Study on Quality, Morphology of Thai Seed and Seedling of Cannabis Landrace and Imported Commercial Cultivars

Abstract

Cannabis may be come an economic crop. In the past, study on cannabis seed aspects were limited due to legal prohibition. The objective of this study was to investigate the quality and morphology of seeds and seedlings of 10 landrace/collected cannabis cultivars in Thailand and 5 imported commercial cannabis cultivars. The experiment was conducted at cannabis planting greenhouse of Biotechnology Research and Development Office and laboratory of Seed Research and Development Division and Plant Varieties Protection Office, Department of Agriculture, during March 2021 – January 2022. Results showed that the ground color and pattern color of landrace/collected cannabis cultivar seeds in Thailand were gray brown and black while those of the imported commercial cannabis cultivar seeds were gray and brown. The 100-seed weight of the landrace/collected cannabis cultivar seeds showed more variation than that of the imported commercial cannabis cultivar seeds,1.1–3.1 and 2.4–4.7 g, respectively. Moreover, the imported commercial cannabis cultivar seeds gave the germination up to 100 %, speed of germination was 1.4 – 2.1 plants/day and height of cannabis seeding at 7 DAP was 7.0 – 9.2 cm., which were more than those of the landrace/collected cannabis cultivar seeds in all aspects. However, the seedling growth had the same digitate leaf shape pattern in leaf no. 1 – 5. The number of lobes increased according to number of leaf, 3 – 5 lobes on leaf no. 2 and 7 – 9 lobes on leaf no. 5. The data obtained from this study can be used in seed management, planning of planting or selection/breeding of cannabis variety in Thailand in order to enhance the use of cannabis for medical purpose in the future.