BREEDING IN BC

By Nico Escondido
You may have heard such terms as Beasters or beasty buds once or twice before, phrases referring to the thick, heavy sinsemilla grown in western Canada, in the Canadian province of British Columbia, or BC (hence the name). Over the years, the reputation of Beasters has climbed steadily as new varieties have been produced by BC breeders—strains that compete every year in the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, and whose seeds are now popular in seed banks in Canada and all over the world.

Not surprisingly, most of these strains are developed in, and well-suited to, outdoor climates. But you may be taken aback just a bit by precisely where and how some of these seed companies are doing it. As the New York City slickers from the HIGH TIMES cultivation department navigated our way from city to island, it quickly became evident that there was going to be a lot more here than we had previously expected.

For Starters
To begin with, growing in BC is done in an overly beastly climate that comprises the moist, mountainous rainforests of northern Vancouver Island. Shocked as we were, it’s true—Vancouver Island is, in fact, the northern-most rainforest (technically called a temperate rainforest biome) in the world. And rain it does.

Unfortunately, for bud growers, this can cause problems in the flowering stages and shorten the grow season by a few weeks, severely affecting yields. The good news, however, is that the climate—when all is going according to schedule—can create the perfect breeding grounds for seed production and strain stabilization.

Forget the fact that, when trekking through the forests to the isolated grow patches, you’ll enjoy some unbelievable scenery with thrilling opportunities to spy on bears or lick Jurassic-sized slugs (turns out this gives better visuals than licking frogs). And forget the fact that you can make the two-hour drive over a winding dirt road—traversing both cliffs and rivers—and never cross paths with another living soul. Forget these nice things, that is, because at the end of the day, this is about hard work in even harder terrain.

The grow sites afforded here are only accessible at certain times and simply cannot receive all the attention that these breeders would like to give their crops. Then again, this is outdoor growing in BC, where the question from season to season is: Do we grow for bud, or do we grow for seed? The answer depends not only on the long-term weather forecasts, but also on the current marijuana markets.

For breeders in BC, there’s certainly a higher passion involved. Up here, more emotion goes into a farm than it would some skeleton house with a blown-out hydro operation. As Mr. Danko and I set out with our hosts and tour guides from a couple of local seed companies, I sensed immediately that these were my kind of people. I looked on, watching families load into the trucks, talking harvest talk and hyping up hopes for the various strains of fungi that we might also encounter on our journey through the dense forests. Despite the rain, it was beginning to look like a beautiful day...