By Luke Sumpter

Cannabis cultivation has come a long way in recent years. A far cry from clandestine growers raising illicit crops in their basements, tissue culture sees qualified lab technicians legally cloning premium genetics on a ginormous scale. But what exactly is tissue culture, how will it change the cannabis industry, and what does it mean for home growers? Find out the answers to all of these questions, and many more, below!


What Is Tissue Culture Propagation (Micropropagation)?

Before we dive into the specifics of cannabis tissue culture, also known as micropropagation, it’ll help to establish a general understanding of the topic and technique. In biological research, tissue culture refers to a method of introducing the tissue of a plant to an artificial environment that allows the sample to thrive and function. In the context of cannabis cultivation, tissue culture essentially boils down to cloning.

In brief, tissue culture involves taking small samples of the original plant with the end goal of creating a new plant. Technicians sterilise the tissue samples and root them in a sterile, nutrient-rich growing medium in a controlled environment. Because these samples are only centimetres in size to begin with, labs can generate an enormous number of clones in a small amount of space.

Tissue culture differs from cloning using cannabis cuttings in numerous ways. Although both techniques aim to create a genetic copy of the plant from which the starting material was taken, micropropagation offers a range of unique advantages, including fewer instances of disease.

Cannabis Tissue Culture Propagation
Cannabis Tissue Culture Propagation

Tissue Culture Vs Cloning: Is It Better Than Cuttings?

The answer to this question depends on the individual and their circumstances. Taking cuttings is an excellent way to preserve the genetics of a mother plant. Perhaps you’ve found a phenotype with a structure or aroma that you love. Well, taking a cutting is an effective way to capture those traits. While time-tested, this technique does have flaws. It requires more space and can predispose plants to disease transmission.

In contrast, tissue culture requires much less space at scale. Moreover, the sterile working conditions required for this technique vastly reduce the odds of disease and pest transmission. Despite these benefits and others, micropropagation requires some investment and skill, and is mostly viewed as overkill for home growers who already have success using cuttings.

How Cannabis Tissue Culture Propagation Works

So, how exactly does the process of cannabis tissue culture unfold? It’s worth noting that there are variations in the technique and equipment that can make one tissue culture approach look very different to another. However, there are four key stages spanning across all methods of micropropagation. Check out each stage in detail below.

HOW CANNABIS TISSUE PROPAGATION WORKS

Sample Collection and Sterilisation

First things first, technicians need to collect a tissue sample from a donor plant. Donor specimens are selected based on a range of criteria, including cannabinoid content, terpene profile, and growth characteristics. Typically, lab workers take a sample of a leaf or shoot tip. These parts of a cannabis plant’s anatomy are host to living microbes, including pathogens and symbionts. For this reason, they are washed in an isopropyl solution to sterilise the tissue surface to prevent the growth of unwanted bacteria and fungi.

Shoot Proliferation

Once cleaned, technicians introduce samples to a sterile growing medium in vitro (in a glass container such as a test tube). This medium contains everything samples need to grow and root during the next stage of the process, including nutrients and plant hormones. They are typically placed in an illuminated environment with a temperature of 25°C and 60% relative humidity.

Rooting

Next up, the samples are left to develop more substantial root systems. During this time, the samples are exposed to necessary nutrients and phytohormones that allow them to develop healthy roots, which will help them to acclimate to their future growing environment.

Acclimatisation

Before growers transplant tissue culture samples to their final destination, they acclimatise them to a range of environmental variables. During the previous few weeks, the samples have been mollycoddled in constant growing conditions. Now, they need to be exposed to varying temperatures and other external factors to toughen them up in a similar way to “hardening off” vegetables prior to transplanting in spring.

What Are the Advantages of Tissue Culture Cloning in Cannabis?

Now that you’re aware of how tissue culture differs from taking cuttings, and the main stages of the process itself, we’re going to dive into the benefits of using micropropagation to create clones.

Requires Only a Small Amount of Plant Material

Marijuana tissue culture only requires a small amount of tissue per sample. On top of this, growers can use a range of plant parts to create samples, from buds to shoots. This means a single mother plant can be used to make a multitude of clones.

Doesn’t Require Much Space

The multiplication of a mother plant using tissue culture saves on space. The small size of each test tube means that growers can create starting material for countless plants while taking up only a small amount of room. This has important implications, especially in commercial operations.

Genetic Preservation

Much like cuttings, tissue culture enables growers and breeders to preserve the exact genetics of a specific specimen. Unlike growing out seeds from a desirable plant, cloning ensures the preservation of every trait, from phytochemical complex to structure, size, and color.

Cannabis Clones
Cannabis Clones

Mass Cloning

Micropropagation enables both commercial cultivators and keen home growers to develop a huge amount of clones within a confined space. Not only does this create a vast bank of genetics to preserve a particular mother plant, but it also has impressive commercial value.

Year-Round Production

Tissue culture is performed exclusively indoors given its climatic control and sterilisation requirements. This means that producers can continue to churn out clones all year round, whether for personal use or to generate sales.

Disease and Pest-Free Plants

The intricate sterilisation practices involved in weed tissue culture cloning almost completely eradicate the chances of pests and disease—factors that can seriously damage cloning operations that use cuttings.

