Soluciones Botánicas / Help Center
Clean plants.
Fewer surprises.
Answers for commercial growers, from your first question to your first harvest.
In vitro cannabis plants · Valais, Switzerland
Try “HLVd”, “quarantine”, “minimum order” or “plant passport”. Search covers questions and answers.
How can we help you?
Popular questions
49 answers
No answer matches that yet. Write to us and we will answer directly, and add it here.
In vitro basics
What are in vitro cannabis plants?
In vitro plants are grown from a small piece of plant tissue on a defined, sterile medium inside a closed vessel. There is no soil, no insects and no airborne spores. Each plant starts from a meristem, the microscopic growing tip, and is multiplied under laboratory conditions before it reaches your facility.
How is tissue culture different from taking cuttings?
A cutting inherits whatever the mother plant carries, including latent infections such as hop latent viroid, and over successive generations accumulates pathogens, somatic mutations and a loss of vigour. Tissue culture restarts the cultivar from clean, tested meristem tissue and multiplies it with uniform vigour, structure and profile, independently of the condition of a mother room.
Why would I replace a mother room with in vitro plants?
A mother room costs space, light, labour and plant health surveillance all year, and it is the single point where one latent infection becomes every plant you grow. Ordering clean plants when you need them moves that cost and that risk off your site. Whether it pays off depends on your cycle length and your footprint.
Do in vitro plants behave differently from clones once they are in substrate?
For the first two weeks, yes. Plantlets leave the lab with soft leaves and almost no cuticle, so they need high humidity and gentle light while they build one. After acclimatisation they behave like any well rooted young plant, usually with more uniform vigour across the batch.
Does tissue culture change the cultivar?
It is not a breeding step. Nothing is crossed and nothing is edited. What changes is the health status of the starting material and the uniformity of the batch. Some sequence-level variation can accumulate across repeated subcultures in any micropropagated crop, which is why every line stays anchored to its original tested explant instead of being multiplied indefinitely.
Is in vitro material the same as buying seed?
No. Seed gives you genetic variation between individuals and a fresh start on some pathogens, but every plant is different. In vitro material is a clonal copy of one selected plant, so the batch is uniform and predictable. They solve different problems.
Once material is clean in vitro, can it become contaminated again?
Not while it stays in the vessel. The tissue is sealed on a sterile medium, with no soil, no insects and no airborne spores, which is the whole point of holding genetics in vitro instead of in a mother room. The risk starts again the moment the plant leaves the vessel and enters your facility.
Plant health & testing
Are your plants free of hop latent viroid (HLVd)?
Material is screened for HLVd and other pathogens before it leaves the laboratory, and results are available on request with the batch reference. No laboratory can guarantee that a plant stays clean once it enters your facility, so we also explain how to handle quarantine, entry testing and tool hygiene on arrival.
What exactly does tested mean on your batch report?
Screening is a fixed qPCR panel of 14 pathogens, HLVd and other viroids and viruses, plus Botrytis, Pythium, Fusarium and powdery mildew, run by a certified external laboratory, on top of bacterial and fungal indexing in our own cultures. A line is released only when the panel is clean, and the certificate names the panel it was tested against. Testing to order, for a particular pathogen or for genetic fingerprinting, is possible at cost.
Does tissue culture actually eliminate HLVd?
Meristem culture removes it from a high proportion of lines, and the published work shows the success rate depends strongly on the cultivar: some clear readily, a few resist. That is why elimination is verified by repeat testing over several months rather than assumed, and why we report status per batch instead of making a blanket claim.
How does HLVd move around a facility?
Mainly through propagation: every cutting taken from an infected mother carries it. It also travels in sap through wounds, so torn or crushed tissue is riskier than a clean cut, and it spreads root to root in recirculating irrigation. It has been recovered from nutrient solution, nozzles, watering cans and bench surfaces.
Can HLVd come in through seed?
Recent work says yes. The viroid has been found on seed coats and inside cotyledons from infected mothers, with a high proportion of infected seedlings, and in anthers and dried pollen. Treating seed as automatically clean is no longer defensible.
What will clean starting material not protect me from?
Anything that arrives after the plants do. Leafhopper-borne viruses, russet and broad mites walking in from a neighbouring room or on clothing, Fusarium and Pythium in your water and substrate, powdery mildew spores in the air. Clean material removes the infections that travel inside the plant. The rest is facility hygiene.
Sterile and pathogen free are not the same thing. What is the difference?
A clear vessel means nothing visible is growing in the medium. It does not mean the tissue is free of internal bacteria, so at initiation we run liquid-broth tests to bring any latent bacteria or fungi out of hiding before a line goes into production. Viroids are a separate matter: they are only detectable by molecular testing. The two are different tests and we run both.
What quarantine should I run when the plants arrive?
Keep them in a separate room, on separate irrigation, for four to six weeks, and test at arrival and again at the end of that window. The reason for the second test is timing: a recently infected plant can be genuinely below the detection limit on day one and positive a month later.
