b'CANNABIS CHRONICLESFEMINIZED HEMP SEED UNDERSTANDING THE TERM Feminized hemp seed is a growing buzzword in the hemp industry, but does it merit use or will it just make your hemp go hot?Alex MartinTHE HEMP INDUSTRYhas been growing steadily since 2018.fertilize the female flowers to produce seed for the next By 2026, the U.S. hemp industry will reach $36 billion,generation. However, to produce a female-only plant, you and will grow at an annual rate of 34 per cent from 2019have to produce a masculinized female plant.to 2026, according to a recently released Facts & FactorsAt a certain stage of development, you want to get study.the female plant to produce male flowers and produce Growers and seed companies alike have been look- pollen, Scheffel says. But, this is still a female plant, ing for the next big genetics to make farmers ROI reallyand all the pollen it produces will only have XX boom. As a result, the perhaps new-to-you term femin- chromosomes.ized hemp seed has arisen.When you fertilize a female plant with that female But what exactly is feminized hemp seed, and doespollen, the seed only produces female plants. However, the term make sense for the industry? depending on the genetics and environmental conditions, some of these plants may present as monoecious, that is Creating a Female Population having both male and female flowers on the same plant.In essence, feminized hemp seed produces only femaleWhile this is the goal of feminized hemp seed, says plants. Mike Scheffel, managing director of policy andJohn McKay, chief scientific officer of New West Genetics standards with the Canadian Seed Growers Associationand professor of plant evolutionary genomics at Colorado (CSGA) says to understand how that can happen, itsState University, he hasnt seen other companies selling important to take a step back. seed that produces 100 per cent female populations. Hemp is naturally a dioecious plant, meaning it hasWe dont use the term feminized seed, because scien-separate male and female plants, he says. A normal can- tifically, it doesnt make any sense, McKay says. We use nabis variety or hemp variety will produce approximatelythe terms monoeciousfemales that express pollen and 50 per cent female plants and 50 per cent male plants. male flowers, or gender skewdeviation from a 50:50 Of course, that means the female plants will haveratio of males to females.female flowers, and the pollen from the male plants willSince not every variety makes 100 per cent femin-6GERMINATION.CANOVEMBER 2021'