Do stash some VS. They always finish and self sow. Not a bad starting point for an outdoor drug strain. Just need a little afghani or cambo in there and you are good. Of course anyone that attempts to hack your work might be dissapointed with an F2.

HB420, are you referring to the first recent legal hemp grow? I'm thinking there was a small Colorado hemp agriculture not far from the NE border. Huge specimens can be found in the panhandle of NE. I've seen them push 20', and you know how windy it is there.

Now is the time to collect. Last year I made a collection near Nichols IA around January. My buddy took me to where he knew a patch to grow and I spotted a remnant of a cola sticking out of a snowbank in a ditch. I grabbed the brown floral mass and found a few beans that didn't fall out. They are growing now and will be tested and increased.

Well I've got myself a little hemp patch going sure enough. Not liking coco or general Organics. Probably needs diluted food. Both unrelated samples came from areas several hundred apart but are looking very similar. They are single stalked and taller than my drug strains. Distinctly different right now. Also sporting narrow leaves with a coarse toothed blade edge. All are under constant t5 light . One from Iowa auto flowered and is male. Auto parental? Now I'm desperately pinching it back trying to keep it alive but pollen free. Won't flower the rest consciously for a couple weeks if possible.

Exhibit A: Kansas / Nebraska border area

Exhibit B: Eastern Iowa

The Kansas / Nebraska border sample has the auto flower male. I recalled incorrectly...

So cool to see the north erican ditch, this will eventuLly be huge , with cannabis going legal these genes acclimated to the north erican landscape will become very valuable to people growing commercial outdoor in this area. Love it dmac

Interesting project, Zeke. I'm looking forward to seeing it develop.

SWEEEEEEEEEET!

I think you are giving more love than they know what to do with @zeke. pH?

Happy new year

Nice stuff Zeke.
Im very interested to see what you find.
In Aug 91 we drove to st hwy K in Missouri and filled a car with giant seed filled hemp buds.It was so dry in our town that year until Oct or so. It had a buzz the first two times you smoked it but that was it. But I felt like it relaxed me and I smoked it more than others. Not knowing then about cbds and all. Great thread. Thank you.

Peace

Yeah, they are getting no love. I'm maxed out on space until something gets the chop and the temps are dropping. I'm gonna re route a couple exhausts today to warm things up. I refuse to use watts for a heater. I'll just add more lights somewhere else and vent the heat. Just trying to get them through so I can make a more seed and a few hybrids. Just the one male auto flowered. More like insta flower. Daily picking of flowers under 24hrs. The others are just stretching up. I'm gonna hack them down into a bunch of cuts so I can have a little hemp patch in my garden this year. The male reeks kinda skunky with that overpowering green ditch smell. Ha ha, I'm growing ditch weed ......

I like this. I have been collecting feral hemp seeds for years now. Mostly from just from mniawi areas. Have wanted to do a project that outcrosses a feral female to a potent male with goal of creating a desirable outdoor variety. Or even a high yeilding indoor variety depending on what is found in successive generations.
Also I have always been curious about the origins of these feral plants. Most I assume were simply from contaminated ag seed and planted by farmers in beans and corn. Tho I have come across several isolated populations I believe may be related to early hemp strains cultived by farmers before its prohibition.
Its nice to see others interested, Im eager to see how this goes.

Any updates?

We can discover quite a bit about the origins of ditch weed. I ran across a long paper written in 1913:

HEMP By LYSTER H. DEWEY, Botanist in Charge of Fiber Plant Investigation, Bureau of Plant Industry.

"Practically all of the hemp grown in the United States is from seed produced in Kentucky. The first hemp grown in Kentucky was of European origin, the seed having been brought to the colonies, especially Virginia, and taken from there to Kentucky. In recent years there has been practically no importation of seed from Europe. Remnants of the European types are occasionally found in the shorter, more densely branching stalks terminating in thick clusters of small leaves. These plants yield more seed and mature earlier than the more desirable fiber types introduced from China.

Nearly all of the hemp now grown in Kentucky is of Chinese origin. Small packets of seed are received from American missionaries in China. These seeds are carefully cultivated for two or three generations in order to secure a sufficient quantity for field cultivation, and also to acclimate the plants to Kentucky conditions. Attempts to produce fiber plants by sowing imported seed broadcast have not given satisfactory results. Seed of the second or third generation from China is generally regarded as most desirable. This Kentucky hemp of Chinese origin has long internodes) long , slender branches, large opposite and nearly horizontal except the upper ones, large leaves usually drooping and not crowded with the seeds in small clusters near the ends of branches. Small. dark-colored seeds distinctly mottled are preferred by the Kentucky hemp growers. Under favorable conditions Kentucky hemp attains a height of 7 to to 10 feet when grown broadcast for fiber and 9 to 14 feet when cultivated for seed."

Kentucky became the center of American fiber hemp and hemp seed production early in the 19th century. Chinese seed introduction began in 1857 and continued through 1913. Many different Chinese cultivars arrived and became all mixed over generations due to poor seed sorting and open pollination. Kentucky grew the best seed which was exported all over the midwest and as far as California. Farmers would order new seed from Kentucky because for some reason their home grown seeds "played out" which I think means they were not as desirable for fiber. Every season new seeds would grow and some would go feral. The feral hemp now growing in the midwest has been evolving with periodic inputs of new genetics for almost 200 years.

There's more but I don't have time right now. Let me know if you want more.

More, please.... Very interesting paper.

In the 1970's I had a fantastic book by Dewey called "Fiber Crops",
found it in a buncha books being sold at the University Of Georgia library
that had been donated by the estate of a former biology professor;
big chapter on Cannabis,
with lotsa good info--
and lotsa good pictures...
https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/help-needed-in-cali.58497/

I'm loving your experiments, Zeke. Send me some seeds and I'll write another history chapter.

Uh, no. ^^^