Which tissue should be tested, and when?
Roots are the most consistent tissue, with petioles next. Leaf lamina alone misses infections that the same plant shows in its roots. Testing gets reliable from around five to six weeks of plant age, so sampling a plantlet the week it arrives tells you less than you think.
How often should I retest mother plants?
Every four to six weeks, and always before a round of cuttings. HLVd is asymptomatic through rooting and vegetative growth and only shows itself under flowering, so a mother room can look healthy for months while every cutting it produces is already infected.
Which disinfectants work against HLVd?
Sodium hypochlorite does: five to ten per cent household bleach on tools for one to two minutes, or dry heat at 160 °C for ten minutes. Seventy per cent ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and several common horticultural disinfectants do not degrade the viroid. This is the cheapest single change most facilities can make.
Genetics & genetic banking
Which genetics do you offer?
We maintain more than ten of our own cultivars in vitro. We do not publish the full list. Tell us what you grow and what you are looking for, and we will send the details that are relevant to you under a confidentiality agreement.
Can you clean and store my own cultivar?
Yes. Our genetic banking service takes your cultivar into tissue culture, cleans it through meristem culture, tests it and holds it in slow growth storage. You can then order plantlets, hardened plants or mothers whenever you need them. The cultivar stays yours, under a confidentiality agreement.
Who owns the cultivar once it is in your bank?
You do, at all times. The genetic material stays the property of its owner for as long as it is with us, and resale is prohibited on both sides: we do not supply your cultivar to anyone else, and material we supply is not resold on.
How does the bank keep my cultivar?
In our bank it never sits still: a banked line is under active conservation, subcultured on a regular cycle so it stays ready to multiply, root and acclimatise, and the vessels are sealed so clean material cannot be recontaminated. In your facility, a vessel of mother plants keeps for a few weeks in cool conditions and low light, but it is meant to be acclimatised on arrival, not stored.
How do you keep a line true to type?
Every plantlet is produced from the original tested explant, so the line stays anchored to the material you gave us instead of drifting through generations of copies. We are deliberately careful with the word identical: what we can support is that the line stays phenotypically true to that source material.
How often should I replace a mother plant you supplied?
Around every six months is a sensible planning figure. Every generation of cuttings adds another chance for an infection to enter and for somatic mutations and loss of vigour to accumulate, so refreshing the mother from clean in vitro material restarts it from the tested reference plant. Your own hygiene and testing will move that number in either direction.
What happens if my cultivar tests positive when it reaches your lab?
That is what the entry test is for. A clean plant goes into culture from shoot tips; an infected one goes through meristem culture and clean-up cycles. Cleaning is part of the introduction whatever it takes, and the line is released only when the final panel comes back clean. What changes with a positive result is the technique and the time, not the agreement: some cultivars clear quickly, a few take longer.
Formats & delivery
Do you supply finished plants by volume, or starting material?
Mother plants, mainly. What we are set up for is clean, tested starting material, so you build and maintain your own mother room from a known-clean base and take your own cuttings. Plantlets or cuttings in volume are quoted case by case, in small quantities for now and with around six months’ notice, so raise it when you ask for an offer.
What format do in vitro plants arrive in?
As mother plants, in one of two formats, both from the same tested, cleaned material: in the vessel, rooted plantlets with our written acclimatisation protocol, which travel well without a cold chain; or already acclimatised in the substrate you ask for, delivered in person. From the mother plants you take your own cuttings.
Which format is right for me?
Most growers take mother plants in the vessel and run the fourteen-day acclimatisation themselves with our protocol; that is the format designed for a facility with a humidity-controlled propagation area. If you have no such area, or want to skip the riskiest fortnight, take them already acclimatised in substrate and allow a few extra weeks. Either way, the cuttings are yours to take.
Is there a minimum order?
No fixed minimum. Most orders are deliberately small: enough clean mother plants to restart a line, not a delivery of finished plants. Mixed-cultivar orders are welcome. Larger batches of plantlets or cuttings are quoted case by case and need around six months’ notice, so tell us what you need and when.
How long does an order take?
It depends on where we start. Mother plants from a cultivar already in our bank take about three to four weeks in the vessel, or four to six weeks acclimatised in substrate. If we start from your own plant, allow six to ten months before mother plants can be supplied from it: the entry test, the introduction in vitro, the cleaning and the final panel come first. Larger batches of plantlets or cuttings are quoted case by case and need around six months’ notice.
How are the plants shipped?
Often in person, and otherwise by courier. In vitro material travels in small sealed tubes, held upright and immobile in a rack built for the purpose, which is what protects the plantlets on the road. Taking them ourselves is the safest option and we use it whenever the route allows.
What happens if a shipment is delayed or arrives damaged?
If plants arrive in poor condition, tell us within 72 hours of delivery and send photographs. We will work out how it happened and send a replacement. That is also why deliveries are often made in person: the fewer hands the box passes through, the less there is to go wrong.