Rapid Propagation

Much like traditional cloning using cuttings, tissue culture creates mature plants at a much faster rate than sowing seeds. This method also cuts away the time it takes to select desired phenotypes following germination when growing from seed.

Research and Development

Marijuana tissue culture has important implications in developing new genetics and learning about the phytochemical and morphological traits of select strains within hyper-controlled conditions. Large firms are destined to use this approach (many currently do) to develop new cultivars.

What Are the Challenges of Cannabis Tissue Culture?

Tissue culture and cloning have incredible potential for commercial operations and small-scale growers alike. However, everything has its downsides! Find out about the drawbacks of micropropagation below.

Cost
Setting up a proper tissue culture lab can quickly become expensive. The equipment required to start and scale up, including sterilisation facilities and glassware, comes at a cost.
Expertise
In the age of information, practically anyone can learn the ins and outs of micropropagation online. However, large companies need people who can prove that they know what they are doing, or the funds to train them in an official capacity.
Labour Intensive
Despite creating genetic copies of mother plants at speed, weed tissue culture requires incredible attention to detail, from vetting the traits of mother plants to sterilising and scouting the signs of disease and infestation.
Maintaining a Sterile Setting
The success of any tissue culture operation hinges on maintaining a sterile environment. This requires constant work and attention. Fail here, and you’ll lose a whole lot of time, work, and, potentially, money.
Genetic Drift
Marijuana tissue culture creates some incredibly consistent results. However, this technique isn’t completely bulletproof to the reality of genetic diversity. Even in such tightly controlled clonal populations, some degree of genetic drift can manifest over time, resulting in plants with slightly different traits.

Can You Carry Out Tissue Culture at Home?

Absolutely. While cannabis tissue culture might seem like a technique only suitable within high-tech labs, it’s possible to perform this method at home on a smaller scale.

If you’ve ever tried your hand at the cultivation of mushrooms, you’ll likely know your way around a still air box (SAB). These cost-effective DIY creations allow growers to foster relatively sterile working conditions. Purchase a few pieces of glassware and source a good growing medium, and you can launch a tissue culture project at home. Many houseplant fanatics use the approach to clone anything from monsteras to snake plants. You can even get your hands on a dedicated cannabis tissue culture kit, but these typically come at a relatively high cost.

Cannabis Micropropagation: An Exciting Prospect

Cannabis micropropagation puts the ingenuity of botany on full display! You can view the method as a more developed version of taking a cutting to clone a plant. Sure, most home growers simply don’t have the need for tissue culture. However, this method has already started to revolutionise commercial growing operations and the consumer cultivation market. Moreover, the more adventurous and obsessive home grower has made tissue culture work for them. Will you give this technique a go?

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Privacy Policy - Royal Queen Seeds

To ensure a safe online environment and guarantee adequate data protection, we strictly comply with all legal requirements. In this privacy statement, we provide information about how and for what purpose data is collected, safety measures, storage periods and contact details.


COMPANY NAME: SNORKEL SPAIN, SL (hereinafter ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS)

C/ Vilar d'Abdelà, 5 (nave 1) CP: 08170 de Montornès del Vallès

+34 937 379 846

support@royalqueenseeds.com


The present Privacy Policy sets out the terms on which we will treat personal data at ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS; this includes any personal data collected through our website https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/ as well as any other data we process in the course of our business activities.

ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS collects the following personal data for the purposes listed below:

SECTION 1 – PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

1.1 Account purchases

Account purchases can only be made if you are in possession of a personal account. When you create an account or purchase something from our shop, as part of the buying and selling process we collect the following personal information that you provide to us:

This information is required for delivery. In addition, when you browse our shop, we automatically receive the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer. Based on this information, we can optimise your online experience and at the same time protect our online environment.

Purpose of data collection

We collect and store account-related data for the following purposes:

(a) to carry out obligations arising from any contracts between you and us, and to provide you with information, products and services that you may request from us;

(b) to set up, manage and communicate with you about your account and your orders;

(c) to conduct market research and analysis;

(d) to confirm your age and identity, and to detect and prevent fraud.

1.2 Newsletters

With your explicit permission, we may send you newsletters about our shop, new products and other updates. We send newsletters based on your explicit consent. In the event that you purchase a product, and in accordance with current regulations, we may send you commercial communications in accordance with the legitimate interest of our company, always about products or services similar to those you have purchased or contracted. In any case, you may exercise your right of opposition through the channels announced in this Privacy Policy. The following information is collected in relation to the newsletter:

We do not need to know the sex of the person in order to send the newsletter (data minimisation: by law we must ask for data that is strictly necessary to provide the service, and in this case knowing the sex is not necessary to send the newsletter).

Purpose of data collection

The data collected is used to:

(a) personalise our emails, including your name and gender;

(b) provide gender-specific content.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by using the link provided in the newsletter or the contact information provided in section 2.

1.3 Customer service and contact form

In order to provide appropriate support, our customer service employees have access to information related to the account. Consequently, their support will be highly effective and friendly. The data provided in our contact form is used by our CRM provider, SuperOffice. We will only use your details to respond to your message.

