Growers new to container production eventually learn that all pots aren’t created equal. It’s a lesson producers of mainstream container-grown horticultural crops have long known—and that progressive container companies continue to prove. Exploring technological advances in growing containers, often backed by decades of horticulture industry research and use, can help growers decide what pots best suit their needs—and their roots.

Looking Beyond Traditional Plastic

Standard plastic nursery containers are a common choice for many container growers. Used throughout the nursery and greenhouse industries, solid, straight-sided plastic pots are easy to source through suppliers nationwide. But experienced growers will tell you: This relatively inexpensive, easy-to-sterilize and re-usable option can sometimes spell trouble. Plants held in solid plastic pots often develop circling roots, which inhibit growth, complicate transplanting and limit yield.

When Matt Spitzer, founding partner of Triangle Hemp in Raleigh, N.C., moved into hemp from the hydroponic produce space, he soon discovered the negative impact solid plastic and girdling roots had on the company’s seedlings and clones—especially if Triangle had to hold starts longer than expected when field farmers faced weather delays.

Courtesy of Yabba Cannaba

In looking for solutions, Spitzer turned to the ornamental tree industry. “They were the industry that really had the biggest issue with regard to root girdling,” he shares. As he explored container options being used in the tree industry, he learned that container-grown tree roots respond differently when they hit air instead of solid container walls. Rather than circling the pot’s interior, roots stop outward growth—as though they were pruned—and instead focus on dense, fibrous, lateral growth instead.

This natural air-pruning response has spawned an industry of container companies aiming to capitalize on this reaction and optimize healthy root growth. These “aeration pots,” available in materials from papers to plastics, offer increased air-to-root interfaces that have been proven in traditional horticulture to air-prune roots, release root zone heat, discourage root disease and promote higher yields.

Working with aeration pots has been key to Triangle Hemp’s success and given rise to its rootbound-free guarantee, says Spitzer. “That actually gave us a leg up [in the] second year of production because not many people were really aware of the issue with transplants,” he says. “So, we were able to produce a superior product that was not rootbound. The people who had never planted hemp before didn’t quite know that was so important. But if you had planted the year prior, you knew it was very important.”

Propagating with Paper Pots

Some container growers opt for paper alternatives, but choices transcend pulp pots and corrugated trays. Daniel Ortega is head grower at Denver-based Yabba Cannaba hemp company and its sister company, ornamental grower Botany Lane Greenhouse. Ortega has used paper Ellepots for ornamental propagation for many years.

Made from degradable, environmentally friendly papers, the permeable air-pruning pots seemed a natural match for hemp propagation in Ortega’s eyes. “Hemp roots very vigorously, very quickly, but we saw that even though it roots quickly, the roots aren’t as strong,” Ortega says. He explains that’s a problem when roots attach to the outer edge of a regular plastic plug tray and get pulled loose, causing stress at transplanting time.

“Because of the air porosity that’s available there with the paper Ellepots, it roots a little bit quicker, but I think when you’re transplanting is the biggest benefit,” Ortega says. “On the Elle[pots], because they’re wrapped in paper, they take that transplanting a little bit easier. There’s not that big of a transplant shock.”

Lars Jensen, national sales manager for Blackmore Co., which distributes Ellepots throughout North America, says the aeration technology gives hemp transplants a big advantage. “It just has an explosion of feeder roots on the inside, so that it takes off so much quicker and bigger once you’re trying to transplant,” he says.

Courtesy of Lars Jensen

Exploring Fabric Container Alternatives

Fabric growing containers have flooded commercial and retail outlets in recent years, but Oklahoma City-based High Caliper Growing’s fabric container technologies date back more than 30 years. Known as Smart Pots, these time-tested fabric aeration pots are well known in the ornamental tree industry. Dustin Locks, Smart Pots West Coast key accounts manager, says the pots are gaining fans among hemp growers shifting to controlled greenhouse environments to grow hemp strains for cannabidiol (CBD) year-round.

Locks says the consistency and purity of Smart Pot’s permeable fabric—designed specifically for growing plants and air pruning to maximize root mass and nutrient uptake—are strong draws for hemp growers.

