2023 was a favorable year for agriculture in the Pacific Northwest—especially compared to 2022, where late spring rains and cooler temperatures proved challenging for the establishment of newly planted mint fields and test plots.  Climate extremes in 2023 were kept to a minimum as spring rains and mid-summer temperatures fell within average and favorable ranges for the Willamette Valley, Oregon, the region our innovation program calls home.

Our annual task of planting, phenotyping, screening, and selecting from thousands of distinct mint genotypes was successfully carried out by our team of plant breeders, flavorists, and chemists—this year was our most well-oiled and coordinated as our field tasks and distillation activities were completed ahead of schedule.  It is now time to move on to data collation and analysis as difficult decisions need to be made about which varieties should be discarded, which should be kept for further testing, and which should be expanded for commercial production.

As the season changes to a cooler and wetter climate, our attention also changes from field to greenhouse—we are excited this year to trial our updated LED grow lights to actively grow mint in our greenhouses this winter, inducing flowering in this photoperiod-sensitive plant by artificially providing longer day lengths.  By doing so, we hope to shrink our “seed-to-seed” time period and greatly accelerate our rate of genetic improvement.

~Chris Jenkins

Breeding Program Aug 2021 - Photo Credit Shawn Linehan

Breeding Program Aug 2021 - Photo Credit Shawn Linehan

Breeding Program Aug 2021 - Photo Credit Shawn Linehan

Breeding Program Aug 2021 - Photo Credit Shawn Linehan