2023 Guide to Hemp Production - 5

GENETICS
Tissue culture indexing takes six months at Royale
Botanicals, creating new mother stock material after
selecting the top phenomes.
differently, either in the color, in the odor or in the bud
size, " he says. " Also, you can have the risk of one of the
phenotypic expressions from a feminized seedling being
low grade marijuana. "
If one of these phenotypic expressions is greater than
0.3% THC, growers run the risk of field destruction.
" Here in Colorado, a lot of these inspectors walk out,
and they just randomly go cut down 10 or 12 plants
in your field. There's no rhyme or reason to what
they're inspecting; they're just walking through the
field randomly selecting, " Van Wingerden says. " If they
happen to select the one phenotypic expression that
had a higher rate of THC in it than everybody else in
that field, your entire field is burned up and you get a
strike on your license. "
Clones also have a 0% chance of being
hermaphrodites, meaning zero risk of pollination, unlike
feminized seedlings, which are purposely created with
hermaphroditic plants. The pollen, which looks like
talcum powder, will easily spread everywhere.
" Regardless of how good a breeder is or how great
that pollen is, you're going to have a percentage of
your plants from feminized seedlings herm out, " Van
Wingerden says. " The problem is you can never tell a
hermaphroditic plant from a non-hermaphroditic plant
until it's too late because those pollen jockeys, like we
like to call them, stay hidden under the canopy; you'll
never be able to catch them. "
Trialing Process
Royale Botanicals tests genetics - both those
bred in-house and those from other breeders they
work with - for more than two years before
introducing something into the market. This
extensive research and development (R&D) protocol
consists of four stages:
1. Breeding to 100% females,
2. Phenome selection process,
3. Field growing trial, and
4. Tissue culture indexing.
Once a variety makes it out of the vegetative stage,
it moves into the flowering stage in the greenhouse,
where samples are sent off for a certificate of analysis
(COA). Then, all the winners from the greenhouse are
planted into the R&D field in the first week of June to
see what they do outdoors.
" Maybe certain cultivars do really, really well, but
putting them out into a field where they're going to be
exposed to wind, rain, hail, etc., a lot of the genetics
split, " Van Wingerden says. " Then at the very end,
usually at the end of September, early October, we
harvest the winners, gather a wet weight, and then we
dry and cure all these plants as well. "
Certain strains are introduced into the market as
greenhouse-specific while others are field grown-specific.
Each of these R&D stages also plays a critical role in
making sure Royale Botanicals gets index free of viral,
bacterial and fungal disease pressures.
" It also allows us to have a bank of these genetics
that are stored, so that every year we throw out our
old mother stock and start with new elite stock, " Van
Wingerden says. " This is really important because
what we're doing is we're starting with generation one
each and every time for the next season on every one
of our cultivars. "
Pulling the elite stock every year instead of using
a clone from a clone from a clone helps combat
genetic drift.
" I think the analogy to use is if you have a petunia
plant, and it's nice and bright red as generation one. If
you get a cutting of it from generation five or six, that
red is not so vibrant; it looks more like pink. The plant
health is not as vigorous. It's more prone to disease
pressures, " Van Wingerden says. " Same goes for our
cannabis genetics, too. "
Starting with good, quality genetics is imperative to
a successful crop. HPN
2023 GUIDE TO HEMP PRODUCTION | 5
2023 Guide to Hemp Production

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