He says hemp growers especially appreciate the difference with mother plants, which are constantly stressed by the cutting process. “If you don’t have that root mass for that plant to generate more vegetative growth, then you’re waiting longer and longer to take cuttings,” he says. Another plus is the ability to get custom Smart Pots built to specific dimensions, with prototypes ready in weeks. “Everybody’s garden is different, and we can make that unique product for their needs,” Locks says.

At Triangle Farm, Spitzer turned to fabric aeration containers to minimize the risk of root disease and binding roots in the company’s mother plants.

Already familiar with fabric containers and their benefits, he settled on the RootTrapper II line by RootMaker, a container company based in Huntsville, Ala., that has served ornamental tree growers for decades. These soft-sided black fabric pots are laminated with a white coating down to the bottom 2 inches of the pot. Designed to eliminate circling roots and stimulate dense lateral root branching, the air pruning pots allow drainage at the unlaminated base while the pot’s coating protects the root ball against rapid moisture loss.

“We found this RootTrapper II container was really well-made and served a purpose for our mother plants extremely well,” Spitzer says. “It just ensures that we don’t have any binding at the base of our plants. This entire line is really quite geared towards hemp production because of their root pruning capabilities.”

Courtesy of Hemptek

Air Pruning With Plastic Options

At Hemptek, a hemp farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, CEO Dennis McGuire approached choosing containers for the farm’s field-destined propagation with an eye on complementing the farm’s organic focus. “It’s a challenge growing starters and everything just using all-organic products,” he shares.

After buying starts from various companies, McGuire says he grew dissatisfied with tight propagation trays that left little leeway for transplant timing—a big problem in the Pacific Northwest, where fleeting weather windows can put plans on hold for weeks. As a result, he opted for plastic trays that feature an updated design to address potential root spiraling and other issues plants grown in traditional plastic pots may develop—specifically, RootMaker plastic air pruning propagation trays, which offer a graduated, multi-cell design that directs roots toward the container’s air holes.

McGuire compares air pruning and the fibrous roots it creates with the way exercise helps grow new blood vessels to transport blood and oxygen through the body more efficiently. “You can use the best soil you want, but if you don’t have the right propagation tray, the plant still won’t have the foundation—the root structure—it needs,” McGuire says.

He adds that using RootMaker’s air pruning trays from seed to field accentuates the benefits of Hemptek’s custom organic soil. The result is a sturdy transplant, free from spiraling roots, with short internodes and compact growth that withstands Pacific Northwest winds in the field, he says.

Yabba Cannaba’s Ortega also turned to a plastic container option when he looked beyond propagation to larger hemp plants and pot sizes. He worried about root problems that can plague container plants during cool, damp Colorado winters. Ortega reached out to his Blackmore contact, conducted a small trial and quickly settled on HempPots, also known in ornamental circles as Pioneer Pots.

Courtesy Dustin Locks

Blackmore’s Jensen says the pots represent years of university and industry research to optimize plastic-to-air ratios and maximize aeration benefits. HempPots combine a grid-like insert with an outer holder that Ortega sees as pivotal. “The air pruning is just one piece, but then there’s the base. The two-piece system adds stability for top-heavy plants, plus the plant is never touching the ground,” he explains.

Ortega emphasizes that the design discourages root disease and its spread. “It’s almost like every plant is on its own little island. If one is struggling, it’s one plant. Everything else is going to be fine,” he says. Last December through March—what Ortega describes as the toughest time of the year—the team grew about 17,000 plants for seed production. “We only lost one or two plants due to a root issue,” he shares.

With the HempPots, Ortega says his plants root out to the edge or bottom in about half the time as traditional pots, plus the increased mass of feeder roots from air pruning results in impressive growth. “Having a good, strong root system is going to really benefit the grower, and this pot helps achieve that,” he shares.

Investing in Your Roots

For growers exploring container options, Ortega says to keep the plant’s root system foremost in mind. “In cannabis and hemp, a lot of investment goes to lights. A lot of investment goes to humidity and temperature control,” he says. “This is investing in your root system. If a plant has a good root system, it’s going to be able to handle a lot of variables.”