What do I need ready before the plants arrive?
A clean propagation space you can hold at high humidity with gentle light, your substrate wet and equilibrated, and a quarantine area separate from production. Every delivery includes our hygiene and acclimatisation guide, and it is worth reading it before the box arrives rather than after.
What survival rate should I expect?
More than 80 % is the figure we plan with for mother plants in the vessel, and close to all of them when the first fourteen days are done properly. Survival is decided in your facility rather than in ours: humidity, gentle light and a substrate that is wet and equilibrated before the plants arrive. Follow the acclimatisation protocol that comes with every delivery and losses stay low; if a batch loses several plants despite that, talk to us.
How do I know which batch my plants came from?
Every vessel and every delivery carries a batch reference. That reference links back to the source material, the multiplication cycle and the test results for that batch.
Legal & licensing
Can I buy cannabis plants legally in Switzerland?
It depends on the THC potential of the cultivar, not on the plant in front of you. Lines that stay under one per cent total THC sit outside Swiss narcotics law. Cultivars intended to exceed it are controlled material, and we supply those only to operators holding the corresponding authorisation.
Where is the legal line in Switzerland?
One per cent total THC, as an average, measured as total THC rather than delta-9 alone. Below that line, narcotics law does not apply, although food, cosmetics and product law may. At or above it, the plant is a controlled substance.
Do I need a licence to grow CBD or CBG lines under one per cent THC?
Not under federal narcotics law. Ordinary agricultural, plant health and commercial rules still apply, and some cantons ask growers to notify hemp plantings before sowing, so it is worth a call to your cantonal office before you plant.
A plantlet has no measurable cannabinoids. Is it still controlled?
Yes, if it is intended to become a plant at or above one per cent total THC. Swiss law classifies cannabis seeds and cuttings by the total THC content of the plant they are meant to produce, not by what is measurable in the propagation material itself. This surprises most people the first time they read it.
Who can order from you?
It depends on the cultivar. Lines that stay under one per cent total THC sit outside Swiss narcotics law, so no narcotics licence is needed to buy them, and we supply those to commercial growers and research institutions. Cultivars intended to exceed one per cent are controlled material, and for those we ask you to document the corresponding authorisation before an order is confirmed. Either way you are a professional buyer, so expect to be registered with the Swiss plant protection service, because plants for planting travel with a plant passport.
Can you ship outside Switzerland?
Yes, anywhere in Europe. Two separate sets of rules apply and both have to be satisfied. Narcotics law, which for controlled cultivars means export and import permits and a recipient holding the matching authorisation. And plant health law, which for plants intended to be planted means a Swiss plant passport for the EU or a phytosanitary certificate elsewhere, with the receiving company registered as a professional operator. Note also that the EU threshold for legal hemp cultivation is 0.3 per cent, lower than the Swiss one, so a cultivar that is legal to grow here can be illegal to plant there.
Do cannabis plants need a plant passport?
Commercial hemp plants do. Hemp seed does not. Professional producers and traders of plants for planting have to be registered with the Swiss plant protection service, and consignments into Switzerland need a plant passport from the EU or an original phytosanitary certificate from third countries.
Is Swiss cannabis law about to change?
A new Cannabis Products Act has been through public consultation and the responsible parliamentary commission is revising the draft. As written it would licence commercial cultivation federally and add tracking from cultivation to retail. Nothing is in force yet and no parliamentary date is fixed, so plan against today’s rules.
Ordering & agreements
How do I get a price?
Offers are prepared individually, based on the cultivars, the volume and the delivery schedule, and plants are supplied under a supply and confidentiality agreement. Send us your requirements through the quote form and we will come back with a tailored offer.
Why do you only supply in vitro material under agreement?
In vitro material is easy to re-culture. Without an agreement, a single vessel could be multiplied indefinitely by a third party, which would devalue the genetics for every grower who bought them honestly. A short supply and confidentiality agreement protects the cultivar, protects your investment in it, and lets us keep prices fair.
What is actually in the agreement?
Each agreement is written for the case, because supplying our cultivars and banking yours are different situations. Two things are always in it: the genetic material remains the property of its owner throughout, and resale is prohibited on both sides.
What do you need from me to prepare an offer?
Your licence or authorisation, the cultivars or the profile you are after, the quantity and format, and the window you need them in. If you are not sure about the format, say what your propagation area looks like and we will advise.
Do you offer laboratory visits?
No, and the reason is the same one that protects you. The laboratory holds cultivars that belong to other growers, under confidentiality agreements we intend to keep, and a working sterile facility is not a place for visitors. What we do instead is document the process rather than show it.
If I cannot visit, how do I verify your process?
Read the batch report properly: it should name the tissue sampled, the method, the detection limit, the date and how many plants were tested. Then ask us two things in writing: what happens to a line that tests positive, and how the line stays anchored to its original tested material. Those answers tell you more about a laboratory than a tour does.