The benefits of analyzing and testing
cannabis leaf tissue

There’s only so much a grower can see with the naked eye. While sensors shed light into what's going on inside the substrate and climate, even the most skilled cultivators have trouble connecting leaf responses to a specific corresponding factor. That’s why we often recommend regular leaf tissue testing for cannabis growers. Taking cues from commercial agriculture, cannabis leaf tissue analysis can give cultivators even more insight into their plants’ nutrient makeup. Growers have a lot of elements to manage within the environment can get easily out of line at any time – but without analyzing and testing cannabis leaf tissue, it can be tough to tell just by looking whether they’re dealing with a deficiency, a pH imbalance, or something else. With a third-party leaf tissue analysis, cannabis cultivators get a breakdown of the minerals present in their plant. Read on for some of the ways leaf tissue testing for cannabis benefits growers -- and your business.

How cannabis leaf tissue analysis helps cultivators

Electrical conductivity, or EC, measures the amount of dissolved fertilizer in the substrate and can tell growers a lot about nutrient concentration. But nutrient formulation? Not so much. Growers trying to assess whether their plant’s nutrient composition is in balance can easily use runoff pH to determine which nutrients the plants are uptaking: the higher the pH, the more negatively-charged ions are being taken into the plant, and vice versa. But as useful as this information is, it doesn't give the full picture.

With a leaf tissue analysis, cannabis cultivators receive a more detailed breakdown of the nutrient levels inside each individual sample. Knowing the intel behind the amount of nitrogen in one plant or the calcium levels of another, for example, gives growers a starting point for troubleshooting necrotic leaf edges and other issues. And regularly conducting leaf tissue analyses a few times throughout the growth cycle allows cultivators to tailor their nutrient regimen to match their plant’s specific needs. Using data to make improvements and have more control over your plants – what’s more empowering than that?

Using AROYA to put leaf tissue results to work

AROYA is packed with features to help growers apply what they’ve learned from analyzing and testing cannabis leaf tissue:

• Track and monitor your plant’s health by taking lots of pictures and uploading them with detailed notes into your grow journal as you go – that’ll tell you a lot about what’s happening visually with each individual strain.
• Then each time you take a leaf cutting from a strain to run a tissue analysis, take a picture and document the results into each Harvest Group.

By doing this over the course of an entire run, growers can look back and associate those results with the overall health of each plant. Then the cultivation team can adopt those learnings as a foundation for their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and create specific goals that relate back to plant health.

Looking to learn more about leaf tissue analysis and how it can help your commercial cultivation? Check out this segment and more from Office Hours.