Hemp CyberFarm Answer 3 France

Answer 3 French Hemp-seed

3. French strains to use and their prices:

New French cultivars are the Epsilon (extremely low in THC) and Santhica claimed to be THC free!

Update: It seems that 1996’s prices were going as high as US$6/kg or even more! HCF doesn’t have much information (yet) about this year’s prices.

Cultivars from France are bred and commercialized by the Fédération Nationale des Producteurs de Chanvre (FNPC, see Hemp-seed Suppliers for address). French cultivars are monoecious. In France they are grown for pulp. Their cultivation within the European Union (EU) is eligible for the subsidy on fiber crops. Current breeding in France is mainly aimed at maintenance of the present cultivars (conservative breeding) and at further reduction of their THC content. Seed for sowing is readily available in two quantities. Crops grown from first quality seed (elite seed) consist almost exclusively of monoecious plants. Those from second quality seed (harvested from free-pollinated crops raised from elite seed) comprise, due to natural genetic drift, 15 to 30% males as well as a substantial amount of true-female plants. 1995 prices were FFr19.30/kg (at a conversion rate of FFr5.00=US$1.00) = US$3.86/kg = US$1.93/pound for first quality and FFr14.80/kg = US$2.96/kg = US$1.48/pound approximately. Within France, for FNCP members, seed is cheaper.

All French cultivars are either selected directly from ‘Fibrimon’ (truly-monoecious cultivars) or from cross progenies of ‘Fibrimon’ and several dioecious exotic fiber strains (pseudo-monoecious cultivars). ‘Fibrimon’ is a monoecious cross-bred cultivar with high fiber content. It was bred at the German Max-Planck-Institut Hamburg-Volksdorf by von Sengbusch between 1951 and 1955. The parental populations were inbred material obtained from monoecious plants spontaneously occurring in ‘Havelländische’ or ‘Schurings’ Hemp which was again a selection from Central-Russian origin; dioecious selections with very high fiber content from Germany (also retained from Central-Russian populations) and dioecious late-flowering landraces from Italy and Turkey. ‘Fibrimon’ was transferred to France, among other countries, in the late 1950s. The crossing of selected exotic populations with ‘Fibrimon’ was carried out in the 1960s.

The current cultivars ‘Fibrimon 21’, ‘Fibrimon 24’ and ‘Fibrimon 56’, were selected directly from ‘Fibrimon’ for diverging dates of maturity. ‘Férimon 12’ is an early maturing selection from ‘Fibrimon 21’, especially intended for seed production. The higher the numbers added to the names of French cultivars, the later they are supposed to flower and mature.
‘Fédora 19’ is the result of a cross between female plants of the Russian dioecious cultivar ‘JUS 9’ and monoecious individuals from ‘Fibrimon 21’, followed by back-crossing of the unisexual female F₁ with ‘Fibrimon 21’ intersex plants. The parents ‘JUS 9’ is an offspring from a crossing between ‘Yuzhnaya Krasnodarskaya’ (originally selected from Italian Hemp) and dwarf Northern Russian Hemp.

Likewise, ‘Félina 34’ results from a cross between the dioecious parent ‘Kompolti’ and ‘Fibrimon 24’ followed by back-crossing with ‘Fibrimon 24’. ‘Fédrina 74’ and ‘Futura 77’ both result from a cross between the dioecious parent ‘Fibridia’ and ‘Fibrimon 24’ followed by back-crossing with ‘Fibrimon 24’. ‘Fibridia’ originates from the same German program as ‘Fibrimon’ and has the same ancestors, except for the monoecious ‘Schurings’ inbreeds. A new completely THC-free cultivar, with name and pedigree unknown as of yet, has been registered in 1995.

Do you know more about this? E-mail us at Matthew@HempWorld.com

French Hemp stuff... vous savez!

*Industrial-Hemp has no psychoactive properties following definition of the European Economic Community (EEC); THC content is less than 0.3%. In general, low THC-seed varieties without psychoactive properties are those that have a THC content of less than 1%. (See also No-THC Hemp-seed.) THC= Delta-9 TetraHydroCannabinol.