100 gallon fabric pot field of cannabis plants far away shot.

Oregon Commercial Grower Tour: How many strains should I grow?

Some of these growers had a clear strategy when picking the amount of strains for their grow.

Fish from Wild West Growers

We have one row that is a mixed strain, just kind of, this is a testing year for us and so we’re finding out what works, what doesn’t.

Justin from House of Leaves

Realistically, it’s good to have a couple strains and just grow them well instead of having several varieties and having okay this and okay that. I just want the best.

Rob and Dan

They want a variety of it. Same with the patients too, the patients so they don’t get used to the same thing over and over. They can switch, you know, I think it works out good. We grow a lot of different strains.

With Rob and Dan’s medical grow, they want to give their patients as much variety as possible. On the other hand, Justin feels that too much diversity causes a lack of focus on each strain. And Fish designated an entire row to testing out strains he wasn’t used to. He and Justin were taking these precautions because each strain grows differently and might need different care.

So, when it comes to picking the number of strains for your grow, consider if you have the time to monitor a bunch of strains in your grow. Otherwise, it might be better to take Justin’s or Fish’s approach and either grow a small number of strains or designate a testing area.

Now what about picking the strains themselves? Which ones are hot right now?

The growers we interviewed seemed to grow whatever was easiest to obtain.

Justin from House of Leaves

Well four of the strains I’m growing I was given to by a friend of mine. He gave me some cuttings and I just happen to grow them all into mothers and I put them out I my field cuz they got so big.

Shawn McCreery

I went for maybe a for sure type of deal, you know, I went with old time strains that I knew. And I have a very close grower friend of mine that recommended and vouched for them.

Tyler from Hitman Farms

Yeah, getting the variety down for everybody. We have our main staples that we like to grow.

So, what strains did these growers pick? Their choices ranged from popular strains like Girl Scout Cookies and Gorilla Glue to more obscure ones like Deathstar and Purple Hindu Kush. They basically grew whatever they wanted!