Salvia Divinorum Genetic Exchange program.

[Sea Mac]

I AM starting up a dedicated group of Growers trying to preserve as many unique strains of Salvia divinorum as is Possible.

Sort of a Genetic Insurance Bank with widely separated growers holding as many strains as possible - to preserve and increase the Genetic diversity of this rare and unique species. The emphasis will be on Morphologically Unique or Seed Raised Strains.

Hopefully this will help keep down any losses of genetically unique strains in the future ...

Currently I Am aware of the Following Seed raised strains - or those that show a morphological variation:

"Luna"  Strain with broader than average width leaves.

And the following were germinated from seed by Mr. Daniel Siebert in the last 2 years:

"Jupiter"

"Aquarian"

"Phoenix"

and "MoonMaiden" a strain with narrower than average width leaves.

And up in Canada "Arcygenical" has a Seed raised strain that I'm tentatively naming "Northern Lights".

("Arcy" may prefer another name for his strain but Mr. Siebert strongly suggested to me that Strains NOT be named for People - I wanted to name a strain "Siebert" you see ... He suggested they have a "Mystical" sounding name. After much consideration I thought of "North Star" or "Northern Lights" as best possibles and decided that the Northern Lights were almost as good as Salvia without the smoking of leaves ... Such a pretty name ... )

I have 5 strains in my Garden.

Jupe has 7 or 8 strains: He (And Possibly Mr. Siebert ... If he so desires ...) is the "Anchor" Gardener in the SDGE program.

Paradoxic and Arcygenical should also be startup Gardeners.

Here are the 4 Unique Strains in my care ...

  

[Arcygenical]

And up in Canada "Arcygenical" has a Seed raised strain that I'm tentatively naming "Northern Lights".

Funny you should say that... I was thinking Aurora or Auroras... She has long and slender leaves, worthy of the Aurora Borealis name if you ask me.

My ENTIRE crop belongs to the Aurora strain now, so I can easily send a few around.

It should also be noted that I'm moving to the US early next september... And I plan on donating my entire crop to a member (or members) on this forum... Since I can't bring it with me.

[Sea Mac]

And up in Canada "Arcygenical" has a Seed raised strain that I'm tentatively naming "Northern Lights".

Funny you should say that... I was thinking Aurora or Auroras... She has long and slender leaves, worthy of the Aurora Borealis name if you ask me.

My ENTIRE crop belongs to the Aurora strain now, so I can easily send a few around.

It should also be noted that I'm moving to the US early next september... And I plan on donating my entire crop to a member (or members) on this forum... Since I can't bring it with me.

Aurora!
Man that's freakin' PERFECT!  I couldn't think of the other name!  LOL! GMTA!

My "Moon maiden" strain ALSO is Morphologically slender leaved: but seems not as hardy!

And I honestly think you should send one to Mr. Siebert - if he'll have it .... a morphologically slender leaved - seed raised - Salvia plant WOULD be of some interest to him!  Especially an extra hardy strain! 

As it says on this page:   http://sagewisdom.org/salvgrow.html

Most Salvia divinorum plants are indistinguishable from each other, but occasionally a seed-raised plant will be visibly distinctive in some way. If you do obtain an unusual plant, please contact me at: dsiebert@gte.net

Dude, I urge you to step forward ... go for IT.

As for ME: I know I'd be VERY Honored to grow the Aurora strain here in sunny San Diego and Carry her Forward if I possibly CAN .... 

I'm suitably impressed! 

[Arcygenical]

As for ME: I know I'd be VERY Honored to grow the Aurora strain here in sunny San Diego and Carry her Forward if I possibly CAN .... 

You're already grandfathered in :p. I've got two clones waiting for you upon spring.

I'll think about sending some to Mr Siebert. I want to do a few more test clones though, because I KNOW individual plants can have morphological differences, not related to their genotypes.

[Paradoxic]

Yeah Aurora would probably be the best name. Northern Lights might get people confused with the MJ strain 

Glad to see you got the topic up, Sea Mac. Genius+ I'm definitely into being a startup gardener. Once spring comes around I'd love to get my hands on some more of the strains. Since I'll be growing at the lab I could do some experiments comparing the different strains.

