This episode is part of our “What Plants Crave” series, where Dr. Sabeh speaks with growers, researchers, and other experts in controlled environment agriculture, to get their insights about the direction of the industry, and of course, what exactly it is that plants crave.

Dr. Hope Jones is Co-Founder and President of Superior Phenos, LLC, a cannabis biotech & hemp young plant production company based in Arizona . Superior Phenos is a team of seasoned plant scientists and commercial professionals coming together to raise the cannabis industry standards of science, business practices and product quality. She is also CEO of Emergent Cannabis Sciences, an international cannabis and micropropagation consulting company. 

In her time as a NASA scientist, Dr. Jones developed technologies and protocols to grow crops for deep space missions. Dr. Jones’ current work focuses on optimizing micropropagation protocols and facilities for the cannabis industry.

In this podcast, we talk to Dr. Hope Jones, CEO of Emergent Cannabis Sciences, about the importance of taking the grower’s perspective and how tissue culture can help maximize a plant’s full genetic potential. We discuss how creating consistent crop stocks can help with disease eradication, product labeling and lab testing, reducing energy use, and avoiding overregulation. We also learn that growing plants in space has many benefits that go beyond simply producing calories.

-TIMESTAMP NOTES-

00:04:45 How a non-traditional career path led her to plants

00:07:50 “I want to grow plants in space.”

00:16:00 There’s more to growing plants than just calories

00:19:00 Does a DLI of 90 exist on Earth?

00:24:00 What is Tissue Culture?

00:45:00 Mother plants and Tissue Culture (don't stop growing Moms)

"Full genetic potential" of plants started with TC.

00:56:00 Lab and Consumer Safety Testing and Product Labeling

1:00:00 Importance of getting involved in advocacy

1:05:00 "Trust but verify"

1:08:00 Let's approach it from the growers perspective"

1:09:00 what we regulate for right now might be different 10 years from now