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A Conversation on Commercial Cannabis Breeding

Published
4 weeks agoon

Somebody recently contacted me about starting a cannabis seed and genetics company. This person intended to provide seeds, clones, and teens to commercial growers.
They inquired about different seed and genetic types, as well as their marketability. They asked for a prediction on whether tissue culture or CRISPR technology would be the future of cannabis genetics.
It was a wide-ranging conversation, and I’ve decided to write down some of the information shared and my thoughts on the state of the cannabis genetics market, and what we might expect moving forward.
Breeding Cannabis for Consumers
In my conversation, I first explained what a useless exercise it is to produce genetics that have no desirability—why produce plants that you can’t sell? Each year, lists of top-selling dried flower varieties are published, highlighting the millions of dollars spent on each cultivar. It would make sense to simply reproduce the most popular genetics, right?
Not quite …
Often, many other growers are already producing those genetics en masse, which accounts for their tremendous sales throughout many legal cannabis markets. Also, in some instances, the original breeders are already producing and selling those cultivars’ seeds and are doing so better than a knockoff seed producer can. (On a similar note, whenever possible, purchase from the original breeder, or from someone authorized to produce seeds by the original breeder.)
So if following top-seller trends is not a successful path, what seeds should someone looking to contribute to the cannabis genetics landscape produce? Unfortunately for the breadth of genetic variety that exists within the cannabis plant, today’s cannabis consumers remain focused primarily on THC percentage, much more so than terpenes. Anecdotally, I was told by a dispensary owner that customers did not want a product under 30% THC. This means that if one is looking to be a breeder selling clones to commercial producers, one has to optimize for THC content.
THC content is especially critical for extraction companies, whose revenues are directly tied to the amount of oil they extract from plant material—a higher THC content means more oil for the same biomass volume. These growers want trichome-covered buds called “washers” because of their intended use in water extraction. They tend to have higher yields of trichomes, which in turn are pressed to manufacture rosin.
Breeding Cannabis for Seed Production
Breeders looking to produce cannabis seeds need to consider different goals. I interviewed multiple seed company owners and asked what their top customer requests were. Out of those conversations, four priorities emerged:
- Availability of feminized seed stock versions.
- Uniform and stable growth characteristics.
- Viroid-, disease-, pest-, and mold-free seed stock.
- Availability of triploid or tetraploid versions of the plant stock.
In conversing with multiple seed companies, the common consensus was that the No. 1 request was for feminized versions of the genetics they desired. Producing feminized seeds is a straightforward process that involves spraying a female plant with gibberellic acid or silver thiosulfate (STS), the latter being the preferred method.
STS is sprayed onto a female plant soon after flowering is induced by manipulating the photoperiod. The STS causes the female plant to produce male flowers that produce pollen. That pollen can be utilized to pollinate the plant it came from, surrounding plants, or even the next generation of plants if the pollen is stored properly and viable, and the resulting seeds, for the most part, will be female.
The next request was for stable and uniform genetics, and many seed companies noticed customer preference for autoflowering seeds. Autoflower seeds produce plants that begin to flower automatically after they begin growing. They do not have a vegetative stage per se, and they are a short, stocky plant. Autoflower plants typically have a primary cola at their apex and smaller bud clusters on the lower portion of the plants. Autoflower plants also predominantly require only 12 hours of light, reducing lighting costs (vegetative crops typically require 18 hours of light per day).
Autoflower seeds are produced by both self-pollination and cross-pollination. The easiest way to produce autoflower seeds is to cross-breed two autoflowering cultivars, using male pollen and female flowers.
The second method, self-pollination, utilizes STS to encourage a given female autoflower plant to produce male flowers. This results in pollen with autoflower genetics that can then pollinate either the host plant and/or a different female plant. The resulting autoflower seeds would also be feminized due to the STS. In both autoflower production methods, you must start with autoflowering parent plants.
Hop latent viroid disease (HLVd) has rapidly infected the cannabis industry. A survey conducted in 2021 by Dark Heart Nursery that involved 200,000 tissue tests concluded that 90% of cannabis growing facilities in California were contaminated with HLVd.
As the viroid is transmissible from the parent mother plant to the seed it produces, breeders should have a lab test their starting materials for the viroid presence prior to breeding.
Triploid plants have become a more recent interest to growers and seed producers, as noted in the Feb. 15, 2024, Forbes article titled “Can Triploid Genetics Be The Game Changer For The Cannabis Industry?”
The article explores how it has been observed that triploid plants (containing three sets of chromosomes) outperform regular diploids (containing two sets of chromosomes) in almost all traits: higher cannabinoid levels, faster growth, larger yields, and seedless flowers.
Historically, they have been created using colchicine, but there are also natural tetraploid plants.
While there are natural polyploid cannabis plants (containing more than two chromosomes), they can also be created using colchicine. However, colchicine is highly toxic, and it is therefore important to never let it absorb into your skin.
The International Carnivorous Plant Society offers information on how colchicine works. Essentially, it stops microtubule formation during cell division and chromosomes do not separate as they normally would, resulting in a cell that possesses double the number of chromosomes than it normally has.
All of that said, I’ve personally always preferred and employed natural pollination: pollinating a female plant utilizing pollen from a male with desirable and superior traits. If no superior male is available, the best alternative is to utilize STS to produce pollen on a female plant and utilize the pollen to pollinate a chosen female.
But I believe there is a place for triploid cannabis—perhaps that place will be the canna-pharma space? The future will tell.
To Summarize
So, I explained to the person wanting to start a seed company to:
- start with cultivars they know and love;
- breed or cross cultivars in combinations that don’t exist or that have not been bred before in the hopes of producing something unique and truly something you have found or selected; and
- acknowledge where your starting genetics came from and be respectful of the other breeders who exist today.
Breeding goes beyond simply crossing the two most popular cultivars and giving the offspring a catchy name. Proper breeding of a stabilized cultivar can and usually does take years.
I recommend that anyone looking to become a commercial breeder take plant genetics classes at an agriculture-based school such as UC-Davis. Also, I recommend beginning with regular seeds (i.e., male/female), stabilizing them, and then trying to produce a feminized version. I also recommend starting with a limited number of genetic offerings and prioritizing producing legitimate, stabilized cultivars that possess superior characteristics or traits.
From there, it becomes a game of who best reacts to realistic customer demands.

