Fertilizers
is a sealed module in a 20- or 40-ft container envelope that produces certified-clean cannabis planting material: HLVd-eliminated G1 mother plants, rooted clones and acclimatised tissue-culture plantlets.
Technology brief
is a sealed module in a 20- or 40-ft container envelope that produces certified-clean cannabis planting material: HLVd-eliminated G1 mother plants, rooted clones and acclimatised tissue-culture plantlets.
The challenge
Primary use case: intensification of existing licensed cannabis nurseries and micropropagation laboratories. ARBOK does not hold or seek a cannabis licence; the module is supplied to operators who already hold licence, genetics and customer base.
Secondary product: hypobaric storage and transport of unrooted cuttings at 8–13 °C.
Adjacent: basic and pre-basic seed production for industrial hemp — not in hypobaric mode, since the generative phase is the product there.
Scale: single 20/40-ft module; multiple modules in parallel.
ARBOK solution
Arbok-PLANT is a sealed module in a 20- or 40-ft container envelope that produces certified-clean cannabis planting material: HLVd-eliminated G1 mother plants, rooted clones and acclimatised tissue-culture plantlets. The mother-plant and rooting zones run at reduced total pressure with CO₂ dosed by partial pressure, which simultaneously suppresses photorespiration (the C3 carbon loss) and accelerates ethylene efflux from cut tissue. The module never enters generative phase, so the documented penalty of low pO₂ — collapse of seed productivity — does not apply. Drainage and spent nutrient solution are closed through the ARBOK-VC / ZWD loop with up to 99,98% water return and zero liquid discharge. Target: 2× nursery output from the same footprint and the same number of mother plants.
Mechanism 1 — photorespiration suppression. Cannabis is C3 (δ¹³C −24…−35‰; Amax 31,2 ± 1,9 µmol CO₂/m²·s at 25 °C, Tang et al., 2017). Rubisco partitioning is fixed by vc/vo = Sc/o × pCO₂ / pO₂, where Sc/o is 80–110 mol/mol at 25 °C and falls to ~50 at 40 °C. Lowering total pressure drops pO₂ proportionally; CO₂ is dosed back to and above its original partial pressure. The ratio shifts from both ends at once.
Carbon lost to photorespiration at ambient conditions: 15,3% at 25 °C, 19,6% at 30 °C, 25,1% at 35 °C.
Mechanism 2 — ethylene efflux. Gas diffusion coefficients are inversely proportional to pressure. In the working window ethylene leaves tissue 2–3 times faster, equilibrium internal concentration falls by the same factor at unchanged synthesis rate, new equilibrium in 15 minutes. Critical for cuttings: a fresh cut is a maximal wound-ethylene source, and a 95–100% RH propagation dome is a trap for it.
Mechanism 3 — phase-change pathogen barrier. In the ZWD loop viroid RNA, zoospores, conidia and virions are non-volatile: their saturated vapour pressure is zero and no mechanism of transfer to the vapour phase exists. They remain in the dry residue.
Why the режим works only in a nursery. Under low pO₂ vegetative mass grows while seed productivity falls, and this is not rescued even by 2 000 µl/l CO₂ (Quebedeaux & Hardy, 1975; André, 1989). Fatal for wheat, soy and any fruit crop. A cannabis mother plant on 18/6 never flowers; its product is leaves, stems, roots and cuttings — exactly the vegetative mass the режим builds.
Market and application
Clone prices: US wholesale from 3 000 units $9,75, 120–239 units ~$19, retail HLVd-tested $50–69; tissue-culture plantlet $20–40; EU mass cultivars below 3 €, new genetics up to 10 €. Entry cost of a commercial TC laboratory $50 000–250 000, industrial class $1–5 million. Spatial benchmark: a Californian TC facility of 1 765 m² produces over 600 000 plants/month; an equivalent greenhouse would need over 3,6 ha and 5 times the labour.
Demand driver: HLVd infects 90% of Californian facilities, a third of plants on average, costing the US industry ~$4 billion/year in yield (−20…40%) and THC (−50…70%).
Output multiplier decomposition: cuttings per harvest +15…25%, harvests per year +15…20%, take rate +5% (ceiling), survival to shipment +30…40%. Product: 1,20 × 1,17 × 1,05 × 1,35 ≈ 2,0. A fifth term — reduction of the 10–14 day rooting cycle itself — feeds directly into chamber throughput.
The survival term exists only at customers with poor hygiene. A clean nursery with verified clean stock retains only the first three terms, i.e. ~1,5×. Since 90% of facilities are infected, most of the market sits in the first category.
Water-loop economics against alternatives at €0.15/kWh: ARBOK 0.72 kWh/m³ = €0.11/m³; ozone 0.6 kWh/m³ = €0.09; UV-C at 100–250 mJ/cm² 0.5–4 kWh/m³ = €0.08–0.60; pasteurisation at 95 °C 27.8 kWh/m³ = €4.17; industrial MVR 35–64 kWh/m³; conventional vacuum evaporation with heat pump 150–250 kWh/m³. ARBOK sits at or below UV cost while being the only method that removes viroids at all — UV-C at 3 and 5 minutes, heating at 70–90 °C for 30 minutes, ethanol, Zerotol and Virkon all leave HLVd intact.
