As a home grower and a medical provider for patients, being kept out of the ability to test for potency is one of the down sides to not getting a recreational or medical growing license as most labs limit who can test their flowers to those with state issued licenses for customer facing sales, not for medical patient treatment.
I was approached in February 2024 by a farmer in Minnesota who wanted to get into the cannabis industry and had the resources dedicated to being the first large scale cannabis farm in Minnesota for their new legalization initative. He had already spent $75,000 on seeds, and more on equipment, solar panels, vehicles (specifically an armored truck for transportation), lighting, clean rooms, property, security equipment, all of the best practices’ materials needed to step in the arena that we call the “industry.”
This term “industry” is also what folks call the porn industry, restaraunt industry, sales industry, “you name it” … industry, but when growers use this term, it has a connatation that we do NOT like the industry because history shows that large scale cannabis production usually leads to a loss in quality, taste, flavor and potency along with long term effects of the “high”, that comes along with the extra square footage that needs to be maintained.
Electricity bills for lighting was never supposed to be a part of the overhead when growing food or medicine.
When I was asked what I would do with the assets presented, I said soil test, pheno test, smoke test, blunt roll test and hood test.
If you can not present all of these things to a market, you will fail with your intent for patients. If you want to make money off of patients, become a lawyer, otherwise help and not hinder.
We formed Vetted Genetics with a goal to test all of the elements around growing for food plants and mycology. Soil tests, Gentetics tests along with yield predictions from cannabis flower, trim, biomass, due to soil conditions, the product of the plant and the density of the buds to prevent issues in certain climates. All things tested to give an accurate discription of the seed quality.
One of the new questions I will be asking any future “working business partners” is: are there any potential law suits, or divorce proceedings expected in your near future. 6 Weeks after starting to venture in to agriculture, my former business partner got served with the “D word” papers. We did our best to continue to proceed with plans for 90 days after being served, however the legal issues for any potential growth, profit, or spent capital during their union, were too much for the fledgling investor and he opted out of going forward.
Sometimes the best move forward is to know when to step away from the table, versus spending limited assets on the game.
Since starting Vetted Genetics in March of 2024, the goal has been to find a way to test the product from an at home cannabis grow.
We looked at “at home” test kits from Europe, and the states with some technical issues on the how to perform the test kits.
Now that a farm has grown out a phenotype that we invested in, to the tune of several thousand seeds from 5 different varieties grown in the United States, by Americans, for Americans, in Franklin County Virginia, it is time to test the fruit of the tree. When I say tree, I mean it.
7.5 feet wide by 9ft tall grown out in Colorado in Living Soil. These seeds were planted a few weeks after the rest of the greenhouse in April, and this plant towered over some bangers. Havent smoked any yet since it is a late finisher but it has great structure and the nose on her is mile with out colder nights getting her ripe just yet.
Once we have a test result in, we will publish the results and link to the COA for provenance for that cultivar. Then we will test the rest of the seeds to vet their genetics. If you would like any of these seeds please let Lee know and we can get some to you. Cost will go up with the paperwork provided. More verification, more value. Lee will continue the effort of verifying genetic heritage in cannabis solo. Thank you for your time. Contact Lee West at wegrow.live@gmail.com or 970-589-1016 for seeds.