Smart Pot’s Locks says that air pruning is still a new concept for many growers, but there’s an increasing awareness about the importance of root health. “That’s something a lot of people forget about,” he says. “You can have the best soil, you can have the best nutrients and the best environmental control, but if the root mass is not performing, then your plant’s not performing. The right container takes care of that.”

Harvest time: It’s arguably the most laborious part of hemp farming. After a successful growing season, when nature is on your side and the hemp harvest goes smoothly, successful and bountiful yields will follow. However, a farmer can go wrong in many places during the harvest process—whether they’re growing for cannabidiol (CBD), grain or fiber—and no one wants their hard work from the growing season to be for naught. To avoid some of the most common pitfalls hemp farmers face during harvest, Hemp Grower has curated harvest and post-harvest (including marketing) tips from industry experts for the final installment of this special “Step Up Your Growing Game” tips series.

Meet the Experts

Headshots courtesy of respective subjects

CARL DULEY

Buffalo County Agriculture Extension Educator, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Duley’s concentration for the past 30 years as an agriculture agent at UW-Madison has been on small grains, malting barley and oats; however, his foray into hemp production began in 2018 in Wisconsin’s Buffalo County with three-quarters of an acre and one dual-purpose (fiber and grain) hemp variety.

JANNA BECKERMAN, Ph.D.

Professor, Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University

Beckerman is an extension plant pathologist at Purdue University with a concentration in specialty crops (any crop in Indiana besides corn, beans or wheat). Her team has been growing hemp since 2014 and has partnered with several Indiana farmers for research through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the state’s hemp program. Beckerman and her team’s research in hemp has been published by the American Phytopathological Society as well as Elsevier’s Crop Protection.

JEFF KOSTUIK

Director of Operations, Hemp Genetics International (HGI)/Hemp Production Services (HPS)

Kostuik spent 20 years as an agronomist and hemp contact for the government of Manitoba before joining HGI/HPS, Canada’s largest Canadian-owned bulk hemp supplier, in 2015. His mission is to continue the company’s decades-long pedigreed seed line and explore opportunities       in CBD-rich varieties.

MARTY MAHAN

Hemp Farmer/Chapter President, Midwest Hemp Council (MHC)

Mahan is a fifth-generation farmer based in Rush County, Ind., where he grows corn, soybeans and hemp on approximately 200 acres. At MHC, he advocates for hemp nationwide and educates farmers and legislators on hemp farming and the industry’s challenges. Mahan has been growing hemp for research and production since the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill.

 

LUKE ZIGOVITS

Owner and Farm Manager, Higher Level Organics LLC

Zigovits’ Wisconsin-based farm is a USDA Organic-certified and Sun+Earth-certified operation. With more than 20 years of cultivating and breeding as well as traditional crop agriculture experience, Zigovits’ focus in hemp is to promote regenerative practices and advance the breeding of CBD hemp to include cultivars of various chemical compositions.

CARL DULEY

1. Check for seed color when harvesting.

When harvesting grain hemp crops, it’s important to remember not to harvest too late. “If you start seeing a whole lot of brown seed covers out there, you’re getting late already,” Duley says. “It’s pretty green when we’re harvesting it.” Shatter, or seeds falling on the ground, is a sign that farmers may be harvesting too late.

2. After harvesting grain, make sure the crop gets airflow.

Farmers should expose their grain harvest to air “almost immediately,” Duley says, whether it’s stored in a bin or another container. “If it sits in a bin very long—and I’m talking a matter of a couple hours—without getting air on it, it’s going to start to heat and spoil,” he adds. Duley also recommends avoiding temperatures of more than 100 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit and keep moisture levels to about 10%. This is especially of note in regions where humidity is high, such as in the Midwest.

3. Build strong relationships with the labor force.

Just as it’s beneficial to build good relationships with suppliers, customers and neighboring farmers, establishing relationships with the harvesting workforce will benefit a farmer’s operation in the long run, Beckerman says. “In my experience in specialty crops, the growers who have been most successful with their labor have treated their labor well so that their labor returns year after year,” she says. That means, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping workers safe: making sure to keep people 6 feet apart at minimum, encouraging face masks and wearing gloves, Beckerman says. She adds that gloves provide multiple layers of protection: “They protect the worker from the plant, and they protect the plant from the worker, and they protect, hopefully, people from everyone else—assuming they’re not touching their face.”

