Growing the Industry: Jay Wills

As the cannabis industry grows, both figuratively and literally, Greenway aims to highlight and introduce the individuals behind the plants that the legal cannabis market is built on with Growing the Industry.

In this edition, Greenway spoke with Jay Wills, the geneticist behind Tree1Four and head of genetics at VIBE Cannabis, about translating decades of experience into commercial cultivation, the importance of preserving cannabis culture, and the future he sees for breeding, research, and Missouri’s emerging microbusinesses.

For Wills, the work is inseparable from the culture that produced it.

He has cultivated cannabis since 1994, working across traditional and regulated markets before returning to Missouri. In his career, Wills has birthed some of the most iconic and recognized cultivars and St. Louis-inspired creations, including Crown Candy, Sugar Fire, and Willie McGee.

His partnership with VIBE brought genetics developed through Tree1Four into a licensed commercial facility, creating one of the state’s earliest prominent collaborations between an established Missouri operator and a breeder with deep roots in the traditional market.

Nearly four years later, the partnership has brought Tree1Four cultivars including Liquid Sunshine, Mississippi Nights, and RKO to Missouri’s regulated market. More broadly, Wills believes it helped demonstrate how traditional-market knowledge and commercial infrastructure could complement one another.

“It’s crazy to think that it’s basically been four years since that first merger between myself and VIBE,” Wills recalled. “I really have to give my hat off to the team here because, four years ago, they took a huge risk. That risk turned into this beautiful marriage that allowed all of this to blossom into what it is today.”

The relationship also arrived during a complicated moment. Missouri had recently approved adult-use cannabis, and some members of the community were skeptical of legacy cultivators and breeders entering partnerships with licensed companies.

Wills understood the hesitation, but he also recognized an opportunity that he could not ignore.

“There aren’t many people who will take a risk on you,” Wills explained. “When you can surround yourself with a group of people who want to take that risk and take that ride, you have to respect that.”

Some of the people who initially questioned the move later acknowledged its success. Wills said he never took the criticism too personally.

“No matter what decision you make, there’s always going to be someone on the opposite side of it,” he continued. “Some of the people I got blowback from have since told me, ‘You’re crushing it.’ It wouldn’t be the first time someone didn’t like me, and it won’t be the last. I’m fine with that because, if anybody knows me, I speak my mind.”

That willingness to engage in uncomfortable conversations has become part of Wills’ approach. Rather than viewing his success as something to protect from others, he sees it as a potential pathway for more breeders and cultivators to enter the licensed industry without abandoning their identities or communities.

“If I can help anybody else find these pathways, reach out to me,” Wills said. “I’m still doing collaborations with my friends and with people I don’t even know, but I see that they’re passionate and doing the work. I want to offer that olive branch and help get their gear out there.”

Wills pointed to collaborations involving Backcountry Farms, Head Change, Lush Labs, and other Missouri companies as evidence that the relationship between the traditional community and licensed industry continues to evolve.

“To see people who have been putting in the work for years, sometimes decades, finally get a spotlight on them, I’m so excited for that,” he stated.

Building a legacy rooted in St. Louis

Tree1Four’s identity is deeply connected to St. Louis and the 314 area code, but the significance of those numbers goes beyond branding.

Wills’ father was born on March 14. His mother returned home on March 14 after spending more than 500 days in the hospital following a severe automobile accident. Years later, while Wills was working at a cultivation facility in Montana, federal and state authorities raided the operation on the same date.

“The St. Louis, the 314, and the Missouri part of this is ingrained in my DNA,” Wills explained. “Anything I can do to incorporate home into the cultivars and the artwork, I try to do it.”

That connection can be seen in cultivar names including Crown Candy, Sugar Fire, Willie McGee, and Mississippi Nights, a tribute to the former St. Louis music venue.

Even the artwork created for Liquid Sunshine draws from a real moment in Wills’ life, depicting him skateboarding along a road near a motorcycle. The Arch was added to relocate that memory visually from Eureka to St. Louis, tying another personal story to the city that remains central to his work.

