Consulting, Education, Advanced Industrial Hemp Seeds and Seedlings
  • Home
    • About Us
  • Consulting
    • Chimney Rock Forum
    • Live One-on-One Consultation
    • Boot Camps
    • Membership-Subscription
    • Members >
      • Community-Members
      • Farmer-Members
      • Grower-Members
      • Feminized-Seed-Grower-Members
      • Hemp Tips
  • Education
    • Farm Tours
    • Rock Videos
  • Genetics
    • Seed FAQ's
  • Shop
    • Cultivar Selector
    • Feminized Seed
    • Feminized Transplants
    • Education Resources
  • Trends

Frequently Asked Questions

Join the Craft Hemp Revolution: Grow CBD Hemp Seeds

Tired of the commodity grind?  Suspicious of the "Get Big or Get Out, Get Rich Quick" stuff?  Consider Craft Hemp as a business model of the future. Diversify your business towards a higher margin market segment. 
Chimney Rock Farms will help connect you to Full Spectrum Phytocannabinoid rich craft extractors and buyers once you grow our genetics.

Growing Feminized Seeds

Why grow chimney rock seeds?
These are new and different genetics on the hemp and cannabis scene.  They are unique crosses of some of the most rare and sought after cultivars.
We grow for craft cannabinoid production believing the market is evolving like the craft beer industry towards unique cultivars that can be "tuned " for targeted therapies desired by health professionals and manufacturers.  Breeding a plant to a formulation is much less expensive than fractioning and distilling individual cannabinoids and terpenes only to reassemble again into a compounded Nutraceutical product.  These strains are for those who are seeking high CBD and the full spectrum of minor cannabinoids and expressive terpenes. These plants grow and look like traditional cannabis grown for THC.  They are not derived from typical industrial hemp cultivars. They will grow to look like high THC plants, not fiber and seed industrial hemp. We have found that industrial hemp seed crosses are not as stable and predictable as we would like. 

Hemp Seed Type

Are these hemp seeds?
Yes, these cultivars are able to be grown and kept under 0.3% THC if monitored and tested, once they go to flower. Our Network Farmers have found Indica cultivars can be harvested mid-September while Sativa cultivars often go until late September or early October.  Cannabis plants respond to their environment so we suggest you begin testing all cultivars in late August to determine your harvest date.  We work with our members on potency curve extrapolation for their region so they can optimize harvest yield while remaining compliant within their state regulations. 
Are the seeds REGULAR or feminized?
All of our seeds are feminized; we do not offer regular seed anymore since the economics just don't work for the average farmer. These seeds will produce at least 99% female plants. We utilize third-party sex testing on random samples of each seed lot, as well as in-house testing, to ensure our feminized seed is what we claim it to be. 
​You can expects about 1 in 4000 plants to express a male phenotype. These rare phenotypes will release pollen and should be rogued or culled from the field prior to full flowering.  We walk the field every week starting the third week of flowering and it should take 
about 1 labor hour of work per week per acre (one person for a half hour/acre, twice per week).  For a 100 acre farm that would be about 100 labor hours/week or 2.5 workers for one month costing about $1,500. 
Despite rigorous testing and industry standard techniques for feminizing seed, around 1 in 1000 plants may display monoecy, although this effect is partially controlled by environmental factors causing stress. Avoid exposing your plants to artificial light sources (even headlights from a car or truck) on your plants after dark.  

Real growers know the pros and cons of feminized seeds.  Using regular seed for planting stock is time consuming and costly. Clones are convenient, but they are expensive and can be difficult to source outside of states with established industrial hemp industries. Seeds are cheaper than clones, and are easier to ship and store. Seeds, for the most part,  do not harbor pests or diseases. Seeds also produce a tap root that helps get established in the field more quickly than clones, and finally seeds tend to grow more vigorous than clones. Feminized seed combines the advantages of clones with those of seed by producing vigorous, all-female plants requiring minimal space for propagation, ability to sprout in hoop houses without lights most importantly at a modest cost to control male pollination.
Are the seeds stable?
Another interesting question.  Depends on what a person feels is “stable”.  Most of our seeds are F1 hybrids.  We also have a few F2’s or Bx1’s available for growers that know what that means.
We usually see 2-3 phenotypes and have a hard time finding F1’s with more than 2 phenos.
We will also be posting further information on our website about all the cultivars in the future.  ​
What is the germination rate?
We are registered as a seed seller and required by the Colorado Department of Agriculture to follow labeling requirements for all seed sold within the United States. If your location has different requirements let us know and we will work with you to find a win-win outcome.
Each pack sold will include a seed label that will include germination rates, noxious weed content as well as a lot of other useful information.
The vast majority of our selections will germinate at over 90+%.  In many of our tests we get 100% germination but your results may vary. 

