7
Report of Italian VIR/IHA Cannabis Germplasm Preservation Project - 1995
Alexandra Doubovskaja1, Andrea Sonnino3 , Ugo De Corato2 , Lyudmila Rumyantseva1, and Robert C. Clarke4
1 N. I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, 42 Bolshaya Morskaya Street, 190000 St. Petersburg, Russia; Institute for New Technology, Energy and the Environment: 2 Trisaia Station, S. S. Jonica 106, 75025 Policoro (Matera), Italy and 3 Casaccia Station, 301 Anguillarese Street, 00060 S. Maria di Galeria (Rome), Italy; 4 International Hemp Association, Postbus 75007, 1070AA Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Doubovskaja, A., A. Sonnino, U. De Corato, L.
Rumyantseva and R. Clarke, 1996. Report of Italian VIR/IHA Cannabis Germplasm
Preservation Project - 1995. Journal of the International Hemp Association 3(1):
7-9.
Fourteen accessions of Cannabis from the germplasm collection of
the Vavilov Institute were sown at 7 locations in Italy in 1995 for germplasm maintenance
and reproduction of seed reserves for distribution. Ten accessions yielded from 73
to 7,500 grams of seeds. The other 4 yielded no seeds. The plant pathogens Phomopsis
sp. and Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid. were reported on the hemp plants
near Policoro.
Introduction
In 1993, the N. I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry
(VIR), with the support of the International Hemp Association (IHA), began a program to
preserve its Cannabis germplasm collection. In 1994 the project was expanded
to the Ukraine and Italy. Accessions of Italian origin were selected for sowing in Italy
in order to reproduce them in the most suitable conditions. Another goal of this
project was to return to Italy its own hemp germplasm to conserve it not only in the VIR
Gene Bank, but in Italian Gene Banks also. The VIR collection contains 8 Italian Cannabis
accessions (Lemeshev et al. 1994), and most of them were of low
viability. All Italian accessions in threatened condition were sown in Italy in
1995.
Accessions of a Chinese Cannabis group with long vegetative
cycles were also chosen for sowing in Italy in 1995. It is difficult to reproduce
them in northern Russia and the dissolution of the Soviet Union caused the separation of
some southern VIR stations outside Russia.
| Table 1. Participants of the VIR/IHA Cannabis Germplasm Preservation Project in Italy - 1995. | ||
| Responsible Organizations | VIR Catalog No. | |
| Experimental Institute of
Industrial Crops of Bologna, Dr. Paolo Ranalli University of Bologna, University of Milan, Prof. Maria T. Amaducci Peasant Civilization Museum of Bologna, Mr. Ivano Trigari General Agriculture and Grass Crops Inst., Sassari, Prof. Giuseppe Rivoira Institute for New Technology, Energy and the Environment: Casaccia Station of Rome, Dr. Andrea Sonnino Trisaia Station of Policoro, Dr. Alexandra Doubovskaja |
278, 462 280, 282 195 184, 336 181, 279, 323, 340 112, 182, 321 |
|
Materials and methods
Fourteen accessions of hemp from the VIR Germplasm
collection were sown at 6 locations in Italy (Table 1). This material was
introduced to the collection from Italy, China, Turkey and Bulgaria, and represents
varieties, lines and local populations (Table 2). For the purpose of germplasm
maintenance three collection accessions with the origin from Italy and China were sown in
two plots at the Trisaia Station of the Institute for New Technology, Energy and the
Environment (ENEA) near Policoro. The distance between the plots was 850 meters and
contained trees and high buildings. At one plot were planted a landrace accession
from Italy (n.112) and 'Chain-Chgo' from China (n.182) with a difference in vegetative
cycles of 22 days. The Italian early-ripening accession was sown 10 days before the
Chinese late-ripening variety to avoid stray pollination. Shared plantings of
temporally isolated varieties allows twice as many reproductions in the same amount of
space. The Chinese accession Shan-Ma (n. 321) was planted at the second plot.
The first accession was sown on May 22. The seeds were sown in
densely planted rows spaced 30 cm apart. The size of the plot varied from 5-8 m2
depending on the number of seeds. The plots were irrigated after sowing and later on
depending on plant conditions. The soil was predominantly composed of red clay.
The other 7 accessions were sown in order to look for the possible
correlation between the contents of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and some clearly visible
early developmental morphological markers. Five accessions with high-THC from the
IHA, and variety 'Yellow stem' and line 'Foglia Pinnatofida' from VIR collection were
investigated; but they did not show the yellow color of the stem and the pinnate type of
leaf respectively. Six from the seven accessions were taken away at the phase of 6-8
pairs of leaves, before the first male flowers opened. The variety 'Yellow stem' was
left at the plot to look for the stem color at a later phase of vegetation.
Four accessions were sown at the Casaccia Station of ENEA near Rome on
two double plots: the Italian 'Bolognese' (n.279, vegetative cycle 140 days) together with
the Chinese 'Sen-Ma' (n.323 166 days), and the Bulgarian 'J-3' (n.340 140 days) with the
Chinese 'Sar-San' (n.181 190 days). The sowing method was similar of that at the
Trisaia Station.
At the Peasant Civilization Museum of Bologna, the local Italian
variety (n.195) was sown on April, 15 on a plot of 16 m2. The distance to
other hemp sowings was 5 km. The plants were covered with nets at the time of
ripening to protect the seeds from birds. The plots were irrigated twice. The
soil was clayish.
