Business View Magazine | September 2020

105 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2020 DARK HEART NURSERY one product that’s suitable for all of them. Our traditional product configuration is clones. Cut a stem, put it in a media, it produces roots and they’re all identical. Clonal propagation is the primary production method we’ve always used. “But we now also offer feminized seedlings which can produce high quality product. We’re passionate about seeds, generally, and especially with the breeding program, we’re working to improve the quality of the seed that’s out on the market. The seed we’re offering, now, performs very well for outdoor growers, with a high yield. We’re also offering what we call a ‘teen’– which could be a clone or a seedling in a larger configuration (a one or two gallon container). Our indoor growers love those because it improves the crop turnover, optimizing space utilization.” BVM: How would you characterize the importance of Dark Heart Nursery in the cannabis space? Grace: “We have a production focus but a lot of our work is value-added. We have about 90 employees across the company – not just laborers, but scientists and professionals across the value chain. These are good jobs. The cannabis story is attracting people in ag/ bio science who are looking for higher growth and a more interesting and fun research and development space than with other crops. “We have this long authentic story of activism and development within California’s cannabis space. We’ve been passionate about developing our business and have also been on the forefront and very active in developing the whole industry in California. We really focus on ensuring farmers are successful and we are unique in doing that by investing in plant sciences. We’ve had some wonderful breakthroughs like identifying and eliminating the hop latent viroid that’s caused devastating yield losses for farmers around the world. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done over four years of research and investment, and now we can help educate people and, most importantly, help them clean it up and get back on track.”