The fertiliser value carried in greenhouse drain water caps justified treatment cost at ~€2.5/m³; ARBOK clears that ceiling with 23× headroom. Unlike conventional evaporation, the process is therefore not restricted to small volumes — the container module runs at 200 m³/day.
Use cases
Primary use case: intensification of existing licensed cannabis nurseries and micropropagation laboratories. ARBOK does not hold or seek a cannabis licence; the module is supplied to operators who already hold licence, genetics and customer base.
Secondary product: hypobaric storage and transport of unrooted cuttings at 8–13 °C.
Adjacent: basic and pre-basic seed production for industrial hemp — not in hypobaric mode, since the generative phase is the product there.
Scale: single 20/40-ft module; multiple modules in parallel.
Supplied to licensed operators as a module or as a retrofit of the propagation line. Sequence: audit of the customer's existing rooting protocol (hormone and light must be correct first — IBA 4 500 ppm gives ×2,6 and light 51 → 200 µmol/m²·s gives ×3,6, and these outrank CO₂), then installation, then régime commissioning. Mandatory customer-side prerequisite: tool disinfection with 10–20% bleach or 1 000 ppm HOCl between plants, which closes the mechanical HLVd route at negligible cost.
Built on ARBOK-VC (Vacuum Cracking). Pairs with Arbok-Repeel for vector control and ARBOK-CycloCool for the HVAC load, which is 51% of energy in indoor cannabis against 38% for lighting. Related: PLANT FACTORY, AZOW Tomatic.
Arbok-PLANT is a sealed module in a 20- or 40-ft container envelope that produces certified-clean cannabis planting material: HLVd-eliminated G1 mother plants, rooted clones and acclimatised tissue-culture plantlets. The mother-plant and rooting zones run at reduced total pressure with CO₂ dosed by partial pressure, which simultaneously suppresses photorespiration (the C3 carbon loss) and accelerates ethylene efflux from cut tissue. The module never enters generative phase, so the documented penalty of low pO₂ — collapse of seed productivity — does not apply. Drainage and spent nutrient solution are closed through the ARBOK-VC / ZWD loop with up to 99,98% water return and zero liquid discharge. Target: 2× nursery output from the same footprint and the same number of mother plants.
Primary use case: intensification of existing licensed cannabis nurseries and micropropagation laboratories. ARBOK does not hold or seek a cannabis licence; the module is supplied to operators who already hold licence, genetics and customer base.
Secondary product: hypobaric storage and transport of unrooted cuttings at 8–13 °C.
Adjacent: basic and pre-basic seed production for industrial hemp — not in hypobaric mode, since the generative phase is the product there.
Scale: single 20/40-ft module; multiple modules in parallel.
Mechanism 1 — photorespiration suppression. Cannabis is C3 (δ¹³C −24…−35‰; Amax 31,2 ± 1,9 µmol CO₂/m²·s at 25 °C, Tang et al., 2017). Rubisco partitioning is fixed by vc/vo = Sc/o × pCO₂ / pO₂, where Sc/o is 80–110 mol/mol at 25 °C and falls to ~50 at 40 °C. Lowering total pressure drops pO₂ proportionally; CO₂ is dosed back to and above its original partial pressure. The ratio shifts from both ends at once.
Carbon lost to photorespiration at ambient conditions: 15,3% at 25 °C, 19,6% at 30 °C, 25,1% at 35 °C.
Mechanism 2 — ethylene efflux. Gas diffusion coefficients are inversely proportional to pressure. In the working window ethylene leaves tissue 2–3 times faster, equilibrium internal concentration falls by the same factor at unchanged synthesis rate, new equilibrium in 15 minutes. Critical for cuttings: a fresh cut is a maximal wound-ethylene source, and a 95–100% RH propagation dome is a trap for it.
Mechanism 3 — phase-change pathogen barrier. In the ZWD loop viroid RNA, zoospores, conidia and virions are non-volatile: their saturated vapour pressure is zero and no mechanism of transfer to the vapour phase exists. They remain in the dry residue.
Why the режим works only in a nursery. Under low pO₂ vegetative mass grows while seed productivity falls, and this is not rescued even by 2 000 µl/l CO₂ (Quebedeaux & Hardy, 1975; André, 1989). Fatal for wheat, soy and any fruit crop. A cannabis mother plant on 18/6 never flowers; its product is leaves, stems, roots and cuttings — exactly the vegetative mass the режим builds.
Technical: photorespiration suppressed without transgenesis — the RIPE bypass route (South et al., Science 363:eaat9077, 2019, +20…24% biomass) is closed to a pharmaceutical crop by GMO status in the GACP/EU-GMP chain. Ethylene stripped physically, without scavengers or 1-MCP. Waterborne pathogen route closed by phase change rather than by dose — the only barrier that works against viroids, which survive UV-C, 70–90 °C heating, ethanol, Zerotol and Virkon.
