Celebrating the Mothers of Cannabis

Mother’s Day is this weekend and what better time to dive into a fascinating yet often overlooked aspect of cannabis cultivation: mother plants. We recently sat down with TerrAscend’s Director of Cultivation, Nick D’Amelio (aka Gas Man), to get a deeper understanding of about these incredible plants and what goes into cultivating the best of the best. So grab your go-to strain and get comfy as we explore the world of mother plants…

What are Mother Plants?

Mother plants are specially selected female cannabis plants, prized for their genetic stability and cultivated specifically for cloning purposes. A good mother plant means solid, stable, consistent, high-quality plants going forward.

Mother plants are the genetic powerhouse behind the scenes, shaping the future of your favorite strains and ensuring our curated brands consistently deliver top-notch buds.

Why is Mother Plant Health Crucial?

By ensuring these plants are robust and healthy, growers can produce clones that replicate the mother’s superior traits, such as potency, flavor and yield. If the mother plant is compromised—whether by stress, disease or age—the clones it produces carry those flaws, inevitably leading to inconsistency and a higher risk of illnesses. As D’Amelio points out, “if you just start off with a haggard mom, or stressed out mom, or you start off with stressed out clones, you’re going to have stressed out plants throughout the whole process”.

How Mother Plants are Cared for?

Cannabis mother plants require diligent care and maintenance to keep them healthy and productive for taking clones. D’Amelio takes no shortcuts when it comes to the health of their mother plants. “We don’t keep anything for more than 90 days and we cycle them out. There’s three generations of every strain in the grow room so that you essentially never have to take cuts from something that might not root out as often or might not develop it the way it’s supposed to.” explains D’Amelio. By systematically rotating their cultivation techniques, TerrAscend has managed to achieve an impressive 95 to 98% success rate in cloning. This success highlights the critical importance of top-notch care for the mother plants ensuring they’re healthy and ready to propagate.

The Future of Cannabis Cultivation: Triploid Genetics and the Enduring Role of Mother Plants

D’Amelio highlights a burgeoning trend within the cannabis industry—triploid genetics—a method that, although novel to cannabis, draws on long-established agricultural techniques. “There’s a traditional approach in agriculture that’s as familiar as strawberries and spinach, known as diploid and triploid. This method doesn’t mutate plants; instead, you’re essentially selecting genetics and breeding genetics to be almost like a clone. With triploid seeds, for example, if you plant 1000 of them, it’s almost like taking 1000 columns. It’s a different chromosome imbalance in the in the genetics that you create, you essentially take the bad and remove it and only leave the good and it creates like an extremely consistent” explained D’Amelio.

Forbes reports that triploid genetics, characterized by a triple set of chromosomes, are being recognized for their distinctive advantages in cultivation. Derived from agricultural practices utilized for decades in other seedless crops like bananas and watermelons, this technique prevents unwanted pollination and improves the quality of the buds by ensuring that the plants remain seedless. For cultivators, this translates into greater control over their crop, increased yield, and more potent products as the presence of seeds, which can degrade flower quality, is eliminated.

Despite the cutting-edge advancements in genetic engineering and breeding technologies, D’Amelio says that they’ll never get away from clones. Serving as the foundational sources for clones, mother plants guarantee genetic purity and stability across cannabis crops, providing a crucial buffer against genetic variability. Cultivators will continue to rely on healthy mothers as a consistent source for propagation. As we continue to see the cannabis industry evolve, the role of mother plants will remain essential, safeguarding the lineage and quality of cannabis strains for the foreseeable future.