SECTION 2 – LEGITIMATE INTEREST

If you have purchased any of our products, please note that we may process your personal data for promotional purposes, based on Royal Queen Seeds' legitimate interest only to offer you products or services from our company and about products or services similar to those you have purchased. You may exercise your right to opt out of future messages by the means set out in this Privacy Policy or through any notification you receive.

2.1 How do you withdraw consent?

If you change your mind, you can withdraw your consent for us to contact you for the purpose of collecting, using, or disclosing your data at any time by reaching out to us at: support@royalqueenseeds.com.

SECTION 3 – DISCLOSURE

We may disclose your personal information if we are required to do so by law or if you breach our Terms of Service.

SECTION 4 – HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR DATA?

At Royal Queen Seeds, we will not retain your data for longer than is necessary for the purposes described in this Policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data; however, the longest period we will normally hold any personal data is 10 years.

4.1 Account information

Data relating to the account remains relevant for as long as the consumer is in possession of an account. Therefore, the data remains documented for as long as the account exists. When our customers delete an account, the associated data will be deleted within a reasonable period of time. Requests regarding the inspection or correction of stored personal data or the deletion of an account can be sent to support@royalqueenseeds.com.

4.2 Newsletters

In the event that you give us your consent to inform you about our products or services, we will keep your data until you express your wish not to receive any further communications from us. However, we regularly (every month) carry out a relevance check. Registered customers (and their personal information) will be deleted whenever customers do not reply to our request. In addition, our newsletter mailing has an opt-out feature. Consumers can withdraw their consent by using this opt-out feature.

SECTION 5 – COOKIES

Cookies are small information files that notify your computer of previous interactions with our website. These cookies are stored on your hard drive, not on our website. Essentially, when you use our website, your computer displays its cookies to us, informing our site that you have visited before. This allows our website to function more quickly and remember aspects related to your previous visits (such as your username), making your experience more convenient. At Royal Queen Seeds, we use two types of cookies: functional and analytical.

5.1 Functional Cookies

Functional cookies are used to enhance your online experience. Among other things, these cookies track what is added to your shopping cart. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

5.2 Analytical Cookies

Analytical cookies are used for research and market analysis. The data collected with these analytical cookies is anonymous, making it unusable for third parties. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

SECTION 5 – THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

Third-party services are required to conduct transactions and provide our services. In general, the third-party providers we use will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to enable them to perform the services they provide to us.

However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies regarding the information we must provide to them for your transactions.

We encourage you to read the privacy policies of these providers so that you can understand how these providers will handle your personal information.

In particular, certain suppliers may be located or have facilities located in a different jurisdiction than yours or ours. Therefore, if you choose to proceed with a transaction involving the services of a third party, your information may be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction in which that service provider or its facilities are located.

Once you leave our website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service of our website.

Web analytics service (anonymous data)

On this website we have integrated an element of a web analytics service (with anonymisation functionality). Web analytics can be defined as the gathering, processing and analysis of data about the behaviour of visitors to websites. An analytics service collects, among other things, data about which website a person came from (the so-called referrer), which sub-pages they visited or how often and for how long they visited a sub-page. Web analytics is mainly used for website optimisation and for a cost–benefit analysis of internet advertising.

Courier service

To complete deliveries we use a courier service. This courier service carries out the delivery between our company and the consumer's home. To complete these logistics, the company requires access to the consumer's name and address information.

Mailing service

Royal Queen Seeds uses a third-party mail service provider to send its newsletter. This provider has access to limited account information related to opt-in consent (e.g. email address).

Marketing services

Royal Queen Seeds has the support of a company that specialises in marketing and communication activities. Their access to personal information is very limited and mostly anonymous.

Payment services

At Royal Queen Seeds we use external payment services to handle our transactions (e.g. credit card payments).

SECTION 6 – SECURITY

To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry standard best practices to ensure that it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.

If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored using AES-256 encryption. Although no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional industry standards that are commonly accepted. Information related to the account is protected with a hashing method. This method transforms the information into a generated hash. As a result, confidential information is protected and invisible, even to us. In addition, our databases are exceptionally protected against unauthorised access. For example, access to the database is only possible and permitted via approved IP addresses (e.g. from Royal Queen Seeds headquarters). Other attempts and addresses are rejected at all times.

Furthermore, data is anonymised as much as possible, so it cannot be directly linked to a specific consumer. With this data, however, we may be able to carry out market research and analysis. In addition, the third parties concerned (e.g. mailing service) are examined prior to our collaboration, comply with the GDPR from the EU and receive a processing agreement. Within Royal Queen Seeds, employees are assigned different access permissions. Specific permission provides access only to information that is strictly required to perform a task. Digital security measures are subject to change and must meet high requirements to ensure the safety of online customers. That is why, at Royal Queen Seeds, we appoint a security officer. Regular verification and improvement of security measures (where necessary) are part of the role.

SECTION 7 – CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please check back regularly. Changes and clarifications will be effective immediately upon being published on the Website. If we make substantial changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated so you will know what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.

SECTION 8 – YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO: