Spring of the Crop

2013 Growing Forecast: Greenhouse Cookies, “Light Dep” and Lawsuits

Spring forward, indeed!

California’s patients have already begun another banner year of outdoor cannabis cultivation this month, preparing seedlings of Girl Scout Cookies, as well as even more greenhouses, and in certain instances, fresh lawsuits to protect growers’ rights.

The first day of Spring is March 20, and Rick Pfrommer—manager for Oakland dispensary Harborside Health Center—says it’s a very big time for outdoor cultivators across the state.

Clones are moving swiftly out of dispensary doors, while back on the farm, seedlings germinated in January and February are catching up to clones inside indoor nurseries.

Conversely, indoor growers may be winding down their operations before the summer heats sets in, says Kali Smith, a cultivation expert affiliated with the Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center Collective. “Heat is our biggest enemy in the IE,” he says.

Firsties

This year, farmers will start sungrown crops earlier than ever, several experts say.

Traditionally, growers planted outdoor cannabis after the last spring rains and harvested before the first fall showers. But growers are using a process called “light deprivation” to finish earlier and earlier each year.

“Light dep” growers will germinate seeds indoors in January, vegetate under indoor lights for 18 hours a day and transfer the bushy plants to greenhouses to soak up the summer rays.

Growers then black out the greenhouses with tarps, which kicks off flowering. Producers using light dep in greenhouses can finish their sungrown as early as July, Pfrommer says.

But solar energy peaks in California on Aug. 10, says master cultivator, author and speaker Ed Rosenthal. So a second wave of greenhouse light dep finishes soon after, says Pfrommer. Both light dep harvests beat the traditional fall harvest, when a supply glut bottoms out annual prices.

“Five years ago we saw a little bit of light dep stuff. Now, we’re seeing a significant amount of it,” Pfrommer says.

Forecasting what strains will be hot—get ready for Cookies mania in 2013, watchers say. The hybrid strain Girl Scout Cookies took first place in the 2013 High Times Medical Cannabis Cup Los Angeles, and customers cannot get enough of the flavorful, complex mix of OG Kush, Cherry Pie and Durban Poison.

Successful Harvests

“The GSC!!!,” says Smith. “I don’t see the popularity of ‘The Cookies’ waning any time soon.”

Marijuana is one of the easiest plants in nature to breed, says Rosenthal.

So expect “a whole plethora of cookies crosses in 2013,” says Pfrommer.

New, CBD-rich strains grown in 2013 will increasingly find their way into lotions and balms as well, Pfrommer says. Smokers haven’t fallen in love with the non-euphoric molecule’s presence in flowers, but seniors love the anti-inflammatory in arthritis creams.

California’s thriving industry will celebrate more strain diversity than ever this year, Pfrommer says. “More and more people are realizing there’s a wide world of cannabis choices out there,” he says.

And whatever people grow, feminized and auto-flowering seeds have ushered in a new era of successful harvests, says Rosenthal.

More Green—Houses

Since sungrown is here to stay, greenhouse-sungrown cannabis has become “the wave of the future,” says Pfrommer. It can sparkle like indoor, which is critical in city markets that demand bling, but greenhouse-grown is also much cheaper as electricity bills rise.

And not only do greenhouses facilitate light dep, greenhouses boost security and reduce odor. Many may love the sweet smell of skunk, but it’s become an excuse for cities and counties to ban pot grows.

Pending and enacted restrictions or total bans on outdoor pot growing will lead to a year of lawsuits, watchers forecast.

Last year, Lake County tried to tightly restrict pot cultivation in the middle of the growing season, and growers defeated the ordinance. But this February, a California court upheld similar restrictions in Tehama County.

Butte County has enacted similar limits, and Sacramento now mandates outdoor cultivation be done in greenhouses. Elements in Concord, Redding and Lakeport all want to ban outdoor growing.

Americans for Safe Access chief counsel Joe Elford says cultivation rights are spelled out in state law, but “the courts have not always enforced that right.”

After dozens of major legal victories over 17 years, harassing medical growers is one of the few avenues left for MMJ foes, he says.

“It’s another way to attack patients,” he says. “It’s going to mean the uprooting of crops, and people will be denied medications or will have to turn to the black market to get it.”

“I do fear there will be other localities that will pass these bans and we don’t exactly know what the courts are going to do with them.”

“Absolutely Stellar”

And none should dismiss the new, 3,000-pound gorilla in the room: two states have legalized cannabis for adults over 21, and the Colorado constitution has enshrined home-growing as a right. “What are the feds going to do?” says Elford.

The only thing harder to predict than cannabis law may be the weather, he says.

Everyone’s bracing for a let-down after the hot, sunny, dry 2012, which was the best year in many growers’ lifetimes, says Pfrommer.

“It’s going to be hard to beat last year,” he says. “It was absolutely stellar.”

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac Annual Weather Summary issued in February, 2013 is shaping up to have generally normal temperatures and near-normal rainfall, depending on location.