We provide you with current germination percentages by cultivar on each product at the checkout screen. If you have further questions please ask.

Cannabinoid Content

What is the CBD % of these seeds?
Our most popular question! 
This is a very interesting question that has permeated the CBD genetics world. 

CBD potential of most strains on the market vary between 4-19%, depending on the season, fertility, climate, and skill of the farmer.

We will make no unsubstantiated claims unless we can back them with real science. There are many other seed breeders and sales people who make a lot of claims that we do not necessarily find true.  Over the  years, we have procured and grown almost all of the common high CBD cultivars in existence and we have found the results can vary wildly.  We have never been able to grow out a plant with zero or "non detectable THC".  Buyer beware of these types of claims with high CBD seeds and clones. 


​We released our seeds for people who know all of this and will grow these out to find plants that work for their situations. Many of these plants will show CBD to THC ratios somewhere in the 20:1 to 35:1 range.  These ratios will move almost daily during the flowering cycle. 

We also ask growers to consider other attributes in plant selection.  Why are we so caught up in the contest for high CBD % on COA's when we are not asking better questions such as: what do they yield per acre of biomass or CBD/kilogram/acre?  Our field trials show that a plant bred to develop an optimum structure capable of carrying heavy cola stems will yield more CBD/acre than typical "bush" commodity varieties! This is the result of a breeding strategy focusing on field productivity not just flower potency. We believe our cultivars can produce 25%+ more CBD per acre when grown competently! This is probably the most important success factor for a farmer to learn. We teach our members how to optimize for CBD/acre of a field not "Cannabis Cup" flower bragging rights. If you are going to compete with the "big boys"  you had better outperform them on CBD per acre. Call us and we will show your our 2019 Field Trial Results!

Other good questions to ask: When is the optimum time to harvest? Will they perform best outdoors or in a greenhouse?  Are they bred for Insect or pest resistance? What is the minor cannabinoid or terpene content makeup?  What about cold and heat tolerance?  And many, many, more…

If none of this makes sense to you, then you may want to gain more education about this space or look into our Member Farmer program where we assist growers with consulting.
Can I trust a Certificate of Analysis (COA)?
Mark Twain once said there were three kinds of lies, "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics..."
We have been testing our plants for almost five years and after hundreds of samples and spending thousands of dollars on private labs here is what we have come to know:
  • The CBD % and THC % test results are subject to a high degree of variability:  What part of the plant was sampled? What standards were used? Who performed the test? What equipment and procedures were employed?  Ultimately we see a 10-25% variation between private labs in blind sample tests. 
  • There is one advertised CBD number but three types tests that should be taken to know what you are growing.  The first test should be a biomass test with all the flower, leaf and trim homogenized. This will come in around 4% for Industrial field hemp to about 10% for select strains grown with care  (little to no weeds, dust, or dirt etc.. from mechanical harvesting). The second test should be the Department of Agriculture test. In Colorado that is 2" of the best flower top, homogenized with leaf and stem but no seeds. And the last test should consist of scraped trichomes off the flower discarding all leaf, stem and seed.  Unfortunately this is the  test result that is most often advertised and implied as a percentage of the whole plant. Ask what the test methodology was used and set your expectations accordingly.
Having said all of that, we find that quality hemp plants, under .3% THC will regularly come in at 6-12% CBD.  A farmer or grower is doing very well to hit 10% CBD and maintain hemp status.  We know that 15-20% CBD may be possible but under very specific conditions but it is very rare. It is like growing an Orchid. Almost any trait can be achieved at great cost within a single plant but who plants a field of orchids? Look for solid, repeatable strains farmers have successfully grown.  If you want to be a commodity farmer there are plenty of cheap seeds on the market now. Most isolate extractors care mainly about price so if this is your objective, you too, can join the "race to the bottom". 

