Published in Skunk Magazine 2022

As modern agriculture has shifted from an enhancement of natural occurrences into a prevention of natural processes, we have seen crops growing within a limited scope of their potential. Modified growing practices focus on limited crop attributes such as greater yield, or brighter color or a specific THC content, creating a deficit on the full spectrum potential of the plant. Greenhouse and indoor cultivation in sterile media or solution culture dramatically affects the growing environment. A tomato grown in a biologically limited and modified environment may look plump, ripe and delicious, but have a fraction of the flavor of the same tomato grown under a more diverse set of conditions. Sterile culture limits the role of microorganisms in making nutrients bioavailable and bypasses the processes that enable a plant to produce at its highest full spectrum potential. Mimicking the processes and diverse microbiology of the natural world enables the plant to fulfill this potential. Reproducing this environment in horticultural media can be done through a process known as biomimicry. 

Biomimicry is the integration and imitation of the natural world and natural processes and phenomena into controlled environments, processes and products. Through detailed understanding of the natural world, these processes can be reproduced in a human-designed environment. Within horticultural media, this looks like recreating natural soil microbial networks, water retention to create an environment that mirrors how soil-based systems would function in a natural environment. Mimicking natural systems within horticultural systems in this way allows the crop to experience biochemical processes in the same way as it would in its native environment, and to thereby enhance the complex properties of the plant and help it reach its full, well-rounded potential. . 

Horticultural production based on biomimicry is in contrast to the dominant agricultural paradigm reflected widely in the cannabis industry – where salt based fertilizers, applied in excess quantities, replace  the need for plant signaling and microbial associations to procure nutrients - shutting down these natural signals and associations. Similarly, water is supplied in abundance thus replacing the natural, healthy tension and stress that a plant in nature must experience in order to obtain water. Diverse and interconnected microbial communities, operating in a complex web of trophic interactions, are replaced by less diverse, happenstance microbial populations – often of little or no functional value and less resilient than the diverse microbial community in a natural soil. A trophic system creates a network of microbes, nutrients and plants that survive and feed off of one another, creating a food web within the soil environment. The cascading effects of this dominant and controlled paradigm is the production of a crop that emphasizes one desired trait, which is almost always yield, at the expense of quality (or chemotype) and a considerable risk of crop failure. Biomimicry, through scientific understanding and practice, integrates natural microbial and structural components of the soil that help to improve the full expression of the plant. 

Integrating natural cycles into controlled environments

 Plant cells communicate with one another through a network of cell receptors which enables them to emphasize specific nutrient uptake and microbial interactions. Using this trophic network of enzyme receptors and microbial systems, plants communicate on nutrient uptake, light availability and water retention. Through photosynthesis, plants produce carbohydrates. Most people understand this process as the plant just feeding itself. However, the process is much more complex and nuanced. Plants actively feed some of the carbohydrates they produce to soil microbes, in exchange for benefits the microbes can provide, such as enhanced access to phosphorus and other nutrients from the soil. This is a mutually beneficial interaction between plants and soil microbes which allows both to thrive. This network of communication between plants and the microbial life of the soil is crucial to the health and wellbeing of the entire system. Sterilized or partially sterile environments that lack microbial diversity or are devoid of complex biology disrupt the plant signaling. In turn, this affects the distribution of photosynthate within the plant and will influence plant growth and mechanisms of nutrient uptake. Have you ever wondered why a plant grown hydroponically has more biomass than a plant in biology rich horticultural media? The lack of biology in the rootzone means that the plant no longer invests energy into the rootzone. This suggests that the more diverse biology within the growing environment, the more these systems will be firing and beneficial uptake will be occurring.

In natural systems nutrients are held in biological and chemical reservoirs that can both retain and release nutrients to a growing plant. This function is called buffering. Biological buffering of nutrients in soil is the process by which plants release exudates into the rhizosphere promoting microbial growth. This growth ties up nutrients and subsequently releases them to the plant as the microbial population dies. The plant controls this immobilization and release to meet its own needs. Simultaneously to biological buffering, chemical buffering processes also absorb and release nutrients from positively and negatively charged surfaces through complex chemical reactions. These things happen naturally in soil that is mediated primarily by organic and clay surfaces. The surface properties that contribute to chemical buffering can be reproduced in horticultural media through a careful selection of materials with surface properties that facilitate nutrient exchange. These properties can be enhanced and manipulated both through specific combinations of materials and bio transformations.    