Economic: wholesale clone $9,75 vs documented-clean clone $50–69; tissue-culture plantlet $20–40. Target 2× output.
Environmental: zero liquid discharge, no pesticide residue, no GMO.
Strategic: ARBOK sells intensification, not cultivation — no cannabis licence, no THC handling, no seed-to-sale obligations.
Built on ARBOK-VC (Vacuum Cracking). Pairs with Arbok-Repeel for vector control and ARBOK-CycloCool for the HVAC load, which is 51% of energy in indoor cannabis against 38% for lighting. Related: PLANT FACTORY, AZOW Tomatic.
Supplied to licensed operators as a module or as a retrofit of the propagation line. Sequence: audit of the customer's existing rooting protocol (hormone and light must be correct first — IBA 4 500 ppm gives ×2,6 and light 51 → 200 µmol/m²·s gives ×3,6, and these outrank CO₂), then installation, then régime commissioning. Mandatory customer-side prerequisite: tool disinfection with 10–20% bleach or 1 000 ppm HOCl between plants, which closes the mechanical HLVd route at negligible cost.
| Node | TRL |
|---|---|
| ARBOK-VC / ZWD | 9 |
| Arbok-TRINITY | 7 |
| Nursery agronomy | 9 (industry standard) |
| Hypobaric régime on C3 crops | 9 |
| Hypobaric régime on *Cannabis sativa* | 1 |
| Arbok-PLANT integration | 3–4 |
| Container-envelope pressure vessel | 4–5 |
Clone prices: US wholesale from 3 000 units $9,75, 120–239 units ~$19, retail HLVd-tested $50–69; tissue-culture plantlet $20–40; EU mass cultivars below 3 €, new genetics up to 10 €. Entry cost of a commercial TC laboratory $50 000–250 000, industrial class $1–5 million. Spatial benchmark: a Californian TC facility of 1 765 m² produces over 600 000 plants/month; an equivalent greenhouse would need over 3,6 ha and 5 times the labour.
Demand driver: HLVd infects 90% of Californian facilities, a third of plants on average, costing the US industry ~$4 billion/year in yield (−20…40%) and THC (−50…70%).
Output multiplier decomposition: cuttings per harvest +15…25%, harvests per year +15…20%, take rate +5% (ceiling), survival to shipment +30…40%. Product: 1,20 × 1,17 × 1,05 × 1,35 ≈ 2,0. A fifth term — reduction of the 10–14 day rooting cycle itself — feeds directly into chamber throughput.
The survival term exists only at customers with poor hygiene. A clean nursery with verified clean stock retains only the first three terms, i.e. ~1,5×. Since 90% of facilities are infected, most of the market sits in the first category.
Water-loop economics against alternatives at €0.15/kWh: ARBOK 0.72 kWh/m³ = €0.11/m³; ozone 0.6 kWh/m³ = €0.09; UV-C at 100–250 mJ/cm² 0.5–4 kWh/m³ = €0.08–0.60; pasteurisation at 95 °C 27.8 kWh/m³ = €4.17; industrial MVR 35–64 kWh/m³; conventional vacuum evaporation with heat pump 150–250 kWh/m³. ARBOK sits at or below UV cost while being the only method that removes viroids at all — UV-C at 3 and 5 minutes, heating at 70–90 °C for 30 minutes, ethanol, Zerotol and Virkon all leave HLVd intact.
The fertiliser value carried in greenhouse drain water caps justified treatment cost at ~€2.5/m³; ARBOK clears that ceiling with 23× headroom. Unlike conventional evaporation, the process is therefore not restricted to small volumes — the container module runs at 200 m³/day.
No published work exists on *Cannabis sativa* grown at reduced pressure; effects are carried over from lettuce, wheat, radish and carnation. Hypobaria is an independent stress: at 10 kPa over 200 genes are differentially expressed, fewer than half overlapping the hypoxic response (Paul et al., Plant Physiol. 134:215–223, 2004). Principal technical risk: xylem embolism in the unrooted cutting from enhanced diffusion pulling water from deep tissue — the mechanism recorded on roses (Paskus, Abeli, Beaudry, HortScience 56(7):780–786, 2021). Envelope engineering is where Grumman lost $46 million and closed the Dormavac division in April 1982. Viroid and phytopathogen clearance of distillate from nutrient solution has never been measured by anyone — a challenge test would be the first of its kind.
Validation programme: Phase 0 (3 weeks) — 101 kPa vs 40 kPa at identical pCO₂, 30 cuttings per arm, first metric is time to first roots. Phase 0b — ZWD challenge test with *Pythium* zoospores and HLVd-positive sap, RT-qPCR and plating of condensate, log-reduction. Phase 1 (6–8 weeks) — 33 / 40 / 50 kPa, continuous vs cyclic, thermal imaging, 2–3 cultivars. Phase 2 (3–4 months) — node integration, ZWD at 0,1–1 m³/day. Phase 3 (6–9 months) — reinforced envelope, first certified batches, storage trials at 8–13 °C.
ARBOK-VC (Vacuum Cracking) · Arbok-Repeel · ARBOK-CycloCool · PLANT FACTORY · AZOW Tomatic
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