Less Space, More Plants: How Retipping Improves Efficiency in Cannabis Cultivation
Press release from the University of Connecticut:
A novel method for making new cannabis plants works as well as traditional methods in less space according to a recent UConn study published in HortScience. The new method known as “retipping” takes cuttings from strong, disease-free “mother” plants that were micropropogated in laboratory-controlled settings.
“Retipping has the potential to produce nine-times as many plants in a similar amount of floor space as stem cuttings from traditional stock mother plants,” says Jessica Lubell-Brand, Ph.D., professor of horticulture at UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources and principal investigator on the project. “This method could help cultivation facilities grow more in less space while maintaining the quality of their final product.”
The research team, which also included doctoral student Lauren Kurtz, studied the growth of plants in a greenhouse to determine if there were differences between three methods: microcuttings, stem cuttings, and retip cuttings.
The findings suggest that all three methods of making new plants grew to a similar size and had the same chemical profile. The end product, which in this case is the cannabis flowers, did not differ between the three methods either.
While the yields were similar, retipping required the least propagation space and would potentially allow cultivators to grow more starter plants in their facilities.
Today, most cannabis cultivation facilities rely on large, conventionally grown mother plants and stem cuttings to make new, identical plants. The problem is that mother plants take up significant cultivation space, accumulate diseases, and lose vigor over time.
The micropropogated mother plants used in this study were grown in a laboratory and produce identical plants that are disease free and vigorous. They are grown in small containers under sterile conditions, taking up less space than conventional growing.
By using recently micropropogated mothers for the new method called retipping, the researchers harvest cuttings from plants that have been acclimated to conditions outside of the lab. Retipping can enhance output from the micropropagation process by using the plants as mothers instead of and in addition to using them as production plants to grow flowers.
“Not every cultivation facility has the means to build a laboratory and grow micropropagated plants,” says Lubell-Brand. “However, there are plant nurseries with laboratories that can step in to provide them, especially as more cannabis cultivation becomes legal in more states. This supply chain strategy is commonly used in the ornamental nursery trade.”
The research team explains that while decades-long prohibition of cannabis is coming to an end around the country, there is still a lot to learn.
“The legal cannabis industry is forging ahead of the science,” says Kurtz. “Our lab is helping to bridge the gap and provide evidence-based strategies to improve cultivation.”
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
So this is taking many tissue culture copies off of a fresh mother produced by meristematic tissue culture?
There you go! Grow MORE plants in a smaller space that will yield LESS dollars due to a saturated market! Any mouth-breather can grow plenty of dope in the confines of their own home for their own personal needs.
It’s a race to the bottom and UCONN just showed us all a way to get there SOONER.
Wonder how many of our tax dollars were disguised as a grant to show us how to grow more dope in less space? Wouldn’t feeding the world by making it less costly and by utilizing less space be a much more worthy endeavor than growing a plant just to get high?
“Wouldn’t feeding the world by making it less costly and by utilizing less space be a much more worthy endeavor than growing a plant just to get high?”
At a federal, California, and Humboldt level, the empirical evidence from the citizenry answers your question with a decisive “No.”
We Americans continue to fully nurture our long-standing love affair with street drugs and all (and there is a great deal) that goes with it.
We already grow enough food in the United States every year that would equal enough to feed the world for 2 years….the problem is distribution….that being said. …. everyone should grow MORE food….and maybe smoke some herb while gardening?!? It’s a great combo!
I just traded a cord of Fir Firewood for a beautiful pound. Prices are awfully low. I felt so bad he came back for another cord at no charge…We need to help one another during this economic downturn…
yes, older mothers get spent, but what about the wisdom of the elders?
is youth always better?
are clones imbued with a soul?
incongruence between how plant lives and how human lives are valued..
Even though plants are clearly instinctually wiser than humans..
..some plants living for hundreds of years seeing untold time..
seeds over clones
Cannabis could be considered to be quite wise. Over time it is rapidly evolving to produce larger amounts of various chemical compounds that humans desire. Thus humans propagate more and more plants every year. If you look at cannabis plant population on a chart over time, I’m sure there would be a huge spike in numbers over the last 50 years since its most recent formation of a symbiotic relationship with humans. Such a chart would also show spikes throughout history during times when it was propagated for things like rope and paper. More numbers = better odds of species survival. Just some food for stoned thoughts…
This just sounds like producing clones via meristem tissue culture?
It’s definitely some kind of cell culture propagation method. Yawn…
https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/57/12/article-p1576.xml
Link to the paper
sounds like they sort of discovered tissue culture?
This is a little off topic, but…during prohibition, did anybody ever claim, as a defense, that their hundreds of plants, propagated from cuttings, were really one plant genetically? Just curious. Eddy D, Esquire? You out there?
