In a greenhouse at the bottom of Horsebarn Hill, a few plants stand much taller than the rest, the tops of their green, dissected leaves tickling the grow lights that feed them 18 hours of ‘‘sunshine’’ per day.
That still wasn’t enough for these hemp plants, which started to flower despite researchers’ best efforts to keep them ‘‘vegging out,’’ or growing in a vegetative state. Grown as part of UConn’s new course on the horticulture of cannabis — one of the first of its kind in the United States — these young, leggy weeds are now destined for the trash, in favor of plants that are still bud-free.
By the end of this semester’s inaugural class of ‘‘Horticulture of Cannabis: From Seed to Harvest,’’ more than 300 students will understand why cannabis growers would want to keep their young plants from flowering, how to pull that off and most everything else about the prime conditions of cultivating hemp.
Read more at bostonglobe.com