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When I drive between Jacksonville and Oak Grove School in Medford, I see two large plantings of something on the south side of Main Street. Can anyone at the Mail Tribune tell me what’s growing like weeds out there? — Mike R., Medford One thing for sure, those aren’t big tomato plants popping out of the ground. We started with a call to Oregon State University Extension Service, and our hunch was reinforced. “I don’t usually go out West Main, but when I slowed down, it sure looked like hemp to me,” Rich Roseberg, director of the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center, told us. “Because it’s a hemp type of cannabis, they wouldn’t have to fence it, but typically growers do because they don’t want people to take a valuable crop.” We called Salem, where state Agriculture Department managers confirmed the grow is cannabis, but not of the stoner variety. According to Gary McAninch, who heads up the Oregon Agriculture Department’s Nursery, Christmas Tree & Hemp Program, the registered grower for the 30-acre site at 2991 W. Main St. is JNV Farms LLC of Tualatin. According to the incorporation documents, the LLC’s organizer is Dasha Siha, of Houston. Other listed members are Johannes Vanderwey and Nicolaas Vanderwey of Wilsonville. A May amendment did not list Siha. McAninch said there are three types of industrial hemp registrations: Growers, handlers who process cannabidiol (CBD) oil, and seed producers. County records show the property is owned by the Perry Family Trust of Vancouver, Washington. Annual registration cycles follow the calendar year. There are 530 registered hemp growers, and more applications are coming in, McAninch said, attributing a late influx to indoor growers. Hemp does not contain the psychoactive THC ingredient that gives marijuana users a “high.” It can be used for a variety of textile-type uses and the CBD oil is used for medical purposes, including to control seizures. A year ago, Medford School District officials raised an alarm when a smaller hemp grow was put in on seven acres across West Main Street by Rick Schiller of Schiller Enterprises. There’s no current sign of a grow on that property, just up the street from Oak Grove Elementary School. McAninch said there is no 2018 registration for either Schiller Enterprises or Rick Schiller. Send questions to “Since You Asked,” Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by email to [email protected]. We’re sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them.