosty Fruit.” | LEAH SHAFFER

THE FLOWER PATH

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the marijuana industry as legalization starts to spread.

However, it’s tricky to compare the cannabis industry to produce or even beer, because it’s more than just taste. Weed is complicated chemistry. “It’s a very difficult process at almost every level,” says Nick Jikomes, Leafly’s director of science. And it’s not easy to compare to other crop sciences since weed is “sort of like a pharmaceutical factory,” he adds.

In a not-yet-published research paper, Jikomes and colleagues attempted to track the consistency of the strains around the country and found a hodgepodge of results. One strain of myrceneheavy Blue Dream sold in Colorado may have totally different terpene and cannabinoid makeup than another Blue Dream sold in Washington. The research also suggests that independent labs which determine the chemical analysis stickers required for legal marijuana products have an incentive to fudge results on THC levels. Many consumers want the biggest high for their buck, so the higher the THC content, the more demand. Typically, that means having a THC content of at least 20 percent, says Jikomes. Growers may start sending their samples to different labs if they keep getting results showing lower THC from one lab.

As a consumer, Jikomes assumes THC content is 5 percent lower than what’s on the label. The strain names are often just marketing, he adds, meaning it’s difficult to assume a product will give you a certain high based on the name alone.

All of this is to say, consumers may have to take both the strain name and some of those high THC levels on the label with a grain of salt.

Jikomes jokes that he could sell low-quality ditch weed and call it Blue Dream, and “some people basically do that.”

Missouri cannabis growers echo those opinions.

“Any dispensary can call any strain anything they want to,” says Matt Holland, cultivation director for Bloom Medicinals, one of some 60 cultivation facilities licensed in Missouri.

“I think there will be consistency and it will be standardized in the years ahead, but it may not be that way until it federally becomes decriminalized,” he adds.

One of the cannabis grow rooms at a BeLeaf Medical warehouse. e finished product is sold under the brand name Sinse at medical marijuana dispensaries in Missouri. | LEAH SHAFFER

Currently, the BeLeaf crew is on its “big genetics hunt,” sorting some 2,000 different plants grown from seeds to find the best plants to clone. That includes 40 different strains to sort.

that provides analysis of a plant’s biochemistry. Workers at Bloom use gas chromatography equipment, devices that detect and quantify the different compounds in the plant. Then there’s the growing process itself. Both Bloom and BeLeaf start from seed, then will sort through thousands of plants, find the best of the best and clone those plants. They do this because even if you start with the same strain seeds, none of those plants will end up From the ground up He rattles off all the tech in- identical, says Abrantes. All the chaos of the industry volved in their grow operations: Currently, the BeLeaf crew is means new grow operations are Grow lights are the most impor- on its “big genetics hunt,” sorting starting from scratch. Managers tant technology, “simply because some 2,000 different plants grown can’t just check a form and order the yield is dependent on the light from seeds to find the best plants Blue dream, OG Kush, or Purple intensity.” to clone. That includes 40 differHaze wholesale. Expensive HVAC systems have ent strains to sort.

Bloom Medicinals is develop- been developed just for indoor cul- “You take one plant that you ing two grow facilities in Missouri tivation, designed to keep a room thought was great, and you’re that will become operational later cool even when it has 100,000-lu- able to create thousands of plants in the year. It’s a long process to men lights running. The same that are genetically identical,” start marijuana cultivation. Hol- system will keep humidity low in Abrantes says. land has worked in plant nurser- rooms that have hundreds of gal- What emerges will likely be new ies and other cultivation centers, lons of irrigation flushed through strains with new names. and he consults with the Saint them in a day. Names can be a mishmash of Louis Science Center and Saint There’s a computerized system the parent plants. For instance, Louis University for hemp culti- that tracks all the plants. Holland something like Purple Kush is a vation projects, but even with all could be home and use his tablet cross between the strains Purple his experience, the industry is not to adjust temperature, light and Afghani and Hindu Kush. getting easier. the amount of carbon dioxide go- Other times, the plant gets its

“It’s so complicated. There is so ing into a room. name based on taste. The limmuch technology involved. It’s le- That’s not even getting into the onene-heavy plants could get a gally complicated,” he says. complicated testing equipment fruity name or dessert name, such

is box of harvested cannabis is frozen with liquid nitrogen and used in producing resin at a BeLeaf manufacturing facility. Resin is a concentrated form of cannabis that is produced in a way that preserves more of the plant’s terpenes. | LEAH SHAFFER

as Apple Fritter. Dessert names are the big trend right now, says Arbantes. Then again, this being a culture of zany creativity, names can be pretty much anything. Sorting through Leafly’s strain database, you can find wacky names like Gary Payton, Purple Urkle, Golden Goat, Death Star or AK- . (“My eyelids and I feel like we are wearing sweaters,” says one reviewer of AK- .)

Naming is the fun part, but that lies ahead. Abrantes says the challenge right now is supply-chain disruptions from the COVID-19 crisis — just trying to get materials on time and on schedule.

Other problems can arise from pests and plant viruses. Growers can’t use traditional pesticides, this being a product people inhale. Abrantes makes use of biopesticides — bacterial or beneficial insects to hunt the bad pests. They can use soaps and oils, but otherwise, keeping their crop healthy means being vigilant with sterilization and plant checks. They use a microscope to search roots for russet mites, monitor HVAC to keep mold at bay and uarantine new genetic material. In the shop

It all comes together at the dispensary, where consumers tentatively enter a new world of cannabis. Jack Haddox, director of BeLeaf’s dispensary operations, says about half the consumers are new to the world of cannabis and the other half are experienced but may not understand weed offers more than just a high from THC.

“It’s really a misconception that THC is the most important part of the cannabis plant,” he adds.

Haddox says all compounds work together in the “entourage effect” to give a person both a pleasant high and health benefits such as relief from pain, depression or anxiety.

Leafly’s Jikomes warns that the average new weed consumer may not want cannabis that’s 20 to 2 percent THC.

“That’s too much for them,” he adds. That’s like someone who enjoys the occasional beer deciding to drink moonshine all the time just to get drunk faster. It’s not pleasant.

Haddox suggests consumers look at the chemical analysis label and talk to budtenders about what they are hoping to get from medical marijuana use. He believes customers are catching on uickly. “People are looking for different parts of the plant, not just to get high.”

Leah Shaffer is a freelance science writer based in St. Louis.