4. Protect equipment by harvesting on time.

When the pectin and lignin in the plant stalks are still strong and holding the fibers together, the crop may be a little higher in moisture, but the fibers have less of a chance of becoming weaker and drier and being more prone to wrapping around conventional harvesting equipment, such as a combine, Kostuik says. He adds that fiber wrapping can cause valuable equipment to not only break but also retain heat and, in extreme cases, catch fire.

5. Create a plan for crop rotation.

After farmers harvest their hemp, they should plan to grow another crop on that land. “The biggest proactive thing you can do is make sure you have a proper rotation,” Kostuik says. “Mother Nature just doesn’t like you seeding hemp after hemp and hemp.” He adds that without crop diversity, disease pressure can start to mount.

“We really strive for a three- to four-year rotation before we come back with that same crop in that same field,” Kostuik says. “In the 8,000 acres, we might have a quarter of the acres in wheat the first year, and whatever was seeded in wheat would then be seeded in canola, and then into hemp, or soybeans, or a pulse crop of some type that helps build soil nitrogen.”

Kostuik urges caution, however, when following wheat in particular. “[Hemp] is a gluten-free product,” he says. “Sometimes it can be very difficult to clear the wheat out from the hemp. So if you have too much wheat, you lose your gluten-free status, and it’s much more difficult to market.”

6. Consider the switch to organic.

“Many of us see hemp as a huge benefit to the organic farming world,” Mahan says. This is for not only those with existing organic farms, but also those who want to convert to organic. The limited ability to use herbicides and pesticides for hemp is one reason farmers like Mahan are looking to switch. “Hemp would give me something to plant … [without] using any herbicides,” he says, which provides a more compelling case for following that through the rest of his rotations.

7. Harvest when you see 20% flower development.

Mahan says hemp grown for fiber is typically a 90- to 100-day crop. But it’s not as simple as harvesting within that 10-day window. He suggests harvesting when about 20% of plants begin flowering. This will help keep the stalks in a better state for mechanical harvesting and keep the plants in a better state for retting, drying and storing. For harvesting, he suggests using a plain sickle bar instead of a hay cutter (or a combine) because it has fewer rotating parts that the fiber can wrap around.

8. Tap into the artistry of retting.

Retting—which occurs when water breaks down the hemp fiber’s (also called bast) pectin and lignin—can be done either outdoors after the fiber is cut down (dew retting), or, in some cases, packed up and taken to a facility where it’s submerged in water tanks (water retting). Mahan says most farmers will likely opt for dew retting to avoid additional production costs. In this case, they’ll leave the crop out in the field and flip it over once after a period of moisture (caused by either dew or rain) to distribute the water evenly. However, Mahan notes that farmers still have much to learn about the retting process—including exactly how to time it—so he encourages information sharing on the topic. He adds that processors may be able to guide farmers in the process as well.

9. Plan for fiber storage.

After retting, hemp needs to be baled and stored. “[It] has to be stored indoors. You’ve got to keep it out of the elements, so that could potentially be a challenge to some farmers,” Mahan says. To avoid issues, farmers need to plan for how much they’re going to store and for how long. “Anybody that’s ever raised livestock typically has a hay barn on their site, so they’ve got a place to store it—but if it’s a new farmer that’s looking to get into it, they need to be able to deliver it to their processor right away or have a place to store it temporarily.”

10. Consider planting a cover crop.

A cover crop can serve to suppress weeds and deliver nutrients to the soil and hemp plants, says Zigovits. “The earth wants to cover itself. So, if you leave a field [vacant] that’s been worked down in the fall, you’re going to have weed issues in the spring,” he says.

Zigovits plants Dutch white clover as his cover crop. “We disk or plow that clover in the spring. That adds the organic material to the soil for the soil microbes to eat and provides fertility,” he says, adding that his clover plants are a major (and natural) nitrogen source.

