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STRATHROY – Dozens of workers in yellow raincoats and rubber boots toiled in a muddy field Thursday to plant Southwestern Ontario’s first outdoor commercial cannabis crop.

Staff from WeedMD’s operations in Aylmer and Strathroy, along with members of its leadership team and Strathroy-Caradoc Mayor Joanne Vanderheyden, rolled up their sleeves and planted marijuana in a 10-hectare plot previously used to grow asparagus.

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More than 20,000 clones – small cannabis plants grown from the cuttings of a mother plant – will go into the ground in a fenced section of the company’s 64-hectare property that also houses its greenhouse operation.

The farm is outfitted with an irrigation system and plastic row coverings to keep weeds from growing.

“I can confidently say that we’ve thought of everything here. We will have an amazing bumper crop,” WeedMD chief cannabis officer Derek Pedro said.