2025 California Cannabis Harvest Report: Santa Cruz County

By Caleb Chen | May 15, 2026

2025 Santa Cruz County Cannabis Harvest Report

This is part 8/8 of the 2025 California Cannabis Harvest Report by Budist. Scroll to the bottom of this page for links to the other sections.

Santa Cruz County is the smallest and southernmost county featured in this year’s Budist Harvest Report, but that alone doesn’t explain the landscape of the legal outdoor cultivation footprint in Santa Cruz in 2026, versus just 30 years prior in say 1996, when the very first medical marijuana legalization voter proposition in the world passed in California. Santa Cruz’s adult-use outdoor cannabis cultivation harvest has come a long way since the medical days.

The DCC reports that in 2025, ~20 licensed outdoor cultivators in Santa Cruz County harvested 660,990 wet pounds across 460,370 plants [1]. In 2025, Santa Cruz County grew ~6.1% more weight than the previous year, accounting for ~2.9% of the state’s total 2025 outdoor harvest compared to ~4.2% in 2024. The full term harvests featured via our participating Santa Cruz County farms are only a percentage of that total annual harvest, but they provide a clear snapshot of some of the active cannabis growing regions in Santa Cruz County including the mountains north of Santa Cruz as well as the more traditional agricultural areas near Watsonville.

According to NOAA [2], Santa Cruz County saw a cooler harvest and growing season in 2025 than 2024 with the exception of the month of September. Besides the cooler weather, the harvest months of September and October saw a reported ~2.60” of rain fall on average across Santa Cruz County, significantly more than reported in Santa Cruz County’s bone-dry 2024 harvest. At the same time, Santa Cruz County’s southern latitude allows for late harvests of certain types of plants even after a November with over 6” of rain.

From the storied historical impact of the “gold standard of medical marijuana collectives” that was the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) formed by Valerie and Mike Corral in 1993 [3] to the commercial outdoor cultivation harvests of today, Santa Cruz County has remained relevant despite the odds. Despite its limited role in California’s sungrown cannabis flower market in 2026, the Santa Cruz County of today still very much reverberates the historical advancements in modern cannabis science that started in this fated county. Everything from highlighting landrace heirlooms to the hottest modern hybrids. In contemporary Santa Cruz, one weekly community cannabis culture gathering still occurs via the airwaves at KSCO 1080AM every Friday at 8PM in the form of The Cannabis Connection hosted by Budist Christopher Carr [4].

Jade Nectar Farm

Farm Information

Website: https://www.jadenectar.com/

Instagram: @jade_grove_farm

Latitude: ~37.120 N

Elevation: ~1,500–2,500'

Farm Region/Watershed: Santa Cruz Mountains (Boulder Creek & Soquel)

Certifications: N/A

Head Cultivator: Jeff Nordahl

Cultivated: ~200 plants

Light Dep: No

Geographic features: The farm sits in a coastal mountain zone in the San Lorenzo Valley of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Shielded from marine moisture this unique and pristine micro-climate in the mountain redwoods maintains low humidity, allowing flowers to fully mature without mold risk.

Genetics Information

Total # of cultivars: 40+

Genetics sources: Seeds from world collectors from many years ago, kept in-house; Proprietary seeds from own breeding (landrace botanical garden)

Top Cultivars: Iranian, Pakistani, Cambodian, Jalisco, Thai

Additional Information: Iranian pheno - the Iranian Vomit delivers incredibly psychedelic effects

Cultivation Practices

Plant inputs: Hugelkultur hybrid soil with wood chips, horse manure, and organic bone and blood meal

Pest management: Predatory insects only - lacewings and cucumeris

Planting tech: Hugelkultur in ground with wood chips and compost mulch layer; some compost teas and KNF feedings

Philosophy: Our landrace botanical garden is a living art exhibit of cannabis history and culture that we get to smoke.

Harvest Information

2025 Final Planting Date: 6/1/2025

2025 Harvest Dates: 9/15/2025 - 12/10/2025

Earliest Cultivars: Iranian

Latest Cultivar: Thai

Atypical conditions: Early September rains in 2025 (2024 had no rain until December — great harvest that year)

Buak Green Valley Ranch (Coastal Sun Farm)

Farm Information

Website: https://www.coastalsunfarm.com/

Instagram: @coastalsunfarm

Latitude: ~36.980 N

Elevation: ~250’

Farm Region/Watershed: Green Valley, College Lakes Watershed

Certifications: OCal

Head Cultivator: Mavrik Lindeman

Cultivated: 343,000 sqft

Light Dep: No

Geographic features: Our farm is tucked back in old apple orchards in Watsonville California. We are surrounded by rolling hills and many different agricultural fields. There is definitely a unique microclimate still being close to the coast; it brings fog and lingering cloud coverage but can still get pretty hot after the fog lifts. We have been farming regeneratively over the years to build our soil's beneficial biology to help us. These techniques include growing cover crops over the winter and always using organic inputs, and also trying to minimize the amount of soil disturbance through machinery and tractor usage.

Genetics Information

Total # of cultivars: There were around 85 different cultivars with 58 of them being trials, and the rest were for production. We only plant a small amount of trials to try new things and see how they perform in our area.

Genetics sources: Proprietary clones from own mothers: Lifted Farm Nursery, Coastal Sun/Strong Ag, Haze Valley Nursery, Old Soul Seeds

Top Cultivars: With such a large quantity of cultivars, we have learned to lean towards some reliable cultivars and do some larger batches of what we feel more comfortable with. Fatso, Donny Burger, Hashburger, Banana Punch, Nam Wah, Pressure.

Additional Information: We are always trying to bring in new cultivars and keep up with this revolving industry where unique cultivars and quality can help us stand out.

Cultivation Practices

Plant inputs: OMRI Listed certified for organic production

Pest management: Beneficial habitat, scouting, manual exclusion, and essential oils

Planting tech: We grow in native soil, and use many different regenerative practices such as rotational grazing, diversified covers, and composts.

Philosophy: Regenerative Organic to the tilt

Harvest Information

2025 Final Planting Date: 7/23/2025

2025 Harvest Dates: 9/10/2025 - 10/10/2025

Earliest Cultivar: We try to plan out our planting according to harvest times and plant the earliest finishing strains first in the field. Usually, Oreoz is our first harvest.

Latest Cultivar: This tends to change and vary year to year with so many new cultivars. Plus, this year with the weather made some cultivars finish up faster than desired. Some trial cultivars were our last harvested last season.

Atypical conditions: Last season was very challenging due to uncontrollable weather. We had multiple weeks of overcast cloud and fog coverage, not giving the plants a good veg push. Then we had early rains which the plants battled through and made conditions pretty wet.

Notable highlights/challenges: The major challenge last season was the weather. We have to adapt with the weather and learn from it. Mother nature always bats last!