Nobody was able to claim much as a defense because the DA would exaggerate numbers or just plain lie about things and pile as many charges as possible with the understanding that the case would be pled out and never go to trial. They would weigh entire plants and even include the soil and in the criminal complaint (or in the Times Standard), it would just be listed as X hundreds of pounds of marijuana. All the plans you might have to defend yourself legally would come to nothing when the process really got going, That’s just one example of how corrupt it all was, lying to judges to get warrants based on nothing was commonplace and now that it’s all over we are all realizing that nobody cared about growing on any ethical level. It was just big business, they had their job we had ours. The neighbors you thought were ranchers and good old boys were actually growing better weed than you were, year after year. They were also ranchers and maybe connected to enforcement or maybe not. But they had enough sense not to buy a brand new truck and grow dreads. It would be interesting for someone to document this in some historical record of book or whatever while these people are still alive to tell their stories.
In Laytonville we used to say “the shorter the hair the more plants they have”. Actually saw longhairs become crewcuts as they put more plants in, going for that big year. Funny!
Roger Rodoni…
Nothing like wasting money on a study that some hillbilly in overalls could have told you over a decade ago…. Yawn
Yes but now it has been “scientifically proven” so that it can be cited by corporate grow entities in their next round of fund sourcing. This is now “vigorous knowledge” that can be used to attract investments and expand portfolios as the tentacles reach and strangle everybody you ever knew or loved in this “industry” we used to simply call life….yay for “legalization” yay! Feeling safe and free now!
This is excellent news. Marijuana growers of all sorts should take heed and grow more marijuana because the more we grow, the higher the price and the wealthier our communities and citizens will be.
Yes! Yes! Overgrow the…ummm…oversupply! We can do this!!
I hear males work best! Plant one every greenhouse and triple your yield.
With the price of seeds you aren’t lying
lol, all the blood, sweat and tears and this is where research money is being spent, ffs!
Taproots are the best way to grow the plant.
I am thankful that in about ten years less than a handful will be able to grow commercially to scale cause the skill will be lost to “retippers.”
hopefully by then the connection has been made between reputable growers and connoisseurs willing to pay for organic sustainably grown and of course free range grass.
It’s 80+% the current industry. Kinda why they gotta do this shit research so people who just feed the plant can justify billions in losses.
Me used to count stars at night… now me count light deps.
Wait, taking cuttings off your cutting after they’ve been boosted is some kind of new novel idea? Damn I should have patent that like 20 years ago.. kind of like when my dad was growing in hoopers in the early 80s. I still remember the year it went for 5600 a pound. He pulled 8 lb out of his little Hooper that year. That was a good Christmas, got my first four wheeler a little 50 CC. Back when I still called them ho ho plants , lol and I could barely carry a half bag of chickenshit.
Your dad’s genetics were better they are talk’in more petri dish kinda science.
Fu.. Marijuana…you guys need to participate in real community.Stop smoking dream cake…Kim ..you are contributing to the stupid train…We need thinking people, active in community not stoned out of their minds…get a clue
Right, a plant that provides clothing, rope, paper and has health benefits can’t be anything but a dream. We need to keep our dependence on pharmacutical, paper and big tobacco from other states. How dare we challenge these capatilist stallworths when they only have our best interests and could care less about profits.
Nice work concisely speaking the ugly and raw truth. It is a breath of fresh air amidst the relentless and pervasive social pollution of this county.
So much of the community has willingly sold out to the narco state for so many decades and has become so deeply corrupt, in poor health (I see many of them), and living on the edge that it will likely take many deaths to clear the community’s many collective cancerous choices.
Soaking with prejudiced assumptions. You are a doctor for real? You don’t sound objective. Sounds like you made so many wonderful choices. Why are you so unhappy? Did anyone help you out? How did you go to med school? I just want to make sure when you accuse all your patients of being” unhealthy,…deeply corrupt” sell outs to the “narco state” that you didn’t come from some rare air. With all your training you’ve never learned about the different physiological effects from all the different drugs? Ibuprofen, weed, coffee, fentanyl…all the same right? …
Wait! You’re a dental hygienist!?
The narco state is big pharma. Selling shit with bad science beind it. Kiddos are being fed SSRIs after pharma-studies prove them safe when in reality its all about the $. The placebo was as effective as prozac but the studies were rigged to provide evidence to the contrary.
How the Sacklers doing this evening? After selling millions in addictive chemicals to the general public under the banner of big pharma. Not in jail I can tell you that.
Take a powder Hum doc.
That’s a great strain name!
Not so sure that this is anything new or super special. We’ve known about this for eons it’s just a little unwieldy, takes a lot of plastic and ridiculousness to make it unfold. If you were running on Genny the stuff becomes a pain in the ass if it goes down. Everything can be lost in a few hours. Temp and or humidity crash Heartbreaking.