Popping Seeds and Picking Winners – Staying one step ahead of the competition
dive deep into the research and development behind the ember valley strain catalogue
Finding unique cannabis genetics has been part of our cultivation model since the inception of Ember Valley in the legal market in 2017. It's the culture of who we are as farmers.
The R +D department allows us to find new cannabis genetics by planting many different seeds to see which traits are expressed. We look for qualities like bud size, color, smell, plant structure, and resiliency towards environmental stress. Plants that excel in these categories become viable options to take clones from and grow at scale.
This process is often referred to as pheno hunting.
"pheno hunting," short for Phenotype hunting, is the process of observing a plant's interaction with its environment and how that shapes its characteristics.
The continuation of our R+D department allows us to stay true to our roots as Northern California cultivators. When you grow from clones, you have the same genetics as everyone else. As smokers and cultivators, we try releasing new strains that are hard to find elsewhere. Even if someone else has the same strain, our version is unique to the seed we chose and cultivated using our methods.
It can take up to a year and a half before consumers can find what we have been researching on a shelf. Part of the reason we were able to survive the last couple of years of market turmoil has been in part due to the research and development we started years prior.
Not only are we still operational, we had a killer 2022 thanks to strains we hunted in 2021, like Apple Tartz, Red Runtz and Grape Cream Cake which took home the blind taste test award from the Tahoe Wellness Cup in 2022.
Red runtz was the fruition of years of research we started back in 2021 with Apple Tartz (both bred by exotic genetics). red runtz has become an iconic ev strain we selected for its runtz color and structure while giving the most amazing red pop nose and taste. It's an all-time house favorite and helped give red pop a resurgence in popularity."
Chris morsette- president + Head of cultivation
The hardest part of pheno hunting is picking a winner. That’s where decades of cultivation experience are of paramount importance. You can’t possibly know what to look for in a winner until you’ve felt the pain of picking phenos that end up being losers. We found three distinct winners in 2022 and we are thrilled to bring them to market in 2023.
THe 2023 Pheno Releases...
Gastro Pop
Gastro Pop Is The Brainchild Of Chris Compound, One Of The Last Projects Released By Chris Before Leaving Compound Genetics. Gastro Pop Is A Cross Of Apples And Bananas With Grape Gas Which Produced Some Of The Tastiest Flower We Have Yet To Grow Here At Ember Valley.
Devil's Triangle
Devil’s Triangle is a cross of Triangle Kush and Devil Driver bred by Clearwater Genetics. They originally called it Powder Keg but we renamed it Devil’s Triangle in order to pay homage to the Emerald Triangle where many of our team members have spent time working “on the hill.” This phenotype was chosen because it has a unique flavor palette and a wide spectrum of effects. We’ve never grown anything quite like it. The phenotype of this strain we chose has a pepper taste that is “Kush” like with a strong and cerebral Indica high.
Power Hour
