(a) Crop Inspection.

(1) The applicant shall notify the department's Regional Office in the area in which the field is located, two weeks prior to the time of the first inspection.

(2) It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that fields are registered and inspected by a representative of the Texas Department of Agriculture at least once prior to swathing or harvesting. Foundation, Registered, and Certified monoecious types and unisexual hybrids and Foundation dioecious types shall be inspected by a representative of the department at least two times.

(3) A field that is cut, swathed or harvested prior to any required crop inspection is not eligible for certification.

(4) Fields must be inspected at a stage of growth when varietal purity is best determined. Crops not inspected at the proper stage for best determining varietal purity may be cause for declining certified status. (A) First inspection for all classes of monoecious types must be made just before or at early flowering. First inspection for all classes of dioecious types must be made after flowering when male plants are beginning to senesce. (B) Second inspection for all classes of monoecious types and the Foundation class of dioecious types must be made when seeds are physiologically maturity. (C) Isolation areas will be inspected for volunteer industrial hemp plants on each inspection.

(b) Isolation.

(1) The area, density, stage of maturity and location of any contaminating pollen source is an important factor in cross pollination, and therefore must be noted on the Field Inspection Report for consideration in determining certification status. There shall not be any Cannabis sativa L. plants within 300 ft. of the crop and not more than 10 plants/2.5 acres beyond 300 ft. within the isolation requirement (this refers to individual plants, see Figure 1 of this section for field isolation standards).

(2) The required isolation must be present prior to flowering and crop inspection.

Attached Graphic

(c) Impurity Standards.

(1) Impurities should be removed prior to crop inspection.

(2) Any combination of impurities may be reason for declining certified status.

(3) Table 2 indicates the maximum number of impurities permitted in approximately 10,000 plants of the inspected crop. The inspector makes at least 6 counts (10,000 plants each) or the equivalent to determine the number of impurities. The resulting average of these counts must not exceed the maximum impurity standards in Figure 2 of this section.

Attached Graphic

Source Note: The provisions of this §10.54 adopted to be effective June 4, 2020, 45 TexReg 3618