Breeding high CBD/CBG hemp

Anyone breeding or crossing new high cbd hemp strains? I’ve collected a bunch of different hemp genetics from everywhere I could find them. I also have a lot of type II’s that I’d like to take to type IIIs. This is our first year so I’ll be testing a few and running clones outdoors, but the plan is for next year to have a new stable type III to plant.

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how are you monitoring your progress? The big boys are doing marker assisted breeding based on this and similar A physical and genetic map of Cannabis sativa identifies extensive rearrangement at the THC/CBD acid synthase locus

Thanks for that paper! I know what I’ll be reading tonight. I just picked up the miniPCR16 and all the solutions from Medicinal Genomics. I’ll be using these for early selections. You can determine type I, II, III, or IV with a leaf punch. Basically it allows you test for the THCA synthase gene and the CBDA synthase gene. You can also test plant Sex. From there, observable phenotypic selection and lab testing for final potency. I’m doing this on a pretty small scale, but early chemotype verification will cut out a lot of wasted time. I am interested in others methods too!

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All while genetic modifications maximizing cannabidiol synthase in “hemp” is happening a similar metabolic pathway is being optimized for yeast. Once they have that yeast (beyond $8,500 in sucrose per kg production) optimized I question the relevance of CBD farming.

I see what your saying, growing cannabinoids in a lab ,if cost effective, would definitely be more efficient than growing thousands of acres of hemp just to process it into isolate. The same could be said for THC or any other cannabinoids. But that only works if that’s all your after. I can see the pharmaceutical industry going this route, but consumers that want natural organic cannabis will always need the farmers.

Plus, we all know the entourage effect is real and your not going to get that from lab grown cannabinoids. I personally believe the best medicine comes from organic full-spectrum oils. But being realistic, I think your right with respect to technology revolutionizing the way cannabinoids are produced. Within any industry, the big players are going to find the cheapest most efficient way of creating a product.

Just look at vitamin C. You can eat foods rich in vitamin c. Which while still within the food matrix, is the most bioavsilable. You can buy natural ascorbates derived from food, probably the next best, but its expensive because it’s expensive to extract. However, the majority of vitamin C is derived from GMO corn and synthesized in a lab. And unless your aware, or health conscious, your not gonna know the difference. I think the same thing is going to happen with CBD.

I was just listening to Reggie Gaudino today on the Cannabis Cultivation and Science podcast and he brought up some interesting points. For example, we’re finding out that some minor cannabinoids are linked to CBD synthase. Thus, we’ve actually bred out certain cannabinoids that we weren’t even aware of in our race to breed for THC. Not to forget what we’ve bred out from bottlenecking the gene pool with poly hybrids of poly hybrids. I think now more than ever we need to preserve old genetics and breed for new and novel traits, terpenes, cannabinoids etc. New tools in genomics are going to allow us to make leaps and bounds in this regard, but preservation is essential. I give thanks to all the librarians out there.

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I wish I understood the market forces that create the ridiculous demand on cannabidiol isolate now, besides the gummies and lotions that have to expect the same fad product lifestyle any other similar one would.

Cannabigerol was on the market with some Chinese suppliers I follow until recently, since this is one intermediate in the natural c.sativa synthase path I assumed some of the cannabidiol they’re selling would be synthetic already. I base this conspiracy with the newest research on genetically modified saccharomyces. They could also start at olivetol though that always seems to be financially futile.

As a bud smoker that doesn’t dabble in extracts personally I see the benefits of the continually improving cannabis genome for the terpene, thc, cbd combinations that make strains unique. I don’t know any “hemp” smokers though and it brings me back to my first point.

If this cbd itself is the commodity, once it’s brewed in a bioreactor this shift toward cbd-farms growing high cbd yielding plants that are less favorable to grow than hemp of the biomass variety destined for rope and itchy clothing won’t make sense

None of it does though, how we had a pothead president for eight years kick back while feds fucked with everyone with a grow light but it takes this crazy hotelier and Mitch to get shitty weed federally legalized.

This rant will make less and less sense as I go on, really digging this site so far though

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Any luck on the miniPCR? I was looking into one of those and I’m on the same position as you. I asked farmer Freeman, who offers those tests using that equipment, if it’s useful to get the thca synthase gene tested if all my cbd plants will be under 0.5% thc.

