Field Trials and 2021 Limited Hemp Seed Release
2021 LIMITED HEMP SEED RELEASE
After analyzing the data from our 2020 field trials (described below), East Fork is thrilled to announce a limited release of our Oregon Guava and Oregon Sweetgum to hemp farmers as feminized seed for the 2021 season.
Both of these cultivars have performed consistently throughout our partner farm trial sites, and have proven demand in the craft hemp flower market.
For more information on seed availability for your farm, please contact our team.
BUILDING THE EAST FORK BREEDING PROGRAM
The East Fork Cultivars team has been breeding and performing in-house field trials on cannabis lines on our farm in Southern Oregon since 2014, with the goal of improving agronomic traits while finding new and unique chemical compositions. You can read more about the East Fork Cultivars breeding philosophy here.
We’ve built up our genetic library with cannabis varieties that contain distinct and diverse terpene profiles, hemp-compliant THC levels, and plants that also display ideal qualities for field production.
CREATING FEMINIZED HEMP SEED
Over the last several years, we’ve seen exciting results with our long term breeding projects for Type 3 (hemp) East Fork original cultivars, both on our farm and in partner trials. Our work has been recognized with awards and strong demand for our unique offerings.
The next step in creating more access to these desirable cultivars is to produce stable lines of feminized hemp seed. We’ve seen consistency in the East Fork Originals we grow on our farm, in both agronomic traits and chemical profiles. However, to ensure our first commercial seed release includes varieties with consistent expression in diverse environments, we used the 2020 season to partner with hemp farmers for field trials throughout the United States.
FIELD TRIALS – STRUCTURE AND PROCESS
In exchange for East Fork Cultivars’ feminized seed, each partner farm collected detailed information on each cultivar throughout the grow season. These included some cultivars that are in the earlier stages of commercial development, and some that will be available in the 2021 season.
Assessments in the field included data on germination and feminization rates, survival rates in the field, lodging, plant structure, flowering time, and bud structure. Once pre-harvest testing was completed and the plants were harvested, we collected data on plant yield and chemical profiles of the cured flower.
While 2020 was a daunting year in our world, there were particular challenges for farmers. Between the ongoing pandemic and unprecedented wildfires, it was an extraordinary year to include experimental varieties in any field.
We are incredibly grateful to all of our field trial partners for the effort and consistency they gave to this project. Partners included the Gaia Herbs farm in North Carolina, Wonders of Nature in Wisconsin, and Horn Creek Hemp, Infinite Tree, and J&J Organics in Oregon.
To learn more about what it takes to create a new genetically stable line of cannabis seeds, read on...
THE FOUNDATIONS OF CANNABIS BREEDING
Humans have evolved alongside plants since the beginning of our existence. Over time, we’ve developed complex relationships with the ecosystems we live in – including the plants that feed us, clothe us, and bring us joy.
Our relationship with the cannabis plant (Cannabis sativa L.) has been particularly complicated.
Though cannabis was once celebrated as a multifaceted plant with exceptional utility, modern prohibition placed the public focus almost entirely on the intoxicating effects of THC. Federal anti-drug crusaders created intentional propaganda to negate the plant’s many uses, including evidence of the therapeutic effects of myriad compounds present in the plant.
HISTORY OF UNDERGROUND BREEDING
Until recently, cannabis breeders have largely been forced to experiment underground (literally, in basements), and release the fruits of their labor at the risk of their own freedom. Without widespread access to chemical and genetic testing, and limited ability to perform the large scale variety trials that have transformed the modern agricultural industry, cannabis has largely fallen behind modern plant breeding methods.
To meet the market demand created by prohibition, cannabis breeders over the last several decades have largely focused on cultivars (“cultivated varieties”) with increasingly high THC levels. Due to the illegal status of cannabis, these breeders have often been shrouded in mysterious tales of their escapades and rumors of government involvement.
Now, this is all changing in the United States, with widespread state-by-state legalization of Type 1 cannabis (high THC), and federal legalization of Type 3 cannabis (very low THC – aka, hemp). (Not to mention Canadian federal legalization of all cannabis types!) Many cannabis breeders are playing catchup to implement modern horticultural and plant breeding practices that have been industrialized, globalized, and refined over the last century.
CANNABIS BREEDING PRINCIPLES AND PROCESS
Plant breeding is an exciting endeavor, much like any other scientific experiment. A breeder must decide on the ideal traits they would like to see in their germplasm (plants), and then assess those traits in the germplasm they have at their disposal.
The specific physical expression of any organism, from people to plants, is known as a phenotype. Each phenotype is the result of a complex interaction between the genetic makeup of that organism and its surrounding environments.
With all of the potential the cannabis plant holds, farmers look to breeders to create cultivars that consistently display the traits they’re looking for, even in varying environments. In the cannabis industry, the word “phenohunt” has become widely used to refer to the process of searching for a cultivar that has the particular phenotypic expression a grower is seeking in order to maximize performance of selected traits in their environment.
Typically, target traits include agronomic qualities like plant structure, flowering time, and resistance to pests and pathogens; however, the “ideal” expression of these traits is subjective. For example, an indoor cultivator may prioritize short, squat phenotypes, while an outdoor cultivator may look for the opposite.
A related – and crucial – set of traits is the chemical expression of the plant, or “chemotype”. While a cultivator operating in an adult-use market may prioritize Type 1 (high THC) expression, it’s legally imperative for hemp farmers to look for plants that will deliver profiles that are Type 3 (less than .3% THC in the harvested material). And within that legal potency range, hemp farmers must also choose plant varieties based on whether they are growing less resinous plants for biomass (processing material) or more resinous plants for terpene-rich, smokable flower.
If a plant has been stabilized to consistently display one target trait but is lacking another desired trait, the goal is to cross it with another plant that displays the desired trait until the additional trait also appears consistently. Assessing the progeny for consistent expression of all the desired traits is a process that can take many generations.
Before releasing a seed variety to the public, a breeder should ensure that the results of their work are displayed consistently, which involves assessing a large number of plants, over many generations and in various environments.
Along the way to reaching a consistent seed variety, unique and exciting phenotypes can be identified and released as clonally propagated varieties, as we at East Fork have done through our tissue culture partner Vibrant Hemp Cultures.
