Editor’s note (2026):
This article dates back to an earlier era of cannabis reporting. Some claims below may reflect cultivation techniques such as Low Stress Training (LST), anecdote, or cannabis folklore rather than verified genetics. An update with added context appears at the end of the article.
Arcata, California. An independent scientist, Jaymes Dogheim, has developed a new strain of medical cannabis taking the name “Poison Ivy”. Dogheim, an Amsterdam NL native has over 20 years of experience breeding cannabis plants; and has been doing so exclusively at his lab in Humboldt County, CA for the past 8 years.
This spring, Dogheim finalized a strain to which he has given the name poison ivy due to unique characteristics it displays both while the plant is growing, and the effects it has on it’s medical patients.
Poison Ivy cannabis, unlike traditional strains, grows in a vine-ing, ivy like format spreading out along the surface of it’s grow medium as opposed to growing vertically. This unique horizontal growth pattern prevents the traditional “canopy” effect that prevents light from penetrating deep into the plant. With the surface area of the plant being spread out horizontally, all of the leaves are exposed to adequate lighting allowing photosynthesis to become extremely efficient.
According to Dogheim, another benefit to growing the Poison Ivy strain is that there is no need to “top” your plants or do any kind of “Low Stress Training” since the plants naturally grow relatively flat in nature. Also says Dogheim, the horizontal growth actually produces full sized “cola’s” about every 4 inches along the “vines” which allows yields to be multitudes of what traditional plants produce.
Dogheim described the strain as being about 90% Indica and 10% Sativa. Though full lineage will not be disclosed by Dogheim; he did state that some known strains that were used to create the final product included DNA from White Widow, Northern Lights, New York Diesel, and Durban Poison.
Dogheim explained that the largest challenge was continually using DNA of plants that were developing as “low riders” and taking hybrid by hybrid lower to the ground until a “vine” type of plant growth was achieved.
Another reason for the name Poison Ivy aside from it’s growth characteristics are from the effects that are felt when this strain is smoked. It has a strong impact on nerve endings in the body’s skin, making the user feel the effects “tingling” their whole body. Dogheim said that it produces the strongest “body high” of any strain he has ever worked with.
Dogheim has not yet released the strain to the public, as he first wants to receive a patent on the strain, before releasing seeds, or entering it into any competitions. Dogheim claims to be working day and night to determine what countries he may pursue patents in for this scientific breakthrough.
We will keep in touch with Dogheim, and keep you up to date on new information regarding the strain.
Update (2026): Myth, method… or a bit of both?
If you’re genuinely interested in unusual or mutant cannabis genetics, it’s worth checking out the work of TerpyZ Mutant Genetics, who openly document their experiments and results.
This article was originally published during a period when cannabis information spread quickly and verification often lagged behind. Forums, emails, and word of mouth filled the gaps left by prohibition and limited transparency.
Looking back with modern cultivation knowledge, some parts of this story are easier to place in context.
What still seems plausible
A cannabis strain known as Poison Ivy does exist in online strain databases and is generally described as:
- Indica-dominant
- Strongly body-focused in its effects
- Often loosely linked to genetics such as White Widow, Northern Lights, New York Diesel, and Durban Poison
So the name itself wasn’t invented out of thin air.
Where things start to look familiar
The more extraordinary claim — that Poison Ivy naturally grows like ivy, spreading horizontally and producing full-sized colas every few inches without training — is harder to back up.
There’s no independent evidence of a breeder named Jaymes Dogheim operating a laboratory in Arcata or Humboldt County, no verified grow reports showing a truly vine-type cannabis plant, and no public patent records for a strain called Poison Ivy.
What does fit neatly, however, is the description of a plant that has been heavily shaped using Low Stress Training (LST).
With time, patience, and skill, many strains can be trained to grow low and wide, spreading evenly across the grow space and producing multiple strong colas along horizontal branches. To someone seeing that for the first time — especially years ago — it could easily look like a brand-new growth trait rather than an advanced training technique.
So what was it?
It could have been:
- A real strain combined with very deliberate LST
- An early experiment that never stabilised
- A bit of hype layered onto solid growing skills
- Or, quite possibly, a wind-up that sounded just believable enough to travel
All of those were common in cannabis circles at the time.
We’re leaving this article published as part of that history — a snapshot of how cannabis knowledge once circulated — with the benefit of hindsight, better information, and a healthy pinch of salt.
