Certification Process

How a mother plant goes from your grow room to a cleared listing β€” five documented phases, in order.

01 Request & kit dispatch

You send us the mothers you want cleared β€” mother ID, strain name, approximate age, and how many plants. We assign one unique Test ID per mother, ship the kits with return instructions, and log the vendor, ship date, Test IDs issued, and carrier tracking.

02 Sampling

Sanitation comes first and is not negotiable: clean gloves changed or sanitised between plants, tools disinfected for at least 60 seconds in a 10% household bleach solution, a clean work surface, and no contact between samples from different mothers. Alcohol and hydrogen peroxide are not reliable against viroids.

  • Roots first β€” 3–4 segments from different points around the base, excess medium removed
  • Petiole or stem as a strong secondary, collected mid-plant where possible
  • Leaf tissue as a supplement only β€” less reliable alone, especially on young plants
  • Established mothers get multi-point sampling, because viroid distribution inside a plant is uneven

03 Photo protocol

Before anything is sealed and returned, three photographs per mother come back to us. They are sent the same day the sampling happens. No photos means no clearance β€” this is the step that turns a claim into evidence.

  • The mother plant with its permanent ID tag visible in frame
  • The tissue being collected, or the collected tissue beside the plant ID
  • The sealed tube or bag with the CCG Test ID clearly readable

04 Return & custody close

You ship the physical samples back to us, or straight to the lab when we have arranged that route. We log the receipt date, match every Test ID against its photo set, and run the test under the CCG account. That closes the custody loop.

05 Clearance decision

A negative result earns written clearance: the mother may be listed, and the clearance date and Test ID go into the log. A positive result blocks that mother from CCG production immediately. An inconclusive result or a failed control counts as not cleared, and the mother is re-sampled.

06 Re-testing

Clearance is not permanent. We recommend re-testing high-volume mothers every 4–8 weeks, and require it at minimum every 90 days or after any contamination event, tool breach, or introduction of unverified material into the same room. We may call for an immediate re-test if customer claims or internal signals raise concern.