Agrify Live Spotlights Phenotype Hunting, Directed Breeding And Stabilization

In a recent episode of Agrify Live, a series of conversations about the cannabis industry, David Kessler discussed phenotype hunting and directed breeding with genetics expert Miles Durham. Both shared their know-how and addressed the impact of legalization on genetic development.

The weed business has recently shifted into a long-term industry, letting cultivators spend more time and resources on complicated breeding programs that focus on expanding the plant's capabilities.

Kessler and Durham discussed how deep research of a plant’s different profiles can lead to the professionalization of cannabis.

Phenotype Hunting and Directive Breeding

"When you are looking for a phenotype to conduct a directive breeding there so much work to be done before you even start," says Durham. “You should look for what's best for your specific environment.”

The most important part is to choose your strains. Lots of companies “are now on the cash-out business,” supplying 50 new varieties each year, he added.

When purchasing seeds from a bank, the best is to ask for its initial success strains – their signature strains – understanding the profile of the plant in order to acknowledge when the desired phenotype is expressed.

“There's nothing wrong supplying variety,” Durham said. “You [just] have to be very careful; it takes so much research”

Breeding Tips

When breeding, one must give as much importance to male plants as one does to female plants, male plants anticipate a lot of characteristics of the next generation.

Trick: if you crop a plant in the vegetative phase you can rush its sexing.

According to Miles Durhman the three pillars of pheno-hunting are:

1. Trichome saturation - Potency -

2. Terpene percentage

3. Yields

It’s also important to look for the “Bullet Proof" characteristics, like the plant’s resistance to plagues.

When males are in the vegetative phase you should look for efficiency, healthy green stocks, nodal spacing, trichome saturation, terpenes, and color profile.

It’s also important for the selected male to express the properties of the chosen strain.

“You can learn so much of mature male cannabis plants,” Kessler, Agrify's VP and head of horticulture, said.

Trick: When rubbing a pollinated section it’s possible to anticipate the taste and smell of the future buds.

Once you have developed a phenotype you love, you’ll be ready to start your stabilization process.

Stabilization

Stabilization is a long term process that occurs as generations of plants go by. It requires several grow cycles for testing and development.

In order to stabilize a strain, it’s necessary to backcross it with its parent, choosing the ones that most express the desired pheno. The first breed has 50-50 chances of expression, with one backcrossing it rises to 75–25. As generations go by, it's possible to reach a 95–5 uniformity.

The goal of a stabilized variety is a high-quality flower with more uniformity than a random strain.

In order to breed and pheno-hunt, variety is the key. But when talking about mass production, efficiency, and business predictions, stabilization takes a key place.

“When you are stabilizing a strain for mass production it's important to do it in the same facility and environment they are gonna be produced in,” states Durham.

It’s important to run several tests on the stabilized plants looking for its deficiencies and allowing the grower to know how it will react to different environments.

Stress testing may not be fun but it's essential.

“You don't want to stress an entire section, but you can spare four or five plants and stress them up in order to study how they react," Durham explained. "Perhaps taking water or changing light cycles. It's also important to look for male expressions as one plant can ruin an entire facility.”

Once you have stressed out a plant, reached the third generation, and achieved a good terpene percentage, you are ready for mass production.

For Durham, the cannabis industry is young and there are lots of discoveries to be made.

“There are golden nuggets yet to be found that allows us to change the face of the industry,” he concluded.

Photo via Unsplash.