Strainly is not a nursery. It is a peer-to-peer marketplace where individual growers list genetics — seeds, clones, tissue culture — and sell to each other directly. It has been running since 2016 and it is a legitimate, useful platform. Comparing it to us is comparing a marketplace to a shop, and the difference that matters is not price. It is who is accountable when something goes wrong.
Everything below is quoted from Strainly's own terms and policy pages, accessed 24 August 2026.
| The Clone Emporium | Strainly | |
|---|---|---|
| What it isThe basic model | ✓A nurseryWe grow it, we cut it, we ship it. | ~A marketplaceMembers list and ship their own genetics. Strainly connects them. |
| Who ships your plantWho packs the box | ✓We doSame packing standard every time. | ✗The individual sellerEach member sets their own carrier, rate and region. Packing quality varies seller to seller. |
| PriceWhat you pay per plant | ✓$40, fixedSame for all 854 strains. | ~$75 to $1,000, seller-setObserved across one page of clone listings on 24 Aug 2026. Some are per plant, some bundles. |
| If it arrives deadWho is on the hook | ✓We replace it freePhotograph it the day it lands. | ✗The seller's own policy, if anyStrainly's liability is capped at CAD $50 or fees paid. Refunds happen only where "the vendor can also refund the payment for any reason." |
| Escrow or buyer protectionIs your money held safely | ✓Not needed — one seller, one policy | ✗None"Bitcoin transactions made between Strainly users are peer-to-peer without any intermediation nor escrow functionality by Strainly." |
| HLVd testingWho guarantees clean stock | ✓Every mother, Tumi GenomicsResults on file. | ✗Seller-declared, unverifiedWe found no platform requirement that sellers test, and no Strainly-issued verification badge. Where "HLVd tested" appears it is text the seller wrote themselves. |
| Genetics authenticityIs the cut what it says | ✓Our own mother stockWe label lineage confidence honestly — known, reported, or not published. | ✗Not verified by the platform"STRAINLY DOES NOT ENDORSE, AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY OF, ANY OPINION, ADVICE, STATEMENT, OR OTHER INFORMATION MADE ON THE SITE." |
| Seller screeningWho is allowed to sell to you | ✓N/A — one sellerYou are buying from the people who grew it. | ~Reputation, not vettingStrainly cites "verification processes and rating system" but does not define them, and states it "is not obligated to screen users." Featured Vendor placement is a paid plan benefit. |
| PaymentHow you settle up | ✓Standard checkout | ~Bitcoin"Strainly does not offer any integrated payment gateway. Make sure to use Bitcoin to send and receive payments." No card chargeback route exists. |
| If there is a disputeYour recourse | ✓Email usOne company, one inbox. | ✗Arbitration in AlbertaDisputes with Strainly are settled by "binding arbitration" on an individual basis under the laws of the Province of Alberta, Canada. |
| Rare and hard-to-find geneticsBreadth of what exists | ~854 strains, our ownWide, but it is one nursery's library. | ✓Thousands of membersTheir real strength. See below. |
Preservation genetics and rare cuts. If you are hunting a landrace, a heirloom line, or a cut that one grower in Oregon has kept alive for fifteen years, Strainly is where you find it and we are not. No single nursery can hold what thousands of collectors hold between them. That is the entire point of the platform and it works.
Direct contact with the person who kept the line. You can ask the grower about the plant, its history, how it runs. You cannot do that with a catalogue.
Trading, not just buying. Members swap genetics. There is no version of that here.
If what you want is a rare preservation cut, use Strainly, vet the seller carefully, and read their feedback history properly. If what you want is fifty clones of a known commercial cultivar that will all arrive alive on the same day, that is a different job.
A marketplace moves the risk onto you. That is not a criticism, it is just the structure: Strainly's own terms describe every transaction as being "solely between you and the applicable third-party," cap their liability at fifty Canadian dollars, and confirm there is no escrow. Payment is in Bitcoin, so there is no card chargeback if it goes wrong. Testing is whatever the seller says it is.
None of that makes Strainly bad. It makes it a place for experienced buyers who know how to read a seller's history and accept the risk in exchange for access to genetics nobody else has.
We are the other option. One price, one policy, one company to chase, every mother tested, and a plant that gets replaced free if it arrives dead.
Browse all 854 strains · How we test for HLVd
All pages accessed 24 August 2026. Platform terms change — check theirs before deciding. Quoted material is verbatim, and capitalisation is reproduced as printed in their terms.
Liability cap, escrow, arbitration, governing law and the endorsement disclaimer: strainly.io/en/infos/terms. Payment and platform description: /en/infos/how_to_use. Plan pricing: /en/subscription. Clone prices observed on /fr/s?category=clones. We looked for a platform-level pathogen-testing requirement in their terms and their how-it-works page and did not find one; that is an absence, not a statement by them. Individual sellers on the platform do publish their own testing and guarantee claims, which are theirs to stand behind, not Strainly's.