Note: For technical assistance with any of our courses or lessons, please contact chris@growersnetwork.org

Are you looking for professional cannabis consulting? Fill out this questionnaire to get connected to Cameron Bravmann and Green Belt Strategies

Do you want to get even more out of Cameron’s cultivation course? Do you want access to exclusive content and instructor support? Do you want to get your hands on professionally developed SOP documents to guide you? Check out our new course packages here!

Lesson Summary:

In this lesson, Cameron explains what propagation procedures you’ll use in your Cannabis grow.

Lesson Transcript:

Hi guys. My name’s Cameron and today we’re going to be talking about propagation.

When I go into a new facility, generally what I’m looking to do is to go with genetic clone stock that is tried, trusted, and true. So generally, I’m going to be looking to a clone source that I’ve relied on in the past.

The number one theme that people should take with regard to propagation in a commercial cultivation facility is risk mitigation. Risk mitigation is the key to success in a commercial cultivation facility. You’re talking about catastrophic collapse if you haven’t mitigated your risks, and it basically starts at the propagation level and follows the plant all the way through to harvest.

Another thing to consider during the propagation phase is generational fade or generational drift and that is the degradation of the genetic over time through successive cloning of inferior stock. Vitality, the vigor, and the potency of the plant will degrade through successive generations, so what we’re trying to do from the propagation perspective is to reverse that. So as opposed to pushing our strongest 90% of plants through to flower, we are holding back our strongest 10% pushing the other 90% through to flower, and that strongest 10% becomes the mother stock for the successive generations.

One of the most important things to consider when bringing new stock into a new facility is the inclusion of pests, pathogens, diseases, etc. No matter where you’re getting your seed stock or clone stock from, assume the worst, but assume that everything you’re bringing in has some sort of problem. The only catastrophic problem which would basically demand a reset is if you had a systemic disease. Other than that, things like powdery mildew, root aphids, all those things can be addressed through a practical IPM (integrated pest management) program.

A great example of a systemic issue would be Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV). It’s the kind of thing that you might not see immediately, but over time it will wipe out an entire crop or at least an entire strain within a crop. So if you inadvertently took a clone and held it back as a mother and that mother had the TMV in it, you would ultimately have a run or multiple runs that your entire stock was infected with the TMV, and you’d have crop collapse.

Cleanliness is one of the most important aspects of any cannabis cultivation. It starts at the propagation level and this includes things like rubber gloves, and clean razor blades, and clean utensils. Using fresh cloning solution, using clean trays for your propagation media. There’s really no end to the level of cleanliness, you can never be overly clean.

Want to get in touch with Cameron? Visit the Green Belt Strategies website here or shoot him an email at cameron@greenbeltstrategies.com

Course Notes:

Recommended Reading:
Introduction to Basic Breeding and Genetics
Harvest Podcast: Avoiding Disease Cannabis Crops

Suggested Products

Enter code GNU-Student for 10% at Growershouse.
(Excludes “Killer Deal” items)
Radix Laboratory Grade Plant Rooting Compound
Grodan Rockwool mini-blocks
Grodan Rockwool GroBlock
Canna Coco

Want to discuss propagation with Cameron and our community of Cannabis professionals? Click here!