Published on 20/03/2023
Our consultants Sonny Moerenhout and Kjell Sneeuw were interviewed by Groenten & Fruit, a horticulture journal, about the Cultivation for Compounds (CfC) research consortium. The article, titled “Cannabis, not a copy-paste tomato cultivation”, goes into detail about the need for and benefits of cannabis research.
Cannabis provides the horticultural industry with a fresh outlook. When growing cannabis, yield is not just defined by the weight, but also the chemical content (compounds). The participants in CfC share this view. These companies are experienced in the legal cannabis market and combine their knowledge to increase the amount of compounds in the end product. This shift is visible in the broader horticultural sector as well, and cannabis is the sector where this is most developed at the moment.
There is also a need to reduce stigma and close knowledge gaps. As Sonny explains it, “When people think about Cannabis, they predominantly think about the recreational market. However, you don’t do the industry justice that way. When we talk about medicinal cannabis we always say that it’s Pharma not Food”.
By conducting a 4-year research consortium, Cultivators and the partners are committed to create reliable results through repeated testing, Sonny Moerenhout: “We have a research license from the government and we are able to have 4 cultivation cycles per year. Through repetition, we create reliable data, this makes it so interesting to participate”.
Because of the diversity of the participating companies, CfC is able to test a lot of factors including light levels, substrate types, fertilizer recipes, and irrigation strategies. The experiments are not limited to a single factor per cultivation cycle. Because of the size of the facility, the partners have to ability to test their products in several ways. Besides the ability to experiment during the cultivation period, CfC also has their own trimming and drying equipment. The dried product is then sent to a lab for analysis. This allows for control from start to finish. The analysis is then taken into account when the research questions for the next trial.
Surprising similarities “What many people are not aware of is that the cannabis and hydroponic lettuce industry share some interesting similarities.” The degree of vertical integration is the first similarity between the businesses (see the figure below). Sonny…