A Quest to Find the Best Pheno ’ s
Feature Story
VIBE on a Pheno-Hunt
A Quest to Find the Best Pheno ’ s
Editorial and Photography by Clayton Stallings , The EVOLUTION Magazine
In March of 2019 , three months before there was the first issue of The EVOLUTION Magazine , I was pitching the fresh idea of launching our publication at MO MJ Biz Con when I first met Jay Wills , founder of Tree1Four Genetics and currently head of genetics for VIBE . Medical marijuana legalization in Missouri had just passed , and the rules and regulations on applying for licenses were yet to be figured out . The attendees were a relatively even mixture of fresh out-of-the-closet traditional market hopefuls with corporate America cannabis newbies , hoping to carve out their piece of the pie in the Missouri medical marijuana industry .
Things were so new back then that they wouldn ’ t allow Wills to have a booth to sell seeds at Missouri ’ s first cannabis expo . Although we could legally obtain and consume cannabis with a medical marijuana card , we were still in the early pre-license stage , and there weren ’ t any clear rules on who or where seeds could be sold . Fast forward to today ’ s current Adult Use market , and very few legacy market faces like Wills are still around from those early days .
Although we all know Missouri licensees strive to appeal to the legacy market , most want to keep an arm ’ s length away from employing them , much less having them in leadership positions . After all , most of their experience came with the cost of breaking the old rules of the past that have now changed , which is the case for Wills . consulting groups online that were charging outrageous prices to give advice to cannabis home growers . “ That ’ s when the idea to launch Tree1Four first came to me ,” recalled Wills . “ I ’ ve been doing this for over 25 years , and I can teach it for free just out of love for growing and teaching cannabis . Me and George Noland from MO Green ’ s started giving free classes at the beginning of 2019 and continued traveling around the state offering free education , giving away free seeds from reputable breeders , and launching the evolution of local pheno breeders and hunters .”
I met Wills around the same time . He was “ allegedly ” still selling seeds at MO MJ Biz Con even though he wasn ’ t allowed a booth . What do you expect a legacy market guy to do in that situation — not continuing to do what they have always done ?
Around the same time as that encounter , Wills began the local pheno-hunt race long before the eventual licensee winners would have time to . Wills knew this head start in the underground home grower pheno-hunts would eventually pay off if there were ever to be a licensed group that would decide to work with underground cannabis experience that easily gets mislabeled as “ Black Market Villainy ”!
Although Wills first started growing cannabis in 1994 , his first large cultivation project was in Montana in 2010 . His experience , unfortunately , came with the cost of 15 DEA agents decked out in S . W . A . T . gear , which ended that project .
Not letting that experience hold him down , Wills went on to be a consultant on a license applicant team for an Illinois medical marijuana license applicant . After his team was unable to win the license , he went to Colorado to do growing and breading work .
“ The Colorado market at the time was a monopoly of garbage , and a buddy said , let ’ s go to Oregon and get our own license ,” Wills recounted . This was just six months before they changed the rules , and they began growing under the name All Loyal Farms in Bend , OR . “ After tensions with my partner grew too large , I decided it was time to be a legacy in my hometown of St . Louis , and I just so happen to make it home just in time to be with my beloved grandma before her passing .”
Back in his old Missouri stomping grounds he began consulting for an application group in the Missouri medical marijuana race based out of Osage Beach , Wills pondered all the local grow
Jay Wills in the research and development room at VIBE .
Let ’ s fast-forward to a month ago , long after VIBE , a Missouriowned license group , decided to hire Wills as its full-time head of genetics . I found myself in MY first genetics meeting , which happens
32 January 2025