Soil water retention and release to the plant is directly influenced by soil texture. Soils with smaller particles such as silt and clay have a higher plasticity and water retention capacity, while sands lack the cohesion to retain water. Plants in this natural environment exert a tension to obtain water from soil. This tension can be measured as kilopascals (kPa). In natural systems, plants experience stress/tensions up to 1,500 kPa. In CEA, using conventional media, the plant is typically watered at 0-5 kPa. This means that the plant does not experience water stress - which is known to influence chemotype expression. When looking at water retention through the lens of biomimicry, the challenge is to examine the ways in which natural soils retain water and release water to plants. The biomimicry model seeks to implement a structure that allows for water retention across a range of tensions that allow the plant to be stressed. Terpene and THC levels can change by large percentages simply by inducing drought stress.  

While systems like hydroponics may have their place and narrow advantages, these unstable high risk systems are focused on one component of the crop performance rather than the full spectrum of performance and capability. In trading the full potential for specific plant traits, you lose the strength and resilience of a more diverse production environment. The integration of a resilient production system into CEA through the use of biomimicry processes offers the real potential to optimize a crop for both yield and quality traits. The biology of our modern day crops have evolved through unique sets of factors and influences in our natural soils and environments, and so to maximize their potentials and work with the plant rather than against it, we must look to nature. The natural systems and biological processes guide us through encouraging the full capabilities of these plants. 

As modern agriculture has shifted from an enhancement of natural occurrences into a prevention of natural processes, we have seen crops growing within a limited scope of their potential. Modified growing practices focus on limited crop attributes such as greater yield, or brighter color or a specific THC content, creating a deficit on the full spectrum potential of the plant. A tomato grown in a biologically limited and modified environment may look plump, ripe and delicious, but have a fraction of the flavor of the same tomato grown under a more diverse set of conditions. Mimicking the processes and diverse microbiology of the natural world enables the plant to fulfill it’s full spectrum potential. Reproducing these natural elements in both your soil and grow space can be done through a process known as biomimicry. 

Biomimicry is the integration and imitation of the natural world and natural processes and phenomena into controlled environments, processes and products. While this concept may seem foreign, we see various components of this at play in most cannabis grows. For instance, a greenhouse or indoor grow mimics the natural life cycles of the sun. Controlling the frequencies and duration of exposure to light allows the plant to thrive in an environment that it is genetically programmed to need and want. LED lights are essentially a biomimicetic tool, because they harness the benefits of the natural cycles at their best.

Often in controlled environment grows, plants are watered This means that the plant does not experience water stress - which is known to influence chemotype expression.Within your soil, biomimicry can be implemented by looking at the beneficial microbial interactions and plant signaling. When we move into indoor or controlled environments, we sometimes exclude many of these naturally occurring components - thus losing crucial components of the biomimicry symbiosis. Safe and clean biology can be implemented within CEA to create these harmonious relationships. Sterilized or partially sterile environments that lack microbial diversity or are devoid of complex biology disrupt the natural interactions between microbial life and plant intelligence.

In it’s most biologically natural state, a cannabis plant benefits from the organic nutrients within it’s soil environment. In a controlled environment, this is replicated by feeding these plants nutrients. Sterilized environments mitigate the bioavaiability of these nutrients, making the uptake and digestion of these nutrients take longer. Micronized nutrients can go through systems to be better, and more quickly, absorbed by the plants. Some companies, such as Bio365, can deliver these nutrients compacted into the substrate itself to feed these plants, allowing them to be digested more easily. Making these organic nutrients bioavailable, by breaking them down within the beneficial microbial environment of the substrate, so that the plant can digest them right away. 

In controlled environment grows, the water retention of the soil is often mismanaged - resulting in overwatering. This means that the plant does not experience the natural water stress that helps the plant to reach it’s full spectrum potential. When looking at water retention through the lens of biomimicry, the challenge is to examine the ways in which natural soils retain water and release water to plants. One of the ideal tools to help mimic this natural tension and absorption process is called a Tensiometer. This tool can be hooked into large scale grow systems or used in a smaller environment. Placed in your root zone, this tool doesn’t measure soil moisture, but rather measures the water availability to your plant. This mimics the plant’s root and how much tension the root has to exert to pull water. This is essentially an artificial root that will tell you whether your plants roots can pull water or not, in order to know when your plant is drinking and when it is not. 

While extremely controlled environment systems, such as hydroponics, may have their place and narrow advantages, these systems are focused on one component of the crop performance rather than the full spectrum of performance and capability. This means that the more controlled and distant from the natural biological system of these the plants, the more high risk the growing environment will be. In trading the full potential for specific plant traits, you lose the strength and resilience of a more diverse production environment. The use of biomimicry processes within areas such as our soils, our light cycles and our watering levels, advances the potential to optimize a crop for both yield and quality traits. The biology of our modern day crops have evolved through unique sets of factors and influences in our natural soils and environments, and so to maximize their potentials and work with the plant rather than against it, we must look to nature. The natural systems and biological processes guide us through encouraging the full capabilities of these plants.