East Fork partners with Vibrant Hemp Cultures to make original cultivars available for farmers in 2020
The cannabis industry is unique in many ways, not the least of which is the camaraderie and collaboration between organizations who in other industries would be considered competitors.
Although making money is essential for survival, another goal of many in the industry is to get the plant, and the ability to grow it, into as many hands as possible. Along those lines, East Fork has teamed up with Vibrant Hemp Cultures to help people all over the country grow our award-winning genetics on their own farms.
We chose to partner with Vibrant because of their stellar team, their vision, and their ability to provide healthy, consistent starts to farmers throughout the U.S. due to their strong tissue culture lab partnerships.
Vibrant CEO and founder Tony Locken has a lot of cannabis experience. In addition to starting Vibrant, Tony was a longtime owner and operator of High Latitude Farms in Hood River, Oregon, and recently authored a book called “Cloning Solutions: The Art and Science of Aeroponic Propagation.” Beyond his experience, Tony is dedicated to bringing consistency, professionalism, and ethical business practices to the hemp clone space.
Vibrant works with labs in the U.S. who have decades of experience dealing with a large volume of plants, and reputations as quality institutions. After tissue cultures are started, Vibrant’s lab partners grow them in greenhouses with crop-specific design, giving the plants their best chance at success in the field.
While growing from seed offers a lot of inherent advantages, most current commercial hemp seed lines are limited in their chemical expression. The CBD-dominant cannabis genetic pool was severely diminished during the prohibition of cannabis, and while efforts are underway, we’re decades away from reaching the sort of chemical diversity expressed in THC-rich cultivars of the plant. In that time, growing from clone allows cultivators to look into the future at what future seed lines might one day provide, particularly when it comes to chemical expression including cannabinoids and terpenes.
In addition to the chemovar advantages of growing from clone, farmers can also avoid common problems found in seed cultivaiton including rogue males, hermaphrodism, and less-than-ideal germination rates.
Starting immediately, you'll be able to order tissue culture starts from Vibrant of the following East Fork original varieties:
Oregon Guava: This ACDC x Sour Tsunami choice phenotype won a medal in the Hemp category at the 2019 Cultivation Classic in Portland. Reliably high in CBD.
Blue Orchid: We combined Ringo's Gift with Blue Dynamite to produce the winner in the Sungrown Type 3 category at the 2019 Cultivation Classic in Portland.
Takilma Kush: Bubba Kush x Harlequin Tsunami. Dense flower, and a strong terpinolene presence. The cultivar that always has people saying “there’s no way that’s hemp.”
Sour Pineapple: Pineapple Tsu x Sour Tsunami. A terpene powerhouse.
Tropical Storm: The lovechild of Harlequin Tsu and Sour Tsu is one of our more aesthetically pleasing cultivars.
Llama Kush: This cultivar is mired in mystery, but includes Ringo’s Gift as a parent. A reliable East Fork favorite.
