MJBizMag March 2023 - 44

SCIENCE, SEEDS & BREEDS
Curaleaf worked
to unify operating
procedures across
states. Courtesy Photo
" In an ideal situation, there would
be a centralized cultivation R&D
space. And for the time being, things
are somewhat fragmented, " Indest
said. " We do have an R&D room in
New York that's been very helpful in
doing fertility trials and media trials,
in different treatments related to the
root zone. "
The efforts have resulted in more
uniform breeding and cultivation
practices for the MSO, and they should
make launching operations in new
states run smoother and faster going
forward, Indest said.
" What we've learned from one site
can now be applied to other sites.
That really accelerates our launching
process, " he said.
FINDING BREEDER MATCHES
When looking to launch or reset in a
state, it's important to find breeders
whose practices and standards are
consistent with those of your business.
When Indest set out to improve
Curaleaf's cultivation operations in
Florida, for example, he began with
the breeders.
44 March 2023 | MJBizMagazine
Matthew
Indest
" One of the first projects was to
identify breeding partners who could
get us genetics that met our breeding
goals, " Indest said. Those goals had
to do with production schedule and
performance metrics as well as disease
and pest resistance.
" It's that whole process of identifying
the vetted breeder who's able to deliver
something unique, that fits those goals,
and then going through that phenohunt
process, " he said. " We've seen
breeders that have seeds that, on paper,
look great, and then you get them into
the greenhouse or the indoor grow, and
you're seeing hermaphrodites (female
plants that produce male pollen) all
over the place. And now you've got to
scrap that and start over again. "
After identifying and vetting a
breeder, Curaleaf gets the genetic
material and begins the pheno hunting
and cloning process.
Curaleaf relies primarily on clones
for propagation, but those clones usually
begin with seeds that are selected
based on strains the company would
like to grow. Indest and his team get the
seeds, grow the plants and carry out
pheno hunts for three or more cycles
before determining a winner that
becomes the mother plant producing
future clones.
It typically takes nine to 12 months
to go from a group of seeds to a winner
that then gets scaled into production.
In that nine- to 12-month period, there
are usually three or four growth cycles.
" That pipeline involves multiple
data points that relate to what our
commercial needs are. That's the first
step. From there, on the breeding
side, I look at the best performers
and combine those in novel ways
to improve on their performance

MJBizMag March 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MJBizMag March 2023

MJBizMag March 2023 - 1
MJBizMag March 2023 - 2
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