He replied with “no, I dont think the synthase testing will be useful. All of those samples would likely test positive for CBDA and negative for THCA”

I still might get that little machine for male/female testing, or if I want to do straight up thc/cbd crosses. I’m very curious if you’ve had any luck with that pcr machine

You question the relevance of farming hemp and cannabis because you never understood it in the first place-

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I’ve been so busy lately all my PCR gear is still sitting in boxes. We’re just trying to get ahead of our first season. Cloning, getting green houses up, mixing soil, etc.

I can’t speak on ease of use, but I picked it up to assist in breeding projects. Specifically, moving from type II’s to type III’s, so we can incorporate new genetics into the hemp lines. And also, to identify type IVs. We picked up some CBG seeds from Europe and I wanted a way to test them in veg for chemotype right away. Just to know I wasn’t wasting my time. But as of now, both the cbg plants and the MiniPCR are on standby as we get our priorities in order.

If your just looking to verify if your hemp seeds are type IIIs, I don’t think it’s that useful. Most hemp seeds are type IIIs, unless you got completely ripped off. But for in house gender testing, you could save a lot, especially if your doing it on a large scale. If so, I’d go with a 96 well thermocycler and the Medicinal Genomics reagents. They have a protocol PDF that gives you all the info you’ll need, plus the extra supplies required. I hope that helps.

I plan on posting a report here if I ever get it out of the box. I really want to get to the “cbg” plants,but right now we’re just trying to make sure we get our plants in the ground by june1st. After that, the side projects can continue.

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I grabbed one and enough reagents for 100 tests. Should have my first tests next week, I’ll let u know how it goes.
I’ll be practicing with seedlings that will be grown out and sexed anyways.
I’ll also do a couple “control” tests with my mother and fathers I have around
My next mission is finding out what these regents are made of and trying to source it cheaper.

Are you breeding below .3?

That’s awesome! I wish I had more time to bust mine out and play with it. We’re working on getting a couple greenhouses up and our plants in the ground at the moment. All while trying to keep up with our families construction business. After that, I feel like I should have more time. I’ll definitely check back and watch your progress tho. I picked up some CBG seeds from Europe that I’d Really like to start a breeding program with. Some of theCBG test results I’ve seen show non detectable thc, which makes concentrating a hell of a lot easier. The ones I picked are testing at 8-10%. Still kinda low, but it’s a good starting point. Swiss cannabinoid on Instagram is hitting 15%. Not sure where orgeonCBD’s is at. But yeah, trying breed for that -.3% with no early harvest.

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Can you get the Swiss seeds? Where did you find these 8-10% ones?

https://www.xxpresspcr.com/all-news/pcr-101-an-introduction-to-pcr/

nucleotides, gene-specific primers, thermostable polymerase, Mg++, buffer.

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I don’t think the Swiss seeds are available, at least not what I’ve found. CanapAroma on IG has the 8-10% ones. I haven’t gotten them tested yet, but they definitely grow like some other fiber/seed hemp strains I’ve grown. Santhica27 is another known cbg variety, but closer to 3-4%, Cannapot has them. I know there’s better ones out there, just hard to find or extremely limited. If you don’t mind spending some time breeding, it shouldn’t take too long to bring those numbers up.

How does one bring up? Just best w the best?

Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s what CanapAroma is working on at the moment…bringing their cbg % up. Others are far past it, but they’re selling seed along the way. I was able to grab regular seeds, but their plan is to put out cbg fems. I only picked up 50 seeds, but more is always better when making selections. Just grow your cbg’s out, Select highest cbg male/ female cross and repeat. It could get spendy with testing, but it’ll pay off. The hardest part is just finding stable cbg genetics to begin with. I’m personally ok with 10%, but if I can be working it towards higher cbg while I’m growing out clones then I’m happy. You’ll be seeing more and more cbg strains coming out over the next few years. To be honest, I don’t know why there isn’t more already.

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Where do you buy the high % ones

I haven’t found them yet, but if I do, I’ll let you know. I settled with the ones from CanapAroma because I just wanted to get my hands on some seeds. I know OregonCBD has them, but I wouldn’t know how to go about getting those. I also never signed a MTA, so I’m not really worried about being sued over someone’s proprietary CBG strain.

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Yeah you would have to sign it for that particular strain correct?