[penumbra]

A popular online vendor sells plants that they claim are cuttings from two seed-raised plants grown by D. Siebert. Theses two strains are titled "resilience" and "paradox".
secondly:
Luna is certainly unique but its origins are mysterious. Some think it formed from a naturally produced and germinated seed while others believe its just a mutated segment of an Hoffmann Wasson clone.
If i notice that a section of one of my plants has formed unusually shaped leaves and that this characteristic can be reproduced via cloning, could i then call this unique new plant a member of a new strain?

[Synchronium]

While not strictly on topic, has anyone tried selectively breeding plants from seed for particular qualities?

We could get some super strong strains on the go. Paradoxic, if your plants were 150% the strength of any other plant, you could make a killing.

[MstryShovel]

While not strictly on topic, has anyone tried selectively breeding plants from seed for particular qualities?

We could get some super strong strains on the go. Paradoxic, if your plants were 150% the strength of any other plant, you could make a killing.

i think that would be somewhat easyer said than done, well just take a bit of work at least. D.Seibert said in his email to seamac about hand pollinating, that to selectivley breed one SD plant with another one would have to remove all of plant A's flowers and only polinate plant A with Plant B's flowers, a tough task for any outdoor grow, especialy his, probably easy in an indoor grow. But you would also have to identify a specific trait you would want to try and grab, aswell as hope its a dominate gene, and the seeds germinate. it would just take a little time is all im saying

also, I'd like to join in on this fun, when the time comes I'd love to be a little off-site greenhouse

[penumbra]

Has anyone ever tried to alter salvia genetics with colcichine? I know the seeds are rare but I think it would be worth while experimenting with induced mutation if the outcome could be a super-hardy polyploidal new set of genes.
if i recall correctly, soaking seeds in aspirin or coffee before they germinate can also induce mutations. colcichine however affects a different process within the seed than coffee and aspirin do and therefore causes different genetic mutations.
i dont know
ive forgotten

[Sea Mac]

Has anyone ever tried to alter salvia genetics with colcichine? I know the seeds are rare but I think it would be worth while experimenting with induced mutation if the outcome could be a super-hardy polyploidal new set of genes.
if i recall correctly, soaking seeds in aspirin or coffee before they germinate can also induce mutations. colcichine however affects a different process within the seed than coffee and aspirin do and therefore causes different genetic mutations.
i dont know
ive forgotten

That's Cannabis you're thinking of ...

From this page (about half way down): http://www.cannabis-world.org/cw/archive/index.php/t-646.html

Colchicine--- Tetraploidy can be induced by the mutagenic alkaloid colchicine, which is found in the autumn crocus, (colchicum autumnale). Colchicine allows a cell to double its chromosomes, but prevents meiosis (the splitting of cells), thus forcing the cells to become polyploid. When applied to cannabis, colchicine produces tetraploid plants which tend to be taller, with greater stem diameter, seed and pollen size. The THC content can increase up to 250%.(27)

A. Zhatov, et al., reported these findings from their research:

"The greatest % of polyploid plants is obtained when hemp plants are treated with 0.5% colchicine solution for 2 hours in the phase of cotyledon leaves. The treatment with colchicine solution inhibits growth. This inhibition continues for 2.5-3 weeks, after which the surviving plants resume normal growth and development. The guard cells in the leaves and the pollen grains of tetraploid plants are larger and the number of pores on the pollen grains are greater. Tetraploid plants are taller and the diameter of their stems, seed size and weight of 1000 seeds are greater. The anatomical structure of the stems differs from the diploid plants in a greater amount of primary and secondary fiber. The pollen viability of the tetraploid plants is lower than that of diploid plants. Vegetation period in tetraploids continues 8-15 days longer than in control plants." (28)

Colchicine also can sprayed on the seeds while they are developing on the mother plant. The flowers of plants treated in this manner should not be smoked because the concentration of colchicine may be dangerously high. A third method is to soak seeds in the solution for 2 to 4 hours. Colchicine stimulates the development of the taproot at first, but this effect ceases within a week; then the seedlings go into shock. About 30% of the survivors will be polyploid.

Colchicine can be bought, or prepared by grinding 100 grams of colchicum seeds to powder and percolating with 2 volumes of ethanol and 1 volume of water. The solution contains approximately 4 milligrams of colchicine. Label the bottle and store it safely: colchicine is toxic. Always wear rubber gloves when handling colchicine.

