Before you get started
It is advised that you complete the METRC Training if you're managing plants in a Trym account that is connected to METRC. Use the Sign up for training link on ca.metrc.com for more info.
Download and study our METRC Guide
The phase of a plant in METRC doesn't necessarily reflect the true, real-world phase of a plant. For instance, you may need to tag plants as flowering because they are in a flowering canopy but the plants are still in a vegetative phase until you flip them. Per the Department of Cannabis Control's regulations, you must tag flowering plants with a UID in METRC once they are in a flowering canopy or once they have begun to flower, but you may tag a plant as flowering at any phase, it is your prerogative to tag them before they meet the CDFA definition of a flowering plant. Mother plants, though they are in a vegetative phase, can be tagged in METRC as immature or flowering.
A UID in this context refers to the METRC tags. METRC has two tag types, Cannabis Plant tags and Cannabis Package tags.
Per the CDFA regulations, a batch:
is up to 100 plants of the same strain (clones, seeds, seedlings, etc..)
"...immature plants shall be uniform in strain or cultivar and shall not have more than one hundred (100) immature plants at any one time."
is assigned a plant tag upon creation (This helps with the track part of track-and-trace)
"Licensees with immature plants shall assign a UID to each established lot respectively..."
can only have one source UID in METRC. One package or one flowering plant UID can be used as the source.
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Cloning from in-house mother plants
Though mother plants are not strictly defined in the regulations, it is advised by the CDFA that they be tracked individually. This means that you can track them in flowering batches of up to 100 plants because flowering plants have a UID assigned to each plants. Or you can track them in immature batches of one plant per batch, which results in one UID per plant. Either way, 1 plant has 1 UID only.
When cutting clones and creating batches, we come to a dependency. How are your mothers tracked in Trym/METRC? Are they Flowering or Immature/Vegetative plants?
If your mother plants are flowering, you will use the flowering plant UID of the mother plant you cut clones from to create a batch.
Simply put, if you cut 18 clones from a mother you will create a batch 18 plants, or several batches totaling 18 plants. This makes it difficult to reach batches of close to 100 given the size of most mother plants. If you have particularly large mothers that yield hundreds of clones, or if you are not bothered by managing many small batches, this could be a good strategy.
If using this method, head to this this article for a step-by-step and a video of how to create a batch from a flowering plant.
One flowering mother to one batch
If your mother plants are Immature/Vegetative, you will create packages of clones against the batch UID of the mother. You will use a package tag for this. You will then create a batch of plants against this package UID.
This may seem like a strange step and add a layer of confusion. The package UID is part of the track-and-trace portion of METRC, this package UID will not be used long so it might help to think of it as an imaginary box that the cuttings from each mother go into, until they are placed in their medium.
Simply put, if you cut 20 clones from a mother plant, you will create a package of 20 clone - cuttings and then you will create a batch from this package in another operation. If you have 5 mother, you may end up with 5 packages of 20 plants each.
There is an advantage here; Packages can be combined in METRC. If you end up with 5 packages of 20 plants each, you could combine them in a 6th package with the combined sum of 100 plants. You can now create a single batch of 100 plants instead of 5 batches of 20 plants each, making it more manageable in Trym and METRC (and saving 4 tags in the process 🌍 )
A disadvantage to note is that if you merge packages from different source plants, and one of the plants is subject to a recall because of an additive you used, or whatever reason, all of the clones that we merged together in the same package will be subject to the recall. By merging the plants together we have muddied the source. There is no way of telling which plant belonged to which package once they are merged. Unless you operate a R&D facility, the reality is that in the event of a recall all of your mother plants are likely to be subject to a recall if you cultivate them in the same manner.
If using this method, head to this this article for a step-by-step and a video of how to create a package from an immature/vegetative plant, and then this article for how to create a batch from a package. If you are combining clone packages, this article will help you navigate METRC.
Combining packages of clones of the same strain in batches with more than 100 plants makes for a very efficient operation in Trym. We will automatically split a batch of >100 plants into batches of 100 plants when you attempt to create a batch with >100 plants. e.g. if you create a batch with 230 plants, we will break it up into 3 batches. 100, 100, 1 X 30.
One Immature/Vegetative mother to one batch
Many Immature/Vegetative mothers to one batch
Sourcing clones from a licensed nursery
If you source clones from a licensed nursery the clones will be delivered as packages, and you will need to "receive" the transfer in METRC. A manifest should accompany the delivery and is also available from METRC.
It is advised that you count the clones in each package and make any adjustments needed before you accept the transfer. Nurseries frequently send more clones than listed to account for mortality in transit, this is not the proper way to account for in-transit mortality and if you don't adjust your counts upon receipt it can be a pain in the neck to figure it out and adjust package counts later.
Adjustments can be made after you click "Receive" next to a transfer in METRC, and before you accept of the transfer. You can reject and adjust packages before accepting the transfer.
Whatever UID is on the transfer and packages will be inherited into your METRC account and will sync down to Trym, the tags on the packages are now your package tags.
You don't need to re-package these packages unless you're looking to clean things up or merge packages of clones of the same strain.
Once you're ready to create your batches of plants from these received packages, head to this article to get a step-by-step and a video.
Sourcing batches from seed
Seeds are classified as packages in METRC, so this is, for all intents and purposes, the same as creating a batch from a package of clones, except this package contains seeds. This article has a step-by-step and video for how to create a batch from a package.
Seeds can be purchased from any licensed nursery and will be received through a transfer in METRC
Seeds can be sourced from your own plants, but do note that they cannot be transferred out of your facility. Even if you are the licensee for multiple licenses on the same registered address, only nursery licenses may transfer needs between licenses.
Also note that if you are growing plants with the purpose of making new seeds for your own internal use, any canopy space dedicated to growing seeds in your license must be deducted from your flowering canopy allocation.
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