11. Harvest for compliance and higher profit margins.

Zigovits, who grows hemp for CBD, says hemp plants left in the ground too long will eventually surpass the federal legal 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) limit, so farmers should know their ideal harvest window. Understanding that window is not as cut and dry as it can be for more traditional crops, like corn, for example, which has a fairly standard 88-day harvest window, he adds. Hemp harvest windows can very much depend on the climate and the varietal itself.

Sometimes if growers wait too long to harvest their crops, the crop could go hot (i.e., exceed the legal THC threshold), Zigovits says.

To better understand hemp’s harvest window, especially when growing for cannabinoids, it’s important to focus on the data versus visually determining the plants’ maturation. “A major pointer for new farmers would be to do their own personal, in-field, third-party analytical [cannabinoid] testing to find out the harvest window for the cultivar that they’re growing,” he says, adding that the upfront cost will be well worth it to avoid being forced by a state agriculture department to destroy the hemp.

Today, a multitude of Cannabis seed companies are producing more seeds than ever, and now that laws are changing, more and more cannabis crops are being grown outdoors from seed.

Broadacre (farms that produce crops on a large scale) cannabidiol (CBD) producers are leading the return to growing crops from seed. Auto-flowering tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and CBD varieties are gaining popularity, especially in regions exceeding 40° latitude north or south, where summer days are too long to induce flowering in most cultivars.

But the growing of seed crops can cause problems. Put simply, the airborne pollen from seed crops poses a serious threat to the much more lucrative business of growing seedless drug cannabis flowers.

Biology Meets Agronomics

Most plants produce flowers bearing both male and female sexual organs, and the majority of these are pollinated by various animals ranging from insects to bats. In natural settings, Cannabis plants present an exception to the norm, with millions of pollen grains borne on male plants that release their genetic potential into the breezes. Those pollen grains that complete their reproductive journey land on the receptive ovule-containing flowers borne on female plants and fertilize them, the seeds maturing a few weeks later. Individual male plants die within a few weeks, leaving the remaining pollinated female plants to mature their precious seeds (the next generation) without competition for water, nutrients and sunlight.

In another exception to the norm, separation of the sexes is the key to horticultural cannabis flower production. Both THC and CBD drug cannabis crops are grown without seeds. The sinsemilla (seedless) method is commonly used to enhance the production of secondary metabolite target compounds such as THC, CBD and aromatic terpenes. When seedless Cannabis is grown for drug production, any seeds are undesirable and drastically lower the value of the dried flowers. Early sinsemilla growers realized that they could simply remove all male plants so no seeds formed, and their precious females would develop much larger and more potent flowers. Female plants with desirable traits were vegetatively reproduced to multiply the clones in common production today, and there are no longer troublesome male plants in most modern drug crops.

We believe seeds producing all-female crops will be widely used for broadacre THC and CBD production in the near future. Why grow any males when you can grow only females, and why keep mothers and make cuttings when you can more easily, efficiently and cheaply sow seeds that are essentially a female cutting in seed form?

This sounds like a perfect scenario. What could possibly go wrong?

Enter Traditional Industrial Hemp

In Europe and North America, hemp fiber crops have traditionally been harvested upon reaching technical maturity when the male plants begin to shed pollen. In eastern Asia, hemp fiber crops destined for fine textile production are harvested before they flower, and therefore no pollen or seed is produced. No flowers, no pollen and no problems. The timing of a fiber crop harvest—either before or after it releases pollen—determines whether it poses a threat to neighboring sinsemilla cannabis growers. Depending on cropping techniques, fiber hemp production can be compatible anywhere. The real issue is not about hemp fiber production but seedless drug cultivation. However, the situation differs with hemp seed crops.

Hemp seed crops are grown specifically for seeds sold primarily to the food and body-care industries. Hemp seed and seed oil are more in demand than at any other time in recent history, and the profitable growing of hemp seed is increasing at suitable temperate latitudes worldwide. Based on their common environmental needs, seedless drug cannabis thrives in the same agricultural niches as hemp seed crops, and this can lead to competition between these agronomically incompatible crops.

Long-distance Cannabis pollen transport is well-documented. A single male Cannabis plant can produce millions of pollen grains that are easily carried on the wind. Each summer, allergenic pollen traps installed along the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain collect Cannabis pollen that drifts across 100 miles of open sea from hashish fields in the Rif Mountains of Morocco.

