CDA Announces Colorado’s 2018 CDA-Approved Certified Hemp Seed Varieties

January 7, 2019  BROOMFIELD, Colo. – The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) is announcing that six industrial hemp seed varieties have passed the 2018 statewide THC validation and observation trial and are now eligible to be grown by the members of the Colorado Seed Growers Association for production of “CDA Approved Certified Seed.”

In 2018, the CDA Approved Certified Hemp seed program trialed eight varieties of hemp across Colorado’s diverse growing conditions to validate if they would grow mature plants that test at or below 0.3% THC concentration on a dry weight basis. During 2018, the program approved six new varieties approved to be grown as a class of “CDA Approved Certified Seed.”

2018 CDA APPROVED SEED VARIETIES

To be CDA Approved Certified Seed, hemp varieties must be produced and labeled by members of the Colorado Seed Growers Association according to Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) standards.

The seed varieties were grown and tested in the Northeast, Arkansas Valley, Front Range, the San Luis Valley and on the Western Slope. These five locations with distinct differences in daytime and nighttime temperatures, in altitude, length of growing season, and soil types, provide the CDA with a broad representation of Colorado’s growing conditions. Growers planting with CDA Approved Certified Seed would be considered very low risk for testing purposes.

The CDA Approved Certified Seed program requires that all individual seed packages be tagged with both CDA tags and certified seed tags. CDA does not sell seed and has no information about seed availability or variety performance; please check with the individual seed companies.

For more information on the certified seed program, visit the CDA’s Industrial Hemp web page or contact Terry Moran, Industrial Hemp Certified Seed Specialist, at 303.869.9078 or email Terry.moran@state.co.us.

Contact:   Christi Lightcap, (303) 869-9005, Christi.Lightcap@state.co.us