Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

High Park Farms is a Canadian cannabis company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with cultivation and processing facilities in southern Ontario. Their cultivation facility located near Petrolia, Ontario, consists of over 13 acres of greenhouse situated on 100 acres of land. High Park's world-class leadership team comes with eminent experience in cannabis and global consumer brands. A critical process in industrial cannabis is the production of large numbers of cloned cannabis plants that are ultimately grown to maturity and harvested. In essence, this one step determines the amount of potential revenue per cannabis cohort. Although a critical step, much work is still needed for optimizing cannabis clone production, especially ensuring the best possible conditions for rooting. Currently, there is a lack of scientifically-based information on optimal methods and processes for cannabis production, and thus, increased cannabis research and development is required. High Park seeks to partner with Lambton College's Bio-Industrial Process Research Centre (BPRC) on research that will lead to improved cloning and rooting processes that will be implemented in their commercial cannabis production facility. This collaborative project will focus on cannabis propagation via optimal rooting of cloned plants which is critical to profitability. To optimize root production in cannabis clones, the effect of three cloning methods on cannabis rooting, growth and development, and cannabinoid content will be experimentally determined. The success of this project will contribute to much-needed research and development in the industry, as well as result in $65,000 in annual input and labour cost savings associated with improved propagation. As well, it is estimated that a 4 % to 8 % increase in yield from optimized rooting of clones would generate an annual incremental revenue increase of $10 million.