The accession 'Distretto di Fatza' (n.280) originally from Turkey was
sown at the University of Bologna, and the Italian accession 'Carmagnola' (n.282) was sown
near Milan. At the Industrial Crops Institute of Bologna two Italian accessions
'Napoletana' (n. 278) and 'Linea a foglia pinnatofida' (n. 462) were sown on April, 3 and
May, 22 respectively. The distance between the plots was more than 70 km and the
size of the plots were 48 and 60 m2. The seeds were sown in the rows
spaced 40 m 2 and 100 cm apart with the distance between the plants in the row 13 and 10
cm. The soil was clayish.
Two Chinese accessions 'Tin-Yan' (n.184) and 'Dun-Ma' (n.336) were sown
at the General Agriculture and Grass Crops Institute of Sassari on May, 29 and on June, 9
respectively. The distance between the plots was more than 100 km. The seeds
were sown in densely planted rows spaced 50 cm apart.
Agrometeorological conditions in Italy during 1995 were favorable for
the growth of hemp. The spring, first half of summer and autumn were hot and dry.
August was humid with frequent rainfall totaling 96 mm compared to the average of
12 mm. Because of this both early-ripening varieties and late-ripening varieties
found good conditions for maturation.
The number of plants was calculated at the beginning of growth or at
complete flowering (total plant number), and before the harvest (female plant number).
The average height of plants for the plot was measured before the harvest.
The vegetative cycle was calculated from the day of sowing to the day of complete
maturation and/or harvesting.
| Table 2.
Results of Italian VIR/IHA Cannabis Germplasm Reproduction Project-1995. [Note: Veg. cycle is missing data that is summarized in the text.] |
||||||||
| VIR Catalog No. |
Name/Origin | Total plants n |
Female plants n |
Plant height cm |
Seed yield g |
Veg. cycle days |
||
| 112 195 278 279 282 462 280 340 181 182 184 321 323 336 |
Local, Italy Local, Italy Napoletana, Italy Bolognese, Italy Carmagnola, Italy Linea a foglia pinnatofida, Italy Distretto di Fatza, Turkey J-3, Bulgaria Sar-San, China Chain-Chgo, China Tin-Yan, China Shan-Ma, China Sen-Ma, China Dun-Ma, China |
1277 |
519 |
90 |
634 |
90 |
Results
Ten reproductions yielded from 73 to 7,500 grams of
seeds. The largest yields were obtained in the Industrial Crops Institute and in the
Peasant Civilization Museum of Bologna from Italian hemp accessions (Table 2).
Four accessions (ns. 181, 280, 282, 340) yielded no seeds because of
the poor germination or the absence of germination (Table 2). Accession n. 280 did
not germinate in spring and was sown again with the remaining seeds. The plants were
transferred into the greenhouse to obtain some seeds during the winter period.
The vegetative cycle varied from 119 to 176 days for the Italian
accessions of hemp and from 115 to 144 days for the Chinese ones. The plant height
varied from 90 to 350 cm for the Italian hemp accessions and from 95 to 195 cm for the
Chinese ones.
The plants of the variety 'Yellow stem' developed different shades of
the stem color from green to almost yellow. The seeds from two plants with the most
yellow stem color were harvested for later experiments.
Two fungal diseases were identified on the plants at the ENEA Trisaia
Station near Policoro. The "bad withering" disease became apparent as
complete withering of the plant at the beginning of maturation. The seeds of
infected plants were visibly normal and they ripened normally; 15-20 days earlier than the
seeds of the healthy plants. Fourteen percent of the plants were infected in the
plot of accession n. 321. There were black microsclerotia on the roots of infected
plants (Figure 1). According to Ferri (1959) it was Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi)
Goid., which is usually transmitted by vegetative remains.
Another disease became apparent as numerous little black picnidia on
the stem around the branch. The zone of infection was clearly distinct from the
healthy tissue (Figure 2A) or it had no clear border (Figure 2B). The conidia of the
fungi were unicellular with two nuclei, suggesting a classification as Phomopsis sp..
(Von Arx, 1981). This infection is usually transmitted by water (Goidanich,
1975). There are no data about the possibility of transmission of these two diseases
by the seeds.
| Figure 1. Microsclerotia of Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid. on the root of the hemp plant at the ENEA Trisaia station in 1995 (Photo G. Mazzei). | Figure 2. The picnidia of Phomopsis sp. on the stem of the hemp plant at the ENEA Trisaia station in 1995. A - the zone of infection is clearly located, B - the zone of infection is without border (Photo G. Mazzei). |
Conclusions
In the first report of the VIR/IHA Cannabis Germplasm
Preservation Program two key requirement were defined to consider an accession adequately
reproduced: at least 1000 plants have to produce at least 200 g of seed (Lemeshev et al.
1994).
Due to poor germination only 7 from 10 sown accessions reproduced
sufficient quantity of seed. Among these 7 accessions, only one had a sufficient
population size.
All reproduced seeds of the Chinese accessions and a part of the seed
of each Italian accession have been sent to the gene bank of the VIR. The remainder
of the seed of each Italian reproduction will be preserved in Italy.
A sample of seeds of the Italian industrial hemp variety
"Carmagnola" has been received by the National Flax and Hemp Industry of
Vimercate (Milan). Part of the seeds will be preserved in Italy. The remaining
seeds have been sent to the VIR.
Acknowledgment
This project was possible, thanks to support from the
International Hemp Association and the participation of Prof. Maria Teresa Amaducci, Prof.
Alessandro Bozzini, Dr. Giancarlo Messagi, Dr. Paolo Ranalli, Prof. Giuseppe Rivoira and
Mr. Ivano Trigari.
References