In Growht We Trust
Our adventure officially begins in 2017, but its roots lie much further back in time. We literally grew up with this passion in mind and over time we have transformed it into a profession. To come as far, we studied in college, we worked in the fields and trained ourselves in laboratories.
Today we are scientists, farmers and hemp breeders.
We are proud to work on some of the most interesting varieties of Italian, American and Asian hemp, we collaborate with companies from all over the world and we promote the exchange, the contamination and crossing of ideas and scientific methods as indispensable tools for an healthy growth of people and societies.
The project
First breeding project
The maintenance and improvement of the Italian varietal heritage
This project was born in 2017 from the identification of hemp varieties present in the Italian varietal heritage. The Italian varietal heritage, for what concern Canapa Sativa L., is very wide and diversified, thanks to the acclimatization conducted over the centuries of hemp cultivation that characterize the history of the traditional agriculture in this part of Europe. Through the centuries, many different varieties of hemp have been grown in Italy for different production purposes. The geographical and territorial characteristics that delimit distinct and separate pedoclimatic areas have allowed a genetic stabilization and a considerable varietal diversification. Knowing that, it is possible to better understand the presence of so many distinct varieties in such a limited territory along with the presence of many different chemotypes (CBD, CBG).
Objectives of the improvement and maintenance project
The primary objective of the breeding project was to maintain and improve the available variety pool composed by heirloom races. Appropriate breeding techniques were chosen to guarantee varietal purity and therefore stability and homogeneity of the progeny.
Objectives for the improvement
- Plant variety adaptation to the Mediterranean climate (dry and hot climate)
- Taproot system to support a strong and resilient structure
- Lignified supporting structure that could support high level of vigor and productivity of the variety
- Low level of THC in order to be European compliant and high level of CBD and minor cannabinoids ( CBG,CBC,CBDV). Chemiotype 3 : with the higher thc:cbd ratio as possible
- Maximum terpene expression of the gene pool.
Breeding techniques applied to achieve results
The choice of the breeding techniques was directed towards the preservation of the plant varieties used and their improvement through appropriate techniques of segregation of the traits identified by the object of the project. With this goal in mind, numerous cycles of back crossing and subsequent selection were carried out on a population of individuals previously selected in adherence to the objectives. The segregation of the traits was achieved in four consecutive backcrossing cycles, in order to obtain stable, homogeneous varieties. In order to maximize the terpene expression of the target population, it was possible to separate four distinct phenotypes with different terpene profiles. These phenotypes, all belonging to the same population, have very different terpene characteristics, while the general characteristics identified for the breeding objectives remain unchanged.
Results:
We achieve all the objectives of improvement in terms of structure, environment adaptation and compliance. The chemotype results in a balanced presence of CBD (10%), CBG (1%), CBC (0.8%). THC levels, at the seventh week from the beginning of the flowering stage, are under 0.3%. The attempt to maximize the terpene profile is achieved and makes these four distinctive strains suited for the production of smokable flowers.
We have decided to give a commercial name to these four strains with different terpene profile: Orange Buddha, Lemon Buddha, Berry Buddha and Peach Buddha. All from the Hand of Buddha family, each one is called after the sensorial experience that can give.
Heritage and breeding project
We start selection on Italian gene pool and in particular on Ticinesis Purpurea and some ecotypes of Carmagnola. Ticinenis Purpurea is an old variety originally cultivated on Italian Alps in a continental climate and it express an early flowering cycle. Carmagnola is a variety of hemp coming from the region of Piedmont in north west Italy. Both those varieties were adapted to continental climate of north Italy flat lands, hills and mountains area.
We bread those lineages and we started large scale selection (more than 5000 individuals) in order to find a certain number of individuals that are going to become the founder of a new variety (Founder effect). The breeding process was conducted with inbreeding and selection on large scale in order to generate a stable variety with high levels of Omozygosis (98%).
Environment of the breeding and adaptation project
This project was made in order to adapt the new variety to Mediterranean environment where we made the selection and the breeding process. We work in a farm located in Marittimes Alps in the North west of Italy, where we have a unique spot to make breeding projects due to the geographical insulation of that area. The Farm is in the middle of thousands of acres of woods and all around there’s no other cultivations and no possibility of contaminations of the crop. In this unique contest we have no presence of viroid that could be carried to the progeny as hop latent virus. The breeding process was combined to acclimatization to dry and hot climate. The acclimatization introduces the important theme of the influence that has the pedological contest to the breeding process. We cultivate the crop for reproductive purposes only in living soil and the natural conditions where the crop will be grown for flower productions. In particular we use the active capacity of the microbial flora to improve the genetics value of the variety. One example is related to the application of Effective Microorganisms (EM) and in particular the capacity of Psedumonas spp. to increase the strength of the variety to dry condition. We strongly believe that one of the key points of the success of our method to breed varieties is related to the relationship between the variety object of the breeding and the environment (pedological and climatical) where the propagation and the selection is conducted.
Vigor of the inbreeded lines:
In general speaking inbreeding lines have lost vigor hybrid and it reflects on the progeny a weakness in term of vigor. Despite of that we started with varieties that has an excessive growth and vigor that made those landraces not suitable for modern growing technics. In this specific case the lack of hybrid vigor related to inbreeded lines it’s something that we want in order to take those varieties suited for modern extraction fields and for smokable flowers.
Feminized seeds
We produce our varieties in form of feminized seed (99.9), it means in concrete that we could find a male in 4000 seeds. The step of producing feminized seeds is a key moment in the success of the right reproductions of the varieties. We have made our own protocol in order to make viable male pollen from a female donor with silver thiosulfate to provide feminized seed of high quality. We focuses on details about the females grown to be fertilized with reversed female pollen. In particular we reproduce the seeds in the same environment where we breed (living soil and natural conditions ) and we developed a specific nutrition protocol in order to have strong and viable seeds in not artificial conditions.
Genomic studies on Italian gene pool
We have started the characterization of our varieties with our partner of EGERIA and the DAFNAE , an Italian excellence center for the study on genomics especially on hemp varieties. In the next future with our industrial partner of EGERIA , we are going to apply genetic assisted breeding on Italian variety pool and in first step we are developing finger print studies on our varieties in order to protect them to certify them in the European catalog of hemp varieties. The cert process is already in place and for 2024 one of our varieties is going to be certify as IH 1 or Italian Heritage 1.