Field-grown hemp seed crops are agronomically and economically incompatible with drug cannabis crops, and growing them within the range of pollen travel will likely result in conflicts. Even Cannabis plants grown in greenhouses and grow rooms can become fertilized by pollen that enters through the ventilation system. It is of note that during the early days of industrial hemp cultivation in the Netherlands several indoor and glasshouse sinsemilla growers reported finding seeds in their normally seedless crops. (Tip: High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters effectively remove pollen from air intakes in sealed grow rooms.)

In the sinsemilla setting of zero tolerance for seeds, long-range pollen drift, especially outdoors, sounds frightening. Reactionary voices within the cannabis community have raised the alarm, but is there a real threat? How are the cropping strategies of growing seeded hemp cultivars for their CBD content versus growing seedless drug varieties for THC and/or CBD content playing out across North America and worldwide?

International Precedents and Lessons

In response to increased market demand for both hemp seeds and CBD, traditional hemp cultivars’ flowers are now commonly grown to produce both CBD and seed. Hemp stalks are harvested for their economically valuable fiber from both the male and female plants, while female flowers produce economically valuable compounds such as CBD, THC and aromatic terpenes as well as seed. Broken flowers remain after threshing hemp seeds. Until recently, this CBD-rich waste was burned in the fields. Now, CBD is extracted from the flower biomass. Several hemp cultivars contain sufficient amounts of CBD to make extraction profitable.

We perceive the most lucrative agronomic model to be triple cropping an existing approved (low-THC) industrial hemp cultivar for fiber, seed and CBD. HempFlax BV, a hemp cultivation and processing company with cultivation sites in the Netherlands, Germany and Romania, harvests all three products from the same standing crop. This lucrative cropping strategy allows a farmer to make agronomic decisions based on three commodity markets— fiber, food and drug—and we predict will prevail in the near future among progressive farmers worldwide.

China and Romania are traditional hemp farming regions without commercial seedless drug cannabis production. Manitoba farmers have dominated North American hemp grain seed production for 20 years and have established Manitoba as a hemp seed producing region. Few outdoor sinsemilla growers would attempt to establish production there. Rather, drug cannabis is more often grown indoors in urban areas, and in glasshouses and outdoors in regions without hemp seed crops. To that end, conflicts are rare but could still arise.

In most drug cannabis producing regions (e.g., Colombia and Mexico, as well as the Caribbean, Africa and Southeast Asia), crops are grown seedless to increase the flowers’ potency. It would be unwise to attempt growing seeded crops in these regions. In all these examples, a pairing of local traditions with economic factors determines whether Cannabis crops are grown with or without seeds.

Several of the aforementioned agricultural business models could prove economically viable in any given region, but many are not mutually compatible. The agricultural differences among broadacre, greenhouse and indoor production create an economically segregated terrain where few conflicts have yet to arise. However, conflicts will undoubtedly arise unless specific cannabis growing regions become set aside for female-only growing of seedless drug crops.

North American Constraints

In the face of steadily expanding seedless drug crop acreage bolstered by supportive legislation across America, will there remain anywhere for hemp grain seed crops to make their long-awaited comeback? Will the U.S. always rely on Canada and China for healthy hemp seed products?

The expanding range of Farm Bill hemp (high-CBD seedless flower) production in 2018 reached 23 states. Colorado and Montana, leaders in U.S. hemp production, each grew more than 20,000 acres; followed by Kentucky and Oregon with around 7,000 acres each; and Tennessee, North Carolina, North Dakota, New York, Nevada, Wisconsin and Vermont had 1,000 to more than 3,000 acres under licensed cultivation. More than 78,000 acres of Farm Bill hemp were grown in 2018, nearly tripling the less than 26,000 acres grown in 2017.

Now, private citizens as well as agricultural entities across North America are increasingly allowed to grow both industrial hemp (including hemp grain seed crops) as well as seedless drug cannabis for medical and adult use. In some areas, this situation sets the stage for potential conflicts until industry self-regulation and enlightened agricultural policies take effect. In the meantime, most regions appear to offer opportunities for everyone.

