Progress 01/15/22 to 01/14/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project includes research scientists in the field of hop and hemp research, as well as members of the hop and hemp industry. Because this is a three-year project that has effectively two-years of funds, and because of some challenges with growing plants in the first year, we have moved the bulk of the work to years 2 and 3 of the project. This will also make it more feasible to maintain salaries of trainees employed by this project without a "gap year". For this reason, there is nothing to report regarding our audience. That said, we have initiated work on a public database of existing data on terpene levels for different cultivars of hop and hemp found in the literature. We have collected 13 articles with at least 13 associated data tables, one from each paper. The challenge with this is that the publications typically embed these tables in the publication PDF file, and they aren't always easily collected and require some manual typing of values into a unified format for collection and for presenting in our database. We have also collected paired samples from hemp plants, and are growing hop samples currently in greenhouses. This tissue collection is the basis of the proposed experiements that we will conduct this year. More detail on the collected samples will be provided in the other textboxes of this report. Changes/Problems:As stated previously, we sought to keep things uniform for hop and hemp, we wanted to grow them both under the same conditions. However, we could not get approval to grow hemp outdoors, leading us to grow both hop and hemp in greenhouses. This proved to be more challenging than anticipated for hop cone (flower) collection and these plants are still growing. That said, we expect that we will be on track with hop samples collected and analyzed by the next report date. However, these challenges only minimally affect our progress. The project is a three-year project, but with 2 years of funding to carry out the work. Therefore, it is beneficial for us to move the work to years 2 and 3 for the project, which will avoid any "gap years" for personnel or trainees. We are in the fourth month of year 2, and therefore are making good progress. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The work has several opportunities for professional development. This includes, plant husbandry, growing plants in the greenhouse, sample collection, data analysis, and data curation. Because this is a three-year project with two years of funding, we have put the work of the project in years 2 and 3, to avoid a "gap year" for paying salaries etc. At the moment, we are beginning the work of the proposed project, and therefore have little to report, but expect this to change in next year's progress report. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We expect to have a manuscript submitted, or at least in preparation for the next reporting period. The sample and data collection will happen over this summer and fall, and we expect to have data collected by Fall term. We will then work towards publications and disseminating our results.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Overview of Sample Collection We have collected flower samples from hemp, but are still working towards collecting flower samples from hops. Because we sought to keep things uniform for hop and hemp, we wanted to grow them both under the same conditions. However, we could not get approval to grow hemp outdoors, leading us to grow both hop and hemp in greenhouses. This proved to be more challenging than anticipated for hop cone (flower) collection and these plants are still growing. That said, we expect that we will be on track with hop samples collected and analyzed by the next report date. Hemp Collection We are collecting paired female flower samples from diverse hemp accessions for parallel analysis of cannabinoid/terpene profiles and gene expression. The first collection was done March 30, 2023, from fourteen hemp accessions. They were immediately flash frozen on dry ice, then stored at -80C. Table 1: hemp accessions that have been collected. Accession Arab-32 Berry Blossom Carmagnola x Arcadia Carmagnola x Santiam Carmagnola x Umpqua CBDV CBCW-8 HD Cherry Laos Mango Biche Nurse Lilly Solodiol CBD Special Sauce Temperanillo Hop Sample Collection Rhizomes from 25 genetically diverse hop cultivars (Table 2 below) were dug and transplanted into 3.8-liter pots during February 2023. Three replications of each cultivar were potted up and then placed in a greenhouse with 16-h light, 8-h dark period with a constant temperature of 24 Celsius. All plants were subsequently re-potted into 18.9-liter pots during April, 2023. Plants were trained up string inside of the GH and allowed to grow to a height of 3-m. Excess growth was re-trained onto the same string. Plants were watered daily and fertilized bi-weekly with "Miracle Grow" (https://miraclegro.com/en-us/shop/plant-food/miracle-gro-water-soluble-all-purpose-plant-food/miracle-gro-water-soluble-all-purpose-plant-food.html). At no point in time were the plants allowed to be stressed for water or temperature. Finally, all plant diseases and insect pests were controlled as needed using chemicals labeled for use in hops. Of the 25 cultivars grown for this study, only six (6) have formed cones. Of the six that have formed cones only one cultivar is near ready for harvesting cones. These cones will be harvested on May 15th. The other five (5) lines with cones present will be harvested during the week of May 22-26, 2023. The remaining 19 cultivars could potentially form cones. However, the current state of these genotypes is that they have not formed axillary branches that would have flowering nodes on them. There is one other issue noted from this study using greenhouse grown hop plants. We have noticed in all cases where cones have formed that lupulin gland production is significantly reduced in greenhouse grown plants versus plants grown out in field conditions. Whether or not this has an impact upon this study is not known at this time. All attempts will be made to collect cones from hop plants present in the greenhouse. The contingency for this study is to harvest these cultivars from outdoor plots. The original design for this experiment was to grow plants in an outdoor hop garden to maximize cone production and have lupulin production optimized. These cultivars are already planted in a hop garden and will be harvested during the Fall, 2023 at their optimum maturity date (historically recorded and estimated precisely by dry matter content). Table 2. List of cultivars and status of cone formation May 10, 2023. Cultivar Flower Status Cone Status Northern Brewer Short, no flowers Triumph No flowers Tea maker No flowers Aurora No flowers Cascade Flowers Cones Mt Rainier Flowers Cones Galena No flowers Giggle N No flowers Whitsbred Golding No flowers Hallertauer Tradition No flowers Hallertauer Mittelfrue Short, no flowers Horizon Some flowers Some cones Kitamidori Flowers Cones Centennial No flowers Pride of Kent Short, no flowers Saazer No flowers Sorachi Ace Flowers Cones Comet No flowers Target No flowers Brewers Gold Short, no flowers Chinook Flowers Cones Perle No flowers Eye Viking Short, no flowers Nugget No flowers Backa No flowers
Publications
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