For Wills, those names and images are not simply marketing devices. They document people, places, and experiences that might otherwise disappear.

At 50, Wills said the question guiding much of his work has changed.

“I’m at this point in my life where I’m asking, ‘What am I leaving behind?’” he reflected. “That is far more important than anything I could monetarily gain for however long this journey lasts. Let’s do right by people. Let’s set this up and pass it down for longer than either of us will be here. Small things can make huge impacts.”

Breeding beyond yield and potency

One of those potential impacts began with a half-gram Mississippi Nights rosin cartridge.

According to Wills, a professor from Drury University purchased the cartridge in Springfield and later searched for the breeder behind the cultivar. That connection led to an invitation for Wills to participate in a developing research project involving the mapping and sequencing of cannabinoid and terpene profiles for study alongside specific cancerous growths, tumors, and melanoma.

Wills emphasized that the project remains in its early stages, with research and administrative preparations still underway. However, the opportunity aligns with questions he has considered throughout his breeding career.

“I’ve always had thoughts about breeding for specific ailments,” Wills said. “Let’s identify these compounds and find out everything they’re capable of doing. Then, how do we bring them together in new genetics where size and weight aren’t what matters? We’re breeding for cannabinoids and terpenes.”

The project is also deeply personal. Wills shared that his father is living with cancer, giving the proposed research significance beyond his professional interest in the plant.

“This is where the legacy part comes in,” he explained. “This is one of those projects that could last much longer than I’ll ever be here. It means far more to me than I can express.”

Wills traced the opportunity back to his decision to partner with VIBE. Without that relationship, Mississippi Nights may never have been produced at commercial scale, processed into rosin, purchased in Springfield, or discovered by the professor.

“None of this happens if we don’t go back four years and make that decision,” he said. “I never thought I would be in this situation or having these conversations. I lived for so long as a criminal and a hermit. Everybody knew who I was, but no one knew who I was. To be where I am now is awesome. I’m tremendously grateful, and I don’t take any of it for granted.”

Selecting the Olympians

Moving Tree1Four genetics into a large commercial cultivation facility required Wills to reevaluate how plants were selected.

A cultivar that thrives in a home garden may not be able to withstand the schedule, environmental intensity, and production requirements of a commercial operation. At VIBE, Wills works in rooms containing more than 100,000 watts of lighting, with dozens of cultivars and harvest groups planned seven or eight months in advance.

“In these commercial environments, you’re an Olympic athlete in training from day one,” Wills explained. “There’s no easy path. Even though we create the best environment we can, the plant is constantly being pushed.”

   

Selection depends on far more than the quality of the finished flower. Wills evaluates cloning capacity, vegetative growth, internodal spacing, plant height, stress tolerance, flowering time, and how well each cultivar fits alongside the rest of a production room.

A plant that produces only a few clones or requires an extended vegetative period may be worth preserving at home, but it can be difficult to justify in a facility that needs hundreds of genetically identical plants for each production cycle.

“We’ll give every plant a try,” Wills said. “It gets its first run no matter what. Then, the outliers and standouts continue moving forward.”

Some exceptional cultivars still require accommodation. Wills pointed to VIBE’s Chem Reserve as a plant that is more difficult to grow and produces fewer clones, but offers an outcome strong enough to warrant the additional work.

Others simply cannot meet the operational needs of a facility supporting more than 200 employees.

“You have to weigh all of those factors,” he explained. “What will be most beneficial for the team and the consumers, not just my personal interest in a plant?”

His own favorite plant to cultivate, LA Confidential, illustrates that divide. Wills loves the finished flower, but the cultivar requires a long vegetative period and delivers relatively little weight.

“At home, that doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “If I can only take two clones every three months because that’s how it grows, that’s cool. I’m growing it for myself. In a commercial facility, it may not be viable.”

Creating space for uncommon genetics

Wills believes Missouri’s microbusiness program may create new opportunities for cultivars that do not fit the economics of comprehensive cultivation facilities.

Smaller operators may have the flexibility to run longer-flowering plants, uncommon genetic lines, or cultivars that produce exceptional experiences without meeting conventional expectations for yield or potency.