Author: mscannabiz.com
MScannaBIZ for all you Mississippi Cannabis News and Information.
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TerrAscend Exiting Michigan, Will Sell 4 Cultivation Facilities, 20 Dispensaries

Published
39 minutes agoon
July 1, 2025
[PRESS RELEASE] – TORONTO, June 30, 2025 – TerrAscend Corp., a leading North American cannabis company, announced that it has completed a strategic review of its Michigan business operations and decided to exit the Michigan market.
As part of the exit plan, TerrAscend and its consolidated entities intend to sell or divest all of the company’s Michigan assets, including four cultivation and processing facilities, 20 retail dispensaries, and real estate. Net proceeds from the divestitures will be used to pay down existing company debt.
The Michigan exit is expected to be substantially completed in the second half of 2025. The company’s business in Michigan will be reported as discontinued operations beginning with the company’s financial results for the second quarter of 2025.
Following the completion of the Michigan exit, the company will operate 19 dispensaries and four cultivation and processing facilities across five states, including New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and California, and in Toronto, Ontario. The strategic move is expected to meaningfully enhance TerrAscend’s financial profile. The company anticipates improvements across key metrics on a consolidated basis, including gross margin, adjusted EBITDA, and cash flow conversion, in addition to a strengthened balance sheet.
“After an extensive evaluation, we have made the strategic decision to exit the Michigan market,” TerrAscend Executive Chairman Jason Wild said. “Michigan is an extremely difficult market, and we have come to the realization that our resources can be better utilized in our other markets. This move will unlock value for TerrAscend and its shareholders. By concentrating our efforts and resources in the company’s core northeastern U.S. markets—New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio—I am confident that we are now positioned to deliver stronger financial performance, including improved margins and operational efficiencies.”
The actions associated with the Michigan exit plan are expected to include a reduction of approximately 21% of the company’s overall workforce, which consists of about 1,200 employees as of June 30, 2025. Most of this reduction is expected to occur by the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2025.

Author: mscannabiz.com
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featured
New Mexico Steps Up Enforcement Against Illicit Marijuana Operators With Hiring Of New Officers

