Hokkaido Revisited
In the beginning, I had about 9 beans from the Hokkaido 1-A project. They were given to me as a gift from Farmer (@seedsofkismet) along with a small bud for reference. I found the flower smelled very medicinal, mostly camphor and spicy geraniums. I was able to find two females and a male from this lot. The females I ran twice to observe sexual stability, flower development, and feeding preferences. As this occurred over winter, I remember thinking these plants appeared to thrive under colder temps. It wasn’t long before I introduced a male into the mix (lovingly named Hokk3). My initial thoughts were that the stem rub of all these plants were not very pleasant at all, almost too medicinal. The first female had a slightly denser bud structure, but was a little shorter. The second female had a more desirable aroma, mountain herb, spicy geranium, and menthol, but a less dense bud structure. Both yielded about the same and both exhibited this interesting trait where they would re-flower past week 7 or so, showing a different morphology including stacked bracts and a resurgence of stigmas (sorry…pistils). The male was by far the tallest, with a very desirable structure and acceptable internode spacing under the lights I used. I was ecstatic when this plant showed his sex, as I didn’t have a way to go filial forward without him. I actually had a tent full of some of my favorite varieties when I discovered the Hokkaido male, so I said, “Why the fuck not?” and closed him up with his chosen mate Hokkaido #2 plus a handful of F1 (poly hybrid) cultivars for a series of intentional outcrosses. He dumped pollen and I let those girls go weeks past their peak to make sure those beans were fully cooked. DING!
Moms pollinated:
Cheese Dawg (ChemD x Cheese Train Haze) ,
Green Cheese (Green Crack x Cheese Train Haze),
Ghost Punchers [Heart & Soil Project],
Blue Dream,
and of course Hokkaido #2 (P4).
Just a quick side tangent, I wanted to cover how I got to the P4 generation for clarity’s sake. P1 (or one could argue P10,000), came directly from the island of Hokkaido into the hands of Dubi from Ace Seeds. He ran those and created seed stock and tested those initial findings, these would be the P2 gen. P3 gen was selected for as a pilot crop for an agricultural fiber project by Farmer from Seeds of Kismet. Initially intended as an open pollination for seed expansion, a couple outliers were pulled aside and bred with. Clean up these lines by adding quotes and bullet points.
Essentially three distinct lines to be worked:
(A-1) high cannabinoid (THC/CBD/CBG),
(B-1) high CBD, low THC (unknown CBG),
(C-1) low cannabinoid, fiber variety.
The seeds I received came from 1-A or A-1 stock (I can never remember which one, but you get the gist). You can see the test results on the Ace Seeds website or on IG @seedsofkismet… In a nutshell, the mother had an unexpected 4:2:1 ratio of CBD:THC:CBG and very low terpenes, yet slightly improved from original stock. I had never seen ratios like that before, and I was excited about the potential for a CBG dominant line or at least a well-balanced cannabinoid spread. The P4 gen is what I selected from, making both a pure line (P5) and several outcrosses to observe breeding potential. The mother of the P5 gen was tested with a Purpl Pro...
Water Activity 0.4-0.5,
CBD 13-14%, THC <2%, CBG Unknown.
This was an important step in establishing a baseline. Since I currently have no way to test the genetic contribution of the male, I have to test the flower of all the female progeny to get an average range of expression. At least with the females, I should be able to determine genotypic frequency of cannabinoid expression using a Purpl Pro, or HPLC testing. The aim is to create a distribution map of how frequently some of these desired traits occur and select for something novel like amplified CBG or some other ancillary compound. The more testing we have access to, the better I am as a breeder when making final decisions on what gets culled, and what goes on to the next round of breeding. Until then, I’m doing small batch selections of the P5 generation of Hokkaido alongside of the Hokkaido outcrosses.
I know the tag says P6, but this was actually the P5 gen.
While I’m on the topic of breeding, I wanted to share my thoughts on how Hokkaido Hemp can be used as a breeding tool. I hypothesized that since THC was actually selected against, there should be a low number of alleles for THCA synthase. That should mean that Hokkaido hemp isn’t going to contribute much in that regard, but will give better insight to the genes present in whatever it’s crossed to. I also assumed that the terpene expression from Hokkaido wouldn’t be much, but would possibly add some complexity to the aroma to whatever it’s crossed to because the terpenes it expresses are on a completely different chemical pathway.
It’s my understanding that the major terpenes present in modern day cannabis are a product of high frequency of gene blocks - blocks of genetic code that results in the bioaccumulation of those chemical by-products. If the initial terpene tests showed nothing present, but my own nose told me otherwise, it stood to reason there was a gene block present unrelated to most terpene profiles available today (let alone tested for). Those traits are not the only reason I am fascinated with this landrace. For instance, she has a fast flowering time, 6 to 8 weeks, with the option of longer reflowering time to raise cannabinoid levels. Or its semi-autoflowering characteristics, which to me just means it’s quicker to show sex, transition into flower, and it has quickness to revert to veg from flower. These are observed traits indoors, I would be curious to know what time of the year she would show sex outdoors, I’m guessing weeks earlier than a typical photoperiod. Also, this variety must be very hardy and resistant to have been grown for such a long period outdoors at a Latitude of 0°-50°. Although, I will say, I have seen some susceptibility to two-spotted mite damage indoors. Which I suppose makes sense, as these colder climates would be a strong detriment to the wellbeing of a wild mite population. Finally, the purity of these genetics being isolated from the world during modern globalism and the sharing of old world genetics was of interest to me. “These genetics have been isolated for a very long time”, I surmised.
I see so many cultivars spun out of the same dozen or more commercial hype strains, it begged the question, “Is there any room in this industry for someone like myself?” I may have years of technical lab training, genetic theory, and academia under my belt, but I’m still new to the actual process of cannabis selection. Hokkaido is a fresh start, one that I assumed would take me years of working before I found anything worth showing to the world. Yet, by the same token, the Japanese government has severely restricted the cultivation of even the previously sanctioned native hemp that’s been approved for decades - primarily for fiber production. So, yeah, I also feel called to preserve and share these unique genetics with the world before they are lost to time and close-minded, political dogma. If you ever find yourself holding a handful of pure Japanese Landrace, make sure you expand them, so you can freely share those seeds and the knowledge gained from growing them with your neighbors, friends, loved ones, and even that grumpy person at work that needs to chill the F out.
~Judo