Innovation: Conception Nurseries Revolutionizes the Cannabis Industry with Advanced Technology

“Our approach is extremely scalable, and delivers consistent, high-quality, cannabis clones to growers.”

Conception Nurseries, a Sacramento-based company, uses clean and genetically certified cannabis clones that incorporate tissue culture micropropagation technology built upon concepts that traditionally have only been used by large agricultural technology (AgTech) companies. With tissue culture micropropagation, Conception is bringing a proven growth strategy from AgTech to the cannabis industry.

This approach is used to breed consistent strains of desirable cannabis clones, also known as plantlets, in a sterile environment that is free of pathogens. It also reduces the amount of space required for growing plants, and offers growers high-quality clones at a cost per plant below producers’ in-house costs.

Conception Nurseries was incorporated in 2018, is headquartered in Sacramento, California, and has another facility in Oregon.

Kevin Brooks, Conception Nurseries CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Raising the Bar

“Our clean and genetically certified cannabis clones make it easier for growers to focus on growing, rather than managing their nurseries.”

Conception Nurseries revolutionized the industry by taking away the grower’s pain points, while delivering next-generation science and technology to accelerate cannabis cultivation within the rapidly expanding health and wellness market. The company leverages innovative tissue culture propagation technology to mass-produce high-quality, disease-free cannabis clones, which offer consistent genetic strains and eliminate or dramatically reduce the space required for growing plants. When growers purchase these clones, they can increase their yields, reduce risk, and have a more dependable, consistent product.

Another benefit is that cultivators can use these elite cannabis clones without using seeds or pollination.

“We can scale very much on-demand with a superior level of automation and innovative technology beyond what’s currently available in the cannabis space.”

A Crucial Component of Industrial-Scale Agriculture

Conception’s scalable micropropagation facilities allow the company to clone cannabis plants with desirable traits and elite genetics rapidly. Using internal growth chambers and an automated system, the company curates its media, which is a gel that houses plants and automates the growth process to the final hardening of roots. This process enables the plants to thrive in the environment where they will ultimately end up.

“In this industry, growers’ profits can be significantly reduced due to disease, unpredictable quality and inconsistent yields. Our customers can increase their revenue and reduce risks because we provide a year-round supply of pest and contamination-free clones that are genetically certified.”

Conception also offers a “true-clone system,” consisting of restoration services, where the company takes in genetic specifications for cannabis plants provided by its customers and restores them to their original health and vigor, returning a cleaner and healthier plant.

Helping Growers Excel

Tissue culture clones reduce the cost and expense for growers. These clones can eliminate the need for growers to use mother rooms, which take up valuable real estate in an already highly restricted business, require extensive maintenance, and can produce inconsistent yields. By switching over to tissue culture clones, Conception lets growers leverage a more risk-free alternative. They can save on real estate and maintenance costs used in the mother rooms and have more space for a production area. 

“We are very excited that we can apply the growth strategy of micropropagation technology that’s been used by AgTech to the cannabis industry.”

Going Above and Beyond

Conception is determined to steadily incorporate tissue agriculture technology and elite genetics into the cannabis market to address the supply chain’s problems. For example, sick, unhealthy, and underperforming plants at the very initial stage impact everything across the supply chain. Conception focuses on applying the most advanced forms of tissue AgTech to stabilize the supply chain and produce healthy, clean, vigorous clones at the front end. The company has been actively signing long-term engagements with commercial growers and plans to continue onboarding those commercial growers to provide them with additional capabilities.

“We will continue to demonstrate that we can produce tissue culture plants at a scale that has never been done before, and by the end of 2021, we expect to be one of the largest producers of cannabis plants in the world,” concludes Brooks.

Tissue Culture Micropropagation: In a Nutshell

Tissue culture micropropagation is used for breeding clones in a sterile production environment, which significantly reduces disease, pests, and pathogens.

“Using tissue culture micropropagation, we provide cultivators with elite cannabis clones without the use of seeds or pollination.”