Purchasing from Chimney Rock

How do you price your seeds?
We now offer packs of 100 seeds for sampling. We changed our volume pricing model in 2019 from cost per seed to cost per package weight because the cost per seed method was just a guess anyways about how many seeds were in a pound. We will list the current lot estimate of number of seeds per pound of random sampled lots on each cultivar description at checkout (this will change with every lot so check the website). To give you an idea there are about 25,000 - 30,000 seeds in a pound or about 55k to 66k per kilo.  We price our seeds competitively with the rest of the market and provide Member discounts for volume purchases but we believe you are getting way more value on harvested CBD yield/seed using our genetics. Give us a call and we can walk you through the data that supports that claim. 

All seeds are non-feminized, however, starting in 2020 we will be offering Affiliate Partner feminized seed lines that may or may not be "Open Source" to our Farmer partners. Check the seed description listed at checkout. 


​We do offer bulk pricing for direct orders over 100 pounds. Please call for more details. 720-304-3003.
How can I Purchase Seeds from chimney rock
We are happy to announce our online store is up and running! We have been cleared by our Merchant Processor as a preferred CBD account so you can be sure we can take orders without any problems. For large Orders over $10,000 we prefer a wire transfer. Please contact us for instructions at 720-304-3003.
We are shipping nationwide now for sales outside the United States, please contact us for shipping information.
Stay tuned to this website for more locations, brokers, and ways to purchase our seed selections.
Are the genetics "Open Source", can I breed with them?
Open Source varieties are identified in the seed cultivar description. If it doesn't explicitly say "Open Source" it is a licensed variety. We develop high performance hemp strains costing over $50,000 per strain to develop by eliminating mediocrity. To recover those costs and keep you on the leading edge we license our latest varieties. 

The benefit to a Farmer or Grower is growing a crop that has a high-return-on-investment per acre selling biomass not only high in CBD but also other desirable characteristics such as minor cannabinoids, terpenes or flavor.  These attributes, plus the scarcity of Chimney Rock branded cultivars will help you, the buyer, differentiate your crop in an increasingly crowded marketplace of oversupplied average hemp.

A Farmer may clone these genetics for their private use but not sell them. A Grower may sell the genetics and can co-develop new derivative strains with us and we will share the net income generated through our international marketing and sales efforts. If you are interested in becoming an Chimney Rock Member or Affiliate Grower please call 720-304-3003.
What kind of Products are being developed?
We develop high-performance, craft Industrial hemp strains. We are working on cultivars that are cannabinoid specific meaning they exhibit higher levels of CBC, CBG or CBDVA . We are breeding for uniques terpenes that have aromas people prefer like chocolate, mint and even bubble gum! Many of these terpenes may turn out to be essential in the effectiveness of certain Nutraceutical formulations.

We are also working on Auto-Flower varieties that would allow a farmer to double crop within the same season. Additionally we are working on using different strains in part of a crop rotation methodology for Organic Certification.

Terms of Service

Affiliate Partner Program
Disclaimer, Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Sale-of-Goods, Return Policy

Support | Resources

Talk to an Agronomist Live!
Hemp Business Trends
​Hemp Tips
Member Resources

Company

About Us
Contact Us
Internships
Apprenticeships

Product / Service Finder

  • Home
    • About Us
  • Consulting
    • Chimney Rock Forum
    • Live One-on-One Consultation
    • Boot Camps
    • Membership-Subscription
    • Members >
      • Community-Members
      • Farmer-Members
      • Grower-Members
      • Feminized-Seed-Grower-Members
      • Hemp Tips
  • Education
    • Farm Tours
    • Rock Videos
  • Genetics
    • Seed FAQ's
  • Shop
    • Cultivar Selector
    • Feminized Seed
    • Feminized Transplants
    • Education Resources
  • Trends