I don't know if that'll work for Salvia ...  

[Paradoxic]

Wow, I have never heard of that. Do you know how prevalent it is to use colchicine with MJ? Thats very interesting stuff, apparently it was also used to create seedless watermelons. Wikipedia has some interesting facts about it. Its kinda crazy because it serious poison, it can be like arsenic poisoning. Seems pretty risky to be putting into something you plan on smoking.

Its intriguing to wonder what this would do to Salvia, or any other psychoactives. I wonder if theres any chance it could alter the active or potentially active chemical(s) in any way by modifying the way they are produced by the plant? Its seems possible because genes control the reactions that produce chemicals and a mutation could affect that. I want to ask the head researcher in my lab if that could be possible. I bet he'd know.

[Jupe]

seems like you lose as much as your gain.....I don't think salvia could withstand that sort of treatment, it can barely handle the gentlest treatments, let alone that one...anyways, Siebert(visited my patch) believes Luna is polyploid already. Its stomata are 2x larger, leaves are thicker and stronger.  In my experience though, it seems to grow 1/2 as fast....gets swamped over by other plants. 

Young plants leaf structure, (except the Lunas) for me, hasn't been much help in determining what the adult will be like.  I have way too many variables, growing half  outside, half inside, some in pots for recovery, some not, some in the  ground etc.    I'm pretty lazy about things sometimes. Heres a nice luna flower to redeem my flakiness. I think thats a Luna to left as well, serrates are a good indicator, in addition to  rounder shape of leaves.

[Synchronium]

Its intriguing to wonder what this would do to Salvia, or any other psychoactives. I wonder if theres any chance it could alter the active or potentially active chemical(s) in any way by modifying the way they are produced by the plant? Its seems possible because genes control the reactions that produce chemicals and a mutation could affect that. I want to ask the head researcher in my lab if that could be possible. I bet he'd know.

Rather than altering the chemical itself, which would be generated at the end of a massive enzyme pathway, a more likely outcome would be to modify one or more of those enzymes, resulting in more or less chemical being produced. So, rather than creating a new chemical, the modified enzymes would either be better or worse at creating the same chemical. Or maybe you could increase expression of one or more of those enzyme genes with an exogenous viral promoter inserted in it's genome at the right place...

[Paradoxic]

seems like you lose as much as your gain.....I don't think salvia could withstand that sort of treatment, it can barely handle the gentlest treatments, let alone that one...anyways, Siebert(visited my patch) believes Luna is polyploid already. Its stomata are 2x larger, leaves are thicker and stronger.  In my experience though, it seems to grow 1/2 as fast....gets swamped over by other plants.

You're probably right. It makes sense that Luna may already be a polyploid. Has anyone compared its potency to other Salvia strains? Does it seem at all more potent?

Beautiful picture of the flowers Jupe

Rather than altering the chemical itself, which would be generated at the end of a massive enzyme pathway, a more likely outcome would be to modify one or more of those enzymes, resulting in more or less chemical being produced. So, rather than creating a new chemical, the modified enzymes would either be better or worse at creating the same chemical. Or maybe you could increase expression of one or more of those enzyme genes with an exogenous viral promoter inserted in it's genome at the right place...

Thats probably more likely, and I think its probably been proven to happen with other plants. But I still wonder if it would be possible to alter the chemicals at all. 

[Sea Mac]

While not strictly on topic, has anyone tried selectively breeding plants from seed for particular qualities?

We could get some super strong strains on the go. Paradoxic, if your plants were 150% the strength of any other plant, you could make a killing.

i think that would be somewhat easyer said than done, well just take a bit of work at least. D.Seibert said in his email to seamac about hand pollinating, that to selectivley breed one SD plant with another one would have to remove all of plant A's flowers and only polinate plant A with Plant B's flowers, a tough task for any outdoor grow, especialy his, probably easy in an indoor grow. But you would also have to identify a specific trait you would want to try and grab, aswell as hope its a dominate gene, and the seeds germinate. it would just take a little time is all im saying

also, I'd like to join in on this fun, when the time comes I'd love to be a little off-site greenhouse

Genius +  for that observation ... But I can't reach the racemes now: they are too tall.

Next year I hope to cross Luna with All the strains in the Garden.