Cannabis is "hot" because of genetics, not environmental pressure

Cannabis cultivation to extract CBD (cannabidiol) is an emerging industry, but when the content of tetrahydrocannabinol in hemp exceeds the legal limit, the plant can detect "heat"

"One of our goals in our research and fulfilling our extended mission is to reduce the risks of planting as much as possible," said Larry Smart, the senior author of the study and teaches part of the College of Horticulture Integrated Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

In this study, the lead author Jacob Toth (Jacob Toth), a graduate student in the Smart Lab, created a series of plots in Geneva, New York, including control plots and unrelated to three genes Of the high-cbd cannabis varieties undergoing five stress treatments

Toth said: "After several weeks of sampling, we found that under all these different stresses, the CBD and THC content of all the different varieties rose proportionally

By the fourth week of the harvest season, they found that almost every plant (except those almost dead plants treated with herbicides) produced the expected CBD/THC ratio, and high levels of CBD corresponded to THC levels exceeding 0.

Smart said this study further proves that it is genetics, not the environment, that determines the THC content and CBD/THC ratio in cannabis

Toth said that more research and breeding are needed to select the right genes that lead to high CBD but low THC, which may require earlier regulatory testing before harvesting and plants reaching high THC levels

Journal Reference :

1. Jacob A.