TRIPLOIDS

THE NEXT STEP IN CANNABIS EVOLUTION

As experienced cannabis farmers know, the threat of cross-pollination poses one of the most severe risks to a successful season. Having a crop pollinated is a severe hit for biomass farmers (loss of 50% of usable material and 30% reduction in average cannabinoid content) and catastrophic for anyone in the trimmed flower business (total loss). What if farmers never had to worry about pollination events again?

The team of scientists at Oregon CBD have made this dream a reality for 2021. Following in the footsteps of plant breeders in other crops (watermelon, grapes, banana, hops, citrus, etc.), we’re proud to introduce SEEDLESS cannabis varieties for 2021.

These Non-GMO triploid cannabis varieties are made possible through advanced ploidy screening.

Say goodbye to seeded crops!

Seed sales begin January 1, 2021.
Visit our catalog for current offerings, or ordering information to be notified when seed sales begin.

TRIPLOID BENEFITS

Infertile flowers

Your flowers will not be seeded by neighbors or by any rogue pollen generated on your farm

Non-viable pollen

Any pollen that may escape your farm will NOT pollinate your neighbors

Reduced costs

Hiring crews to rogue “males” is no longer necessary

Increased yields

Up to 100% in some cultivars

Increased aromatic content and complexity

30%-50% increase in terpene content and other olfactory compounds

More efficient use of inputs

Increased copy number of key genes leads to hyper-efficient plants

Rich in novel cannabinoids

(CBG, CBDV, and CBCV) — 35%-65% of the total fraction are high value propyl cannabinoids

Photoperiod sensitive and day neutral

autoflower varieties — Allow for early staggered harvests or September finishing times

Attained through traditional breeding

Non-GMO Project and Oregon Tilth Certified

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

It’s all mathematics.
In this case, 2n + 4n = 3n.

Cannabis in the wild is almost exclusively a diploid (2n) species. In diploids, every plant receives one set of chromosomes from each parent. Though rare, spontaneous mutations can occur that result in a doubling of the diploid genomes and lead to tetraploid (4n) individuals even in controlled breeding populations.

Dr. Hsuan Chen and Brendan Rojas, research plant breeders at Oregon CBD, designed a series of experiments to treat diploid cannabis tissue with compounds known to inhibit cell division. The process approximates the tetraploid-inducing events that occur in nature at a very low rate, but does so (now, after many experiments) in a more consistent manner. Treated plants must be screened using a flow cytometer--a device that can measure the physical size of a plant genome--and compared to their diploid counterparts to detect the desired doubling of genome size. Success results in tetraploids: plants with four sets of homologous chromosomes (4n) and an identical doubled version of the mother. This screening process is repeated a number of times in subsequent generations of cuttings to prevent reversion to the diploid state.

Tetraploid cannabis plants have been described by two other research groups (Mansouri and Bagheri 2017 and Parsons et al. 2019) and their findings mirror ours; distinct morphological changes and increased nutrient consumption are apparent, but chemical composition (ratios and total amounts produced) is relatively unchanged--albeit with a marked increase in aromatic compounds. So far, evidence suggests that tetraploids offer little if any performance increase over diploids, with the exception of louder olfactory notes.

The game-changer for farmers happens when tetraploids (4n) are crossed with diploids (2n); the resulting seed carries 2 copies of chromosomes from the tetraploid parent and 1 set from the diploid parent (3n). This traditional plant breeding process is well documented and has been used to improve many other crops, particularly those where seedless characteristics, essential oil production, and increased biomass are valuable agronomic traits. We are able to offer this revolutionary advancement through ploidy improvements of our newly developed, varin-rich total THC compliant hemp varieties--making for one of the most significant single-year advancements in the history of modern cannabis breeding.