A Canadian university recently announced a brand new cannabis research class. Focused on cannabis cultivation, the class will be part of the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph. Researchers and students in the class will look for the best ways to consistently grow marijuana plants.
Cannabis Research Class Will Focus on Growing Great Weed
According to Canadian news sources, the cannabis research class will be led by a handful of well-known cultivation experts. This includes Professor Youbin Zheng and Professor Mike Dixon. These scientists published some of the first ever peer-reviewed papers on marijuana cultivation.
Now, they’ll help launch the university’s new cannabis research class. The program will reportedly have a $10 million, two-story greenhouse to use as its lab. In the greenhouse, researchers and students will experiment with different ways to grow marijuana.
The ultimate goal will be to figure out how to get a consistent final product. More specifically, researchers want to develop growing techniques that can be easily reproduced to yield consistent outcomes. And that includes more than just figuring out how to grow weed with tons of THC.
In particular, scientists involved with the project said they want to research how to fine-tune their growing techniques to get a wide range of very precise results.
In some cases, that could mean plants with a lot of THC. Alternatively, it could be a harvest of high CBD plants. Similarly, some researchers want to focus on how to grow marijuana plants with very precise ratios of different terpenes.
A lot of the research in this new program will focus on learning how different variables in the growing environment affect a plant’s final output.
For example, scientists plan to look at the ways that different types of fertilizers and chemicals impact marijuana plants. Similarly, some researchers will examine the role of light. Still others could look at variables in the way a plant is watered.
Will A College Cannabis Research Class Attract Students To Science?
While the University of Guelph has big plans for its new cannabis research class, it’s unclear when the class will actually become available for students to take.
That’s because the university must first get approval from Health Canada. So far, the agency hasn’t announced any clear timeline for when such approval might be complete.
In the meantime, it looks like the university is beginning to drum up interest. In particular, the class is receiving attention in the months before Canada is supposed to legalize marijuana. National legalization is currently scheduled to go into effect this fall.
In many ways, the new cannabis research class is a response to legalization. Many of the experts involved in the new program recognize that growers in the legal economy will be looking for ways to maximize productivity and ensure consistent harvests.
As a result, there will be an urgent need for tested and proven growing techniques. And that’s exactly what Canada’s new cannabis research class is hoping to figure out.
Cannabis cultivation is a big deal right now in Canada. As the country prepares for legalization, there is a growing demand for good growers. In fact, salaries for cultivation jobs in Canada have been increasing recently. In many cases, these jobs have seen a 14 percent increase in salaries.
