Hemp Farming - Environmental Factors

Picking the correct hemp strain to fit each environment when farming is essential because it can help determine the final CBD yield and final product quality. AgFunderNews provides some insight to help budding farmers keen on entering this cash crop.

To start off, farmers must consider their soil type and water source since certain hemp varieties will perform better in certain soils, but not so great in others. Additionally, farmers need to consider what type of hemp they would like to grow. Crops with higher cannabidiol (CBD) content is better suited for biomass or to be further processed into CBD Distillates and Isolates.

Industrial hemp is grown for three main categories:

Fiber: Certain varieties produce long fibers and biomass and are widely versatile. Vaught recommends that “farmers electing to grow for fiber applications will need to include the development of the processes and infrastructure to support large scale harvesting, transportation, and processing, as hemp bales are voluminous and will ideally require processing facilities in close proximity to the grows.”

Grain: These strains are used primarily for food because of their high protein, fatty acid, and fiber content, not for their cannabinoid content. Grain hemp usually have seeds that are thin-walled and fragile.

Cannabinoids: Hemp grown for its cannabinoid content is the most popular (and profiting) category. Even so, CBD is not yet established by the FDA, so CBD hemp growers are required to learn from experience. They must measure the soil, moisture content and PH to ensure that the hemp produces the highest amount of CBD without crossing national THC standards. High-cannabinoid yields are usually produced by female-only plants.

Farmers should also understand the agronomic traits of hemp that best fit their growing environment, as well as their marketplace. Many farmers who jump right into hemp farming do not realize the cost of farming until it is too late. Though direct sow is the most inexpensive route when it comes to farming, there are many variables when it comes to germination rate and, unless the seed is in the correct environment to produce a tap root, there is a higher risk of poor performance.

For farmers who are just starting and who have little-to-no prior experience in hemp farming, it is highly recommended that they begin by planting hemp plants grown from cuttings (clones) because they tend to be more stable and yield better results. By choosing clones over direct sow from seed, farmers will reduce plant variability, as well as reduce the risk of developing male plants. Avoiding males is crucial because once the hemp plant is seeded, the final content yield of the plant is greatly reduced.