However, he cautioned that craft cultivation does not eliminate the need for careful production planning. Microbusiness cultivators still face testing costs, batch-size requirements, plant-count limitations, and other expenses that can make excessive variety financially unsustainable.

“You can definitely do things on the micro side that other places won’t,” Wills explained. “But you still have checks and balances. You don’t want 15 plants from 15 different cultivars in one round and then have to pay for full certificates of analysis on all 15.”

With the right planning, Wills expects microbusinesses to introduce genetics that patients and consumers have not seen from larger facilities.

He recalled cultivating Malawi Skunk No. 1, a plant with an unusual structure and a flowering cycle exceeding 120 days. The economics would make it difficult to produce in most commercial environments, but its distinctive qualities made it memorable decades later.

“In the next two years, we’re going to see a lot of different cultivars come out of the microbusinesses that we haven’t seen from comprehensive licenses,” Wills predicted. “We’re going to diversify the gene pool, and there will be much more to offer patients and consumers across the state.”

Beyond THC

For Wills, preserving genetic diversity also requires better consumer education.

Because Missouri consumers generally cannot closely inspect or smell flower before purchasing it, many rely on THC percentages printed on packaging. That emphasis can disadvantage cultivars with rich cannabinoid and terpene profiles but comparatively modest potency results.

“A high THC number by itself doesn’t matter to me,” Wills said. “I want a vast range of cannabinoids and terpenes. I want these things to interact with me.”

Wills does not dismiss products designed primarily to deliver THC. He believes every product category has a place, from distillate cartridges to rosin, solvent-based concentrates, dry sift, and static hash. His personal ritual, however, always returns to flower.

“I love concentrates, but I will always go back to flower,” he said. “Some of my favorite flower tests lower in THC, but it has CBD, CBN, THCV, and this total package of terpenes. There’s nothing better than a proper exhale, when you can feel the world exhaling from you.”

Now that he is older, Wills said his relationship with cannabis has become more intentional. Rather than consuming throughout the day, flower often serves as a reward and transition after the work is finished.

“This is my ritual, my solace, and my peace,” he explained. “It’s the reward for a hard day’s work. I’ll roll one up, take my dogs for a walk, and celebrate a beautiful evening. We made it through another day on this journey, and it’s good to celebrate it.”

Wills believes the market is slowly beginning to recognize that potency is not the sole measure of quality.

“Fire will always sell,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it tests at 13% or 33%. It may take longer for people to catch on because one person has to experience it and share that experience, but that pathway is starting to happen.”

Breeders must also respond to the realities of the market. If purchasers continue demanding higher THC results, Wills said the challenge is to create cultivars that can reach those benchmarks without sacrificing the broader cannabinoid and terpene profiles that make flower distinctive.

Regardless of the extraction method or finished product, he said quality begins with the same source.

“All concentrates start with good flower,” Wills stated. “It doesn’t matter which avenue you want to go down. We all have to go back to the plant. We have to respect it because we can’t create any of these other things without it.”

Looking five years ahead

After more than three decades with the plant, Wills remains energized by what comes next.

He expects microbusinesses to expand Missouri’s genetic library, international commerce to create new opportunities for breeders and cultivators, and research to deepen the industry’s understanding of cannabinoids and terpenes. Much of that future, he noted, is already being planned.

“What you’re seeing today was planned a year, two years, or three years ago,” Wills explained. “Breeding projects take time. You take a gamble every time.”

Asked to choose one cultivar of his own and one created elsewhere, Wills selected original OG Kush as the classic he would offer and Liquid Sunshine as the Tree1Four cultivar that best represents the complete experience he wants to create.

“It’s that all-encompassing balance,” he said of Liquid Sunshine. “You can smoke it in the morning or at night. It’s just right.”

Wherever the industry goes next, Wills intends to continue pushing its boundaries while opening doors for the people and culture that made his own journey possible.

“Thank you to everybody for all the support and all the love,” Wills concluded. “It means everything in the world to me. I’m forever grateful, and I will forever try to push the boundaries for all of us.”