When I was walking through one of our greenhouses this morning I decided to snap a few pics of our plants and write a quick piece on seeding hemp. As I mentioned in a few blogs earlier, we have been doing a lot of research on eleven specific strains we decide to propagate this year. Our intentions were to identify the varieties that would work well for our Alabama farmers. As most of you have probably noticed the strains (or clones) of the hemp you purchased this year for the most part have shown instability in shapes, sizes, leaves, flowers and smell to name a few. Stability in genetics affords farmers a more consistent and desirable crop for harvest as well as respectable cannabinoid and terpene profiles.
As our plants started growing we determined specific traits we desired and identified the females in each strain to pull for our seed stock. We pollinated our females with males that demonstrated similar characteristics or specifics we were looking for. As an example a specific fruit strain we are growing showed very stable growth patterns across the board and looked fantastic however we noticed that some had some very interesting tropical berry and cherry notes that most in the strains did not have. The others were fruity and not disappointing by no means but these seem to really stick out of the bunch. Plants we would call outliers. We were fortunate enough to catch some males that had the same fruity notes and used them to pollinate all the females.
This does a couple things. It allows us to hopefully bump up the terps that are contributing to those special berry notes in the males to all the females lacking that dominance and it allows us to layer into the exceptional females the strength of the male and his profiles. As you do this and produce F strains you stabilize the genetics and impart specific characteristics you desire into the plant. As this is important it is surely not the only thing. Resistibility to environment is crucial. Can the plant resist wind load, temp and humidity conditions, pest resistance and fungal resistance. These are also things that need to be considered for specific growing methodologies. Not all strains you purchase are going to work for you on your farm. Deciding what strains to plant is crucial to the success of your business. It all starts with a great strain.
This fall we will be taking pre orders for seeds and clones that we will have available for the 2020 season. We will only be selling material from our seed stock we grew this year in Alabama. We know they are stable strains that have been grown using 100% organic methodologies in our state’s environmental conditions. We use no pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. These plants are 100% clean and sun grown.
If you would like more information on reserving a spot for clones or seed stock please feel free to give us a call. Be sure to ask about our 2020 growers partnership program as well. The growers partnership program will be limited to about 12 farmers. Growers selected for the program will receive our plant material at a deep discount and in some cases free for the 2020 grow season.
B Safe & B Well!
-Lou
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