Cannabis development is highly attributed to plant breeding and targeted cultivation strategies. Crops themselves are entirely different from those in the 1970s, and we’ve learned a lot by fine-tuning our techniques. According to Anders Peterson, Cannabis Operations Specialist at InSpire Transpiration Solutions, science and technology have been game-changing for cannabis development. “We’ve been able to…
Cannabis development is highly attributed to plant breeding and targeted cultivation strategies. Crops themselves are entirely different from those in the 1970s, and we’ve learned a lot by fine-tuning our techniques.
According to Anders Peterson, Cannabis Operations Specialist at InSpire Transpiration Solutions, science and technology have been game-changing for cannabis development.
“We’ve been able to collect a significant more amount of data and learn from it, even just over the past five years,” said Peterson. “Besides that, the technology used to create a controlled environment inside in terms of lighting, fertigation, HVAC, have allowed us to also optimize plant growth and production and efficiency in these spaces.
In the same ways that farmers learn over time what crops grow best in what areas, we learn to isolate environmental factors to optimize plant growth. Starting with data collection, we better understand what the plants need.
These developments have decreased the number of days plants take to reach maturity and, in turn, increased the number of harvests a year within greenhouses. Specifically, within InSprire Transpiration Solutions, technology has increased harvest cycles from four per year to six. Similar techniques are developing in outdoor cannabis development and production.
In addition to environmental developments, we have also seen cannabis development in the plants themselves through crop steering and breeding. In the 1970s, THC levels in cannabis plants consistently registered 8-12%. Nowadays, plants are testing in the range of 35 to 40% with some cultivars. That’s a significant increase. A lot of that is down to the changes in plant breeding. However, targeted cultivation strategies also contribute to that shift.
Video TranscriptExpand ↓
Hi, my name is Anders Peterson with InSpire Transpiration Solutions. I'm an indoor cannabis cultivator for the past 12 years and a cell molecular biologist. And today, the question is how was an increased understanding of technology and science changing the cannabis industry? Well, a better understanding of science and technology has changed the cannabis industry in a number of ways. And specifically, when it comes to cultivation, it has allowed us to optimize plant performance, including yield and secondary metabolite concentration like cannabinoids and terpenes. And it's allowed us to optimize the production of the plant, primarily in an indoor setting, but also in the field. And in greenhouses. An example of this in an indoor scenario is that with data collection, a better understanding of the levers to pull for cultivation in terms of the Cardinal parameters of plant growth, we've been able to shorten cycle times and basically speed up plant growth so that we're getting additional harvests per year which is just increasing the bottom line for many of these cannabis cultivation businesses. For example, a while ago, an indoor flowering room would only get four harvest a year. Now we're shooting for getting six. So that's a significant more amount of product coming out of each space per year. All due to better understanding of science and technology. The advent of cheaper sensor technology and kind of the IOT of things has allowed us to learn a lot of these things that have, uh, you know, a lot of the parameters to optimize, because sensors have gotten so much cheaper more widely accessible. We've been able to collect a significant more amount of data and learn from it, even just over the past five years. Besides that, the technology used to create a controlled environment inside in terms of lighting, fertigation, HVAC, have allowed us to also optimize plant growth and production and efficiency in these spaces. So, really it's kind of changed the game, increasing, you know, a better understanding of technology and science. I'm looking forward to some really interesting research that's going to be coming out in the next year or so, that will even further optimize these indoor controlled environments, allowing us to reach new levels of plant performance in the cannabis crop that we've never seen before. I mean, just as a benchmark of back in the seventies, most cannabis dried flower tested in the THC percentages around eight to 12%. Nowadays, we're testing in the range of 35 to 40% with some cultivars. That's a significant increase. A lot of that is done through breeding, but also much more targeted cultivation strategy. That's allowed us to use techniques like crop steering, both in the irrigation side and in the environment that allow us to push the plant in certain predicted outcomes that are beneficial for the cultivator and for the crop. So it's really been quite amazing.
