“A cop asking me in ’97, he looks at my name and says, you don’t sell marijuana, do you? I said, No, sir. He says, How do you spell it? And I said, just like it smells, sir!” – Reggie Weedman
Reggie Weedman, the cannabis historian, is a long-time Humboldt County/Maui regenerative cannabis breeder, researcher, and collector from Washington state. He focuses on cannabis diversity and preservation and regenerative practices at his farm and at Teddy Blair’s Canna Country Farms. Weedman works to educate folks, especially in the face of THC bias.
1. How did your award-winning cultivar, Canna Country #26, bred at Canna Country Farms in Humboldt, come to be?
RW: I first saw the blue-purple on the hillsides above Lahaina in Maui, and we bred with it. It’s very elusive, the anthocyanin heritability; it’s easy to lose. Then, when I started coming to Humboldt in 2004, the purple brigade was in full effect. I was blessed and fortunate to be in the flow of the clones. Then this old schooler brought me an authentic purple that never had green bracts. I kept chasing dark-getting-darker as a trait.
Then, in 2018, Teddy and I joined forces at Canna Country, and we did a large breeding project, collecting all sorts of modern clones and different seed lines. One of them was we took the Forbidden Fruit, a purple variety, and we put it with what I called Cherimoya at that point, and it was just a match made in heaven.
Out of 50, we selected Canna Country #26; she checks all the boxes. This one has all the flavor. It has the good to the last drop user experience and a great effect. But it’s been having a tough time, even with all the awards, getting market acceptance because of the THC bias.
2. Whether working as a consultant in the Emerald Triangle or with international clients, as a cannabis breeder and phenohunter, how do you walk through a field of cannabis?
RW: Whatever tools we use to sift through the populations are determined by the goals, so every breeding process project has to have a goal. I help clients refine what we’re selecting for and what we’re selecting away from. First and foremost, it’s the place and purpose; then, it’s the people. What is it they’re after? Because this genome has such diversity, there is something for everyone.
When I go through a field, if we’re going after chemistry, sometimes we take tests, so we have our list of favorable chemo types and go down the list of priorities. I’m mapping phenotypes and phenotypic ratios, and then it’s just like speed dating. Memory kicks in, and it’s like, I smell it, and I move on, I smell it, and I move on. I tag that thing, and I’ll come back to it and make sure that it still really occupies the senses I’m looking for it to occupy.
3. When it comes to THC bias, how do we shift the focus to these minor cannabinoids? And how do we get people interested in more full-spectrum effects?
RW: How do we get them interested again in full spectrum effects? Because that’s how it always was. What always informed our breeding and selection of what to grow was the feedback from the consumers. But it’s also to educate on what diversity is in the plant, like the common chemo types.
One through five is the promoted chemotype system. Chemotype 1 is just the THC, chemotype 2 is CBD and THC, chemotype 3 is CBD only, type 4 is a CBG genetic, and chemo 5 is low-to-no cannabinoids. There are more nuances there, and the COA is not going away; we’re still in our infancy. Canna Country 26 has low THC, but it’s got a high effect. It won Leafly’s Greatest Effect of 2024 (and was on the cover of High Times Magazine).
4. What other countries and climates work for your genetics, and are those farms regenerative?
RW: In the Caribbean, a little bit. I did a lot of stuff in Hawaii and worked down in Colombia with some people. I’ve been in many fields across the continental US, especially large fields in Nevada, California, Oklahoma, and Michigan.
I’ve been non-stop all about paying forward and nurturing that micro herd and the biologicals because that’s, again, to feed the soil and let the soil feed the plant. I’ve never ditched the medium, and all over different places in Humboldt, you see the white perlite down the bank sometimes, and it’s like, ‘don’t you know it’s better the second time?’ But there’s also been these moments where I’m in a field, and there’s an oil derrick right there. I know they’re pumping salts through the drip systems.
I can promote and help perpetuate the ideals I live by, and I do that as much as possible. Still, sometimes it’s the genetics and the R&D of being in an environment and with methods that I wouldn’t choose, but I don’t dissuade them from it because I’m taking other notes I wouldn’t usually take.
5. Explain some of the methods you stand behind and why you think regenerative is important.
RW: Do no harm.
Regenerative, I’ve realized too, I’ve always been anti-indoor, but it dawned on me in the last few months, there’s regenerative, and then there’s the harmful de-generative.
I add minerals, fertilizers, and compost to a mix, then reamend it. At Canna Country Farms, we make our own Korean Natural Farming-style ferments. I always did stink water, and about 20 years ago, I switched to the brown sugar breakdown for most of the different things that would turn stinky, like comfrey, nettles, lemon balm ferments, and I can make this beautiful translucent liquid. If there’s more water, I’ll add more brown sugar. If it’s turning funky, add a little more. Even with the fish parts, we stir that up, and if it gets funky, we add a little more brown sugar.
I’ve done a lot of different animal parts, including some deer fetuses on Maui and then the placentas from where we raise sheep. Breaking it down, lysis, the cell structure, and it stabilizes in this sugary matrix.
I have some abalone guts from when abalones were legal, and I still have some liquid from pre-Fukushima and some from post-Fukushima. I always keep notes on that stuff. That’s why I call myself a historian. Because as the different lines and seeds come to me, I always take down that story: who brought it, who stewarded it. How long did they know it? Where did it come from? What did everyone like about it?
Teddy’s a big fisherman, so he always has fish waste. If there are weeds in profusion around me, I’m always picking those. I’ll go down to the creek and pick nettles and horsetail every year. It’s cohesive. It’s all about relationships – life is.
Stay in touch with Reggie through Canna Country Farms and find his seeds under Canna Country Selections at alpineseedgroup.com.
Watch Reggie’s POV Now!
