Page 17 - Griffin Gazette Issue 3 - 2021
P. 17

WHAT TYPES OF QUESTIONS                         WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE
                     DO PEOPLE TYPICALLY HAVE                        BETWEEN SEED AND CLONE
                     ABOUT CANNABIS AND HEMP                         PRODUCTION?
                     PRODUCTION?


                                                                     Cannabis growers often talk about
                     People generally want to know a couple          “clones”, which we don’t hear about
                     of different things. First, people want to      as much in the production of other
                     understand how cannabis and hemp                crops. Clones are cuttings, vegetatively
                     production is structured. They’ve heard         propagated, and all are genetically
                     of “flowering” and “vegetative” stages,         identical. This can be both an advantage
                     but what does that mean? People will            and disadvantage. A big advantage here
                     also ask questions about what cannabis          would be that commercial growers can
                     propagation and harvest or yield looks          achieve consistency in their product.
                     like. A few other commons topics are            Consistency is much needed when
                     pest control, as well as plant nutrition and    it comes to commercial production.
                     understanding equipment needs.                  However, a disadvantage would be
                                                                     that genetically identical plants tend to
                                                                     be susceptible to the same types of
                     WHAT GROWTH STAGES                              problems such as disease or nutritional
                     DO HEMP AND CANNABIS                            sensitivities. Seeds, on the other hand,
                     GO THROUGH DURING                               are often not genetically identical when
                     PRODUCTION?
                                                                     it comes to cannabis. Growers will often
                                                                     use seeds for “pheno hunting”, when
                                                                     they are searching for new varieties of
                     Growers start at the clone or seedling
                                                                     interest. Other crops have undergone
                     stage, where they nurture young plants in
                                                                     years-long breeding programs
                     large numbers and smaller spaces. The
                                                                     specifically to stabilize genetics for
                     crop then moves to the vegetative stage,
                                                                     seed production; the cannabis industry
                     where growth is focused on leave and
                                                                     has not yet reached that point in
                     branching development under a long-
                                                                     development.
                     day photo period of 16 or more hours.
                     The final growth stage is flowering, when
                     growers “flip” to a 12-hour photo period
                     and initiate flower production.









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