Project 5: Second Grow, CBD

Introduction

This is a continuation of our research project into seeds and genetics which can be used for making medicinal products. The situation is that there is no high-content CBD material within our environment, therefore Hemp Nation decided to source high content CBD producing seeds, grow them, and evaluate how they would perform in our growing environment. The seeds purchased are Californian in origin and were very expensive hence a process which will probably not be repeated.

Aims and Objectives

Seeds were sourced from Johannesburg and contain high levels of CBD. They can be used as medicine and have a low THC percentage which makes them less used recreationally. This grow tested how well these commercially available CBD strains from reputable sources would perform in our local environment.

The table below shows seeds purchased in Johannesburg and their specifications.

The table below shows the progress of the four CBD plants

Partnership Programme

As an extension to the idea of THC in this project, the farmer was introduced to a new type of plant with different compounds, in grows concentrating on propagating CBD plants. This process also calls attention to the need to keep plants apart because of cross-pollination. There is no discernible difference between the plants on face value however we introduced him to a new “high value” seed and strain that was special.

Conclusion

The Medical mass and Stress killer from Royal Queen seeds survived the local environment for the most part, 100% germination is a good sign and then all grew well except 1 of the medical mass which never progressed past the small plant phase. It had stunted growth for some unknown reason. This means 3 out of 4 plants matured to a good flower. 

Fortunately or unfortunately those that matured did contain seeds. The number of vegetation days before flower was very close to those specified on the plants’ specifications on the website data. The size of the plants was not very large, we think this is due to growing season issues, hence the harvest was not very large in relation to the cost of inputs. 

The Medical Mass was tested at a lab in Johannesburg in April 2022 and 5% CBD was found to be present in a 1 gram sample, which is a success! 2% THC was found to also be present.