January 20, 2019
Clean Stock® is a process used to propagate disease-free, virus-free, true-to-type plants for growers according to their production schedule. Front Range Biosciences uses this process to rid high-value crops, such as hemp, of pathogen and pesticides.
The process that has been used in other vegetative crops for years and Front Range Biosciences is the first company to introduce the process to hemp producers using proprietary methodology and industry know-how.
THE BENEFITS OF CLEAN STOCK
The ultimate goal of high-value crop growers, including hemp producers, is to produce the highest-quality plants and healthiest yields with the lowest risk, resulting in optimum ROI.
As with many plants, hemp is prone to disease and pathogens which can create high risk, low yield and catastrophic losses for growers.
The best approach to addressing these issues is to fix the problem before it ever occurs. If you put garbage in, you’ll get garbage out.
The Front Range Biosciences team brings 100 years of experience in advanced agricultural practices, including clean propagation practices at companies such as Driscoll’s. We’ve researched and fine-tuned Clean Stock methodology from vegetative crops such as berries and potatoes and have applied it to hemp, coffee, and high-value crops.
For growers, this process is ideal, because you can feel confident that you are starting your supply chain with the healthiest, highest-quality plant material — therefore maximizing revenue potential and mitigating risk.
WHAT IS THE CLEAN STOCK PROCESS?
Clean Stock means just that — offering growers clean, virus-free, pesticide-free, true-to-type plant stock in the form of clones or cuttings.
Our process begins at the initiation phase, which take the cuttings directly from the hemp grower’s mother plant and then put through tissue culture until the stock is free of bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens as well as microscopic pests like mites and aphids. The plants are tested thoroughly for pesticides. After cleansing, the plants are multiplied (sometimes in the thousands or millions) in a sterile environment and then transferred to the nursery where they are then re-acclimated to a non-sterile environment before they are shipped to growers.
Our step-by-step Clean Stock Process is illustrated below:
WHAT PROBLEMS WILL CLEAN STOCK SOLVE FOR THE GROWER?
Growers are faced with many problems, some within their control and some out of their control. By choosing a stock that is clean, they are starting with a strong foundation that can mitigate supply chain problems caused by diseased crops.
These problems can include:
THE PROOF IS IN THE RESULTS
Aside from the health of the plants, two other not-as-obvious benefits to a Clean Stock nursery include the ability to produce large volumes of plants based on your production schedule and saving nursery space for higher value plants. These benefits increase efficiency since you can be more focused on your business and processes rather than the staff and space required to maintain a nursery.
“As the size of grow operations increases, so does the difficulty to control every single plant to ensure its health and quality consistency among batches. Furthermore, keeping diseases and plagues at bay becomes more important than ever, as an outbreak could result in millions in lost product. For reference, a single outbreak in a medium-sized cultivator can generate damages of more than $500,000.”
— Benzinga, article featuring Front Range Bio, Sept 2017
“Although Front Range Biosciences’ plants may be more expensive upfront, the overall program reduces costs in the long run by cutting operating costs and reducing losses, Vaught says.”
— Cannabis Times, June 2018
In the end, with a Clean Stock process, the grower won’t need to maintain their own nursery, manage their own mother stock, or produce clones.
LEARN MORE ABOUT CLEAN STOCK
Clean Stock is changing the face of high-value crops by providing growers with absolutely healthy, pathogen-and-disease free plants.
At FRB, our world-class team has over 75 years of combined commercial agricultural and horticultural experience, and has brought improvements and new technology to large-scale high-value crop production. This means our clients—both indoor and outdoor growers—benefit from the industry’s best practices.
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