Grower Stories #159: Jameson Welbourn

Jameson Welbourn talks with us about Emerald Mountain Legacy

The AskGrowers team chats with Jameson Welbourn about Emerald Mountain Legacy. He sheds light on how the company got started by Mack Anderson and how his brother Ben now runs it following his brother’s ethos. We also find out about Mr. Welbourn’s own growing process, favorite strains, and tips for future cannabis growers.

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Tia: Tell us a few sentences about yourself?

Jameson: I got started in cannabis in 2006. I fell in love with cannabis at university. It was something that I discovered and I immediately knew I needed to dive in and then learn more and experience more. And that's really started my journey into 2006-2007 - I started cultivating then. But after I finished university, my parents guided me into commercial real estate, and I had come clean to them about what I was doing and what I was passionate about. That was in 2012 and at that time their feelings weren't the same as they are now. I ended up working commercial real estate here in Calgary for a number of years. After I realized cannabis was going to go legal, I made the decision to walk away from my book of business in commercial real estate and become a consultant in the Canadian cannabis space.

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Tia: On your website, you mention that you continue the work of Mack Anderson. Can you specify for our readers, who is that and what he brought into the industry?

Jameson: Mack Anderson was a really special character who was born to a family of political activists in the Midwest and at 16, he moved out to the Humboldt Triangle. The reason Mack gained notoriety so quickly is that during that time, there were plant count limitations so all the growers up there fully understood not to go over a certain amount of plants because then they'd be dealing with mandatory minimums.

Mack had a goal of creating a gas-forward cultivar that could be grown on the coast and finish early. And to do that, he needed to open up large populations of things like the Highland Afghani and Old Family Purple to find what he was looking for. And so Mack got known pretty quickly because, A, he was running a nursery but, B, he'd open up these very, very, very large populations and it would make people feel a certain type of way.

He, unfortunately, passed away in 2005 and his brother came in and continued the legacy. It went from Emerald Mountain Seed Company to Emerald Mountain Legacy. Ben really knew what his brother did was very special and he knew he needed to continue it. So he's been able to continue the work with the Royal Kush and some of the other cultivars that they've kept near and dear to their hearts, as well as bring out some of his brother’s older work that he had archived and cataloged, and also crossed to some new and more popular cuts to remain prevalent in the market.

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Tia: What was the goal of the company when you started? What’s the ethos behind it now? What drives you and the brand?

Jameson: So just so I'm gonna clarify, I'm the North American representative for Emerald Mountain Legacy - I'm not a part of Emerald Mountain Legacy. Emerald Mountain Legacy is run by Ben and Ben is the brother to Mack. And the reason Emerald Legacy is so special is that it’s a 20-year-old genetic company that still remains prevalent in the Humboldt Triangle and there are very few genetic lines that have been able to say that over 20 years.

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Tia: What’s your specifics in growing cannabis? I assume you grow it outdoors, right?

Jameson: I personally cultivate in living soil indoors, under LEDs. I use beds from grassroots fabric pots - I love the beds, I love how forgiving they are. I'm not looking for yield, I'm looking for flavor so my buds can be slightly smaller and more flavorful than if I was growing in an all-salt production setting, and that's okay. I use blue mats in my irrigation. So I’m feeding out of a reservoir but I'm using gravity and not using any type of electricity there. I change out my LEDs pretty often.

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Tia:  If you could have a chance to smoke with anyone on this planet, who’d that be and why?

Jameson: Bob Marley. I grew up in the Caribbean. My parents played me Bob Marley to go to sleep at night.

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Tia: Your top strains to smoke? Why?

Jameson: I like gas and funk. Anything that's very offensive to the average person, something that feels like a rotting corpse, or like a skunk hit by a car and then left out on the road, some bad old man breath - all those nasty things. I find that heavier strains for me are really where I need to be. I smoke a lot of rosin and hash.

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Tia: Can you share a few tips for the growers who just started their growing practices? Anything that they should pay attention to?

Jameson: I think cannabis growing is kind of like falling forward. It's like you need to not be afraid of making mistakes and understand that it's not going to be perfect from the start. So I think not being too hard on yourself is an important thing when you're starting. It's an evolution just like horse riding or model building - your first models are going to look like sh*t compared to your 20th. So don't beat yourself up too bad. There are more forgiving cultivation methodologies than others, and you need to find what works for your program, for your day-to-day schedule.

Understanding that and trying a number of different growing methodologies is probably the best thing to do and eventually, you'll go, “I really prefer this one because I'm very busy in the mornings or I'm very busy during the week and the hydroponic system kind of just manages itself when I can do all my garden duties on one day a week and that's good or I really like hand watering pots in the morning because I get up, I get to spend time with my girls. It cheers me up. I get the light in the morning.”

From me, advice on growing would be to not skimp on genetics. I see a lot of people invest a lot of money into tents, lights, media, and nutrients but then they have a seed that their friend gave them from a cross that they made accidentally - and there's nothing wrong with that. But just know what what you're going into. If your friend gave you something, know that it might not turn out and it might start growing bananas in week six or earlier.

Don't be afraid to reach out to people and ask for pointers. There are a lot of great guys who shared a ton of information with me to get me to where I am.

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Tia: Who's your idol in the cannabis industry?

Jameson: Kevin Jodrey. I wouldn't be where I'm at today and who I am today without Kevin Jodrey. He is somebody I have a tremendous amount of respect for and somebody who's been able to work with both legacy and legal operators and still maintain a really good reputation in the community. And I think that comes from putting in years of work. There's a ton of guys in the industry that I look up to and you know fanboy out over more than average people would over actors and singers. But yeah, I think Kevin Jodrey would be the guy that comes to mind as a connector of people who has a really eloquent way of describing very, very, high level, complex topics to people either really in the scene and understanding or people who are just visiting and looking through the looking glass.

Thank you so much, Jameson, for taking the time to do the interview. To learn more about them, head on over to their website.