Published
2 hours agoon
July 1, 2025
“We’ve become the mecca for ‘mota’…and we have to ask ourselves: Is that really what we want to be?”
By Patrick Lohmann, Source NM
More than three years after New Mexico legalized recreational marijuana, the state has become a national poster-child for recreational marijuana sales, and not in a good way, argues state Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces).
“We’ve become the mecca for ‘mota’,” Cervantes said, using a slang term for marijuana common in New Mexico. “And we have to ask ourselves: Is that really what we want to be?”
He and other state lawmakers on the Legislature’s interim Courts and Criminal Justice Committee met Monday morning in Taos to discuss the proliferation of shops across the state, as well as their hopes for a new band of cannabis officers tasked with enforcing laws the Legislature enacted when it legalized recreational marijuana in April 2022.
Since legalizing cannabis, New Mexico retailers have sold about $1.7 billion combined in adult-use and medical cannabis, with the help of more than 1,600 licensed cannabis-related businesses such as retailers, testing labs and producers, according to a presentation from state Regulation and Licensing Department officials who spoke at the committee meeting.
While the industry is booming, high-profile examples of marijuana scofflaws in the state prompted lawmakers this session to pass House Bill 10, which funds the hiring and training of a new team of fully certified law enforcement officers empowered to bring criminal charges against those they suspect are lying about the source of the marijuana, exploiting their workers or altering the drug.
In the coming days, the state will advertise for a police chief in charge of the new crew of officers, according to Clay Bailey, superintendent of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Division. From there, they’ll hire up to six more officers.
“I really want seasoned people that know what they’re doing, [who have] dealt with drugs and things, and know what they’re getting into,” Bailey said of the new hires.
HB 10 also empowers the new officers to do more forensic accounting within the state’s system for tracking growers from seed to sale. The new hires free up inspectors to undertake audits to determine, for example, whether growers are lying about where their inventory came from or if they’re flooding the market with illegal products, Bailey said.
40 dispensaries and one grocery store
No limits exist in state law on the number of licenses that can be issued, and local jurisdictions also cannot ban cannabis dispensaries from operating, according to the Regulation and Licensing Division, though they can control how far apart they must be. Maestas suggested lawmakers change state law to grant control over licenses to towns and cities.
In Sunland Park, which borders Texas, where recreational marijuana is illegal, up to 40 cannabis retailers exist, state officials said Monday.
“This is just not healthy,” said Cervantes, whose senate district includes Sunland Park. “This is not a healthy environment for my community, for Sunland Park to have 36 [to] 40 dispensaries, one grocery store, maybe one liquor store.”
According to state data presented Monday, the town of less than 20,000 people has generated the second-highest amount of marijuana revenue in the state since April 2022. Regulators have tallied more than $127 million in recreational sales revenue from nearly 3 million transactions. Albuquerque, the highest-earning city, has generated more than $350 million.
According to a 2024 Pew Research Center study, Oklahoma has the highest number of marijuana dispensaries per capita in the country, with 36 per 100,000 residents. Cervantes estimated New Mexico to be about 30 per 100,000, which puts it far ahead of early marijuana adopters California and Colorado.
A coalition of about 100 cannabis businesses in June 2023 asked the governor to issue a pause on new licenses, saying they faced too much competition and chaos from a “flourishing” black market.
The issue has not gone away. Several lawmakers said they want to see the issue addressed in next year’s 30-day legislative session. Though budget-focused, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) could deem the topic germane.
“I hope you’ll ask the governor to fix what needs to be fixed,” Cervantes told the state cannabis regulators at the meeting, “and have us do that in the remaining administration in the 30-day session coming up.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Monday afternoon. However, in a town hall meeting in July in Española, the governor did acknowledge that the state needed to fix its process for licensing, in response to a resident’s complaint about the number of dispensaries.
“Expect the state to propose some restrictions,” the governor said, drawing applause, saying that the licensing “didn’t roll out the way we intended for it to roll out.”
This story was first published by Source NM.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

Author: mscannabiz.com
MScannaBIZ for all you Mississippi Cannabis News and Information.

In the search of a healthier lifestyle…maybe a cannabis beverage can be added.
Millennials have lead the surge in the California sober movement, now they are embracing wellness culture, cannabis-infused beverages. The drinks are quickly becoming a go-to alternative to alcohol. But can they actually support your health—or are they more hype than help?
Cannabis drinks, especially low-dose THC and CBD seltzers or teas, promise relaxation, reduced stress, and better sleep. They offer a smoke-free, easily dosable way to consume cannabis—often infused with other wellness ingredients like adaptogens or nootropics.
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This appeals especially to Millennials who are drinking less alcohol but still crave something social and calming. In fact, a 2022 National Institutes of Health survey reported record-high cannabis use among young adults aged 19–30, with many turning to edibles and beverages for a more controlled experience.
But is it actually healthy? That depends on how it’s used. According to the Mayo Clinic, while cannabis may help relieve anxiety, insomnia, and chronic pain, it also carries potential side effects—like dizziness, dry mouth, and interactions with other medications. The key is moderation and understanding what’s in your drink.
This is where microdosing comes in. Many cannabis beverages now contain just 2–5 mg of THC—enough to take the edge off without causing intoxication. For some, this low-dose approach promotes calm and better sleep without the hangover or mental fog associated with alcohol.
Still, not all drinks are created equal. Some products contain high sugar levels or unverified ingredients. It’s important to choose beverages with lab-tested THC or CBD levels and transparent labeling.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet approved cannabis-infused beverages for medical use, and warns that CBD and THC products may pose risks if misused—especially for people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or taking medications. Always check with a healthcare provider before adding cannabis to your routine.
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If you are looking at trying one, look for beverages with natural ingredients, low sugar, and clear THC/CBD content. Start low, go slow, and prioritize quality over trendiness.
cannabis drinks can be part of a balanced wellness lifestyle—if used mindfully. For Millennials seeking calmer evenings, better rest, or a social buzz without booze, these drinks offer a promising, low-impact alternative.

Author: mscannabiz.com
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