However, the situation is becoming increasingly convoluted. The U.S. landscape is a complex puzzle of differing jurisdictions, each with its own evolving cannabis scenarios and range of regulatory solutions. Until the advent of the CBD industry, industrial hemp cultivation held little attraction in most regions of the U.S., and largely due to prohibition, most seedless drug cannabis was grown either in remote rural or insular urban settings isolated from any hemp pollen. Many newly cannabis-tolerant jurisdictions may allow Cannabis plants to be grown for whatever end use someone might choose—be it fiber, seed and/or drug.

In many regions across North America, sinsemilla growers arrived decades earlier than the recently arrived hemp growers. North American sinsemilla growers pioneered drug cannabis cultivation and established their turfs long ago, largely in agriculturally marginal rural areas not well suited to broadacre hemp fiber and seed production. California presents several cases in point.

Sparsely populated rural regions of Northern California have been the primary producers of sinsemilla since the 1960s, and since the 1980s indoor, artificial-light growing has become increasingly popular in more urban regions with access to the electrical grid. The established agricultural precedent in both scenarios is drug cannabis production. So far, industrial hemp and hemp seed crops have had little, if any, effect. It is really up to the growers of seedless high-THC and high-CBD drug crops to defend their turf (especially outdoor cultivation, which is common in California and expanding elsewhere) from the potential pollen threat of seeded crops.

On the West Coast, state cannabis grower associations are striving to establish sinsemilla production regions based on climate and terroir similar to the appellation system used in wine branding. These groups have grown organically from illicit rural grower communities and provide good examples of self-regulation of our industry from within by a group of peers. Appellation membership will likely require qualified farmers to grow only female plants from cuttings, and the sowing of seeds (a possible source of male plants and contaminating pollen) will be strictly controlled.

Both industrial and medical hemp crops are most profitably produced under broadacre agriculture, while sinsemilla flower crops are most profitably produced under glass. California’s Sacramento, San Joaquin, Imperial and Salinas valleys present examples of regions where potentially conflicting business models may clash. Many growers in these traditionally broadacre farm and orchard regions have switched to glasshouse production of vegetables, bedding, house plants and cut flowers. Sinsemilla flower growers will move into regions where glasshouses are readily available, and local regulations usually stipulate that existing glasshouse infrastructure must be utilized. This places seedless growers near neighboring broadacre farms where it is also economically feasible to grow fiber and seed hemp.

These scenarios exemplify the need for agricultural authorities to take responsibility for local regulation of their cannabis industries before conflicts between growers arise. There are few established historical and agricultural precedents for either sinsemilla or hemp growing in prime agricultural regions. These areas produce many crops profitably and, as with other crops, are where the future of commercial cannabis production for many different products will be focused.

Solutions

How will various jurisdictions with differing constituencies and priorities create equitable policies for the control of stray Cannabis pollen in sinsemilla-only areas?

Local, state and federal agriculture organizations should control cannabis licensing and permitting, first in local jurisdictions and eventually nationwide. Agricultural officials must take stock of regional conditions and become sensitive to the unfolding cannabis industry and determine the traditional basis for cannabis economics in their region. If sinsemilla growers have contributed to the economic viability of their local economy, albeit illegally, then they should be invited to have a strong voice in determining future cannabis policies and regulations.

This article was reprinted with permission from Cannabis Business Times’ September 2019 issue.

Mojave Richmond is the developer of many award-winning varieties such as S.A.G.E., which served as a springboard for creating many notable cultivars. Richmond is a founding member of the international consulting company BioAgronomics Group. info@bioagronomics.com

Robert C. Clarke is a freelance writer, photographer, ethnobotanist, plant breeder, textile collector and co-founder of BioAgronomics Group Consultants, specializing in smoothing the transition to a wholly legal and normalized cannabis market. info@bioagronomics.com

Capable of being used for everything from car parts and housing insulation to food and bedding for animals, hemp is renowned for its versatility.

HempFlax, based in Oude Pekela, Netherlands, knows this well. It utilizes just about every part of the plant to serve multiple industries.

The stalk? It makes up those animal beds and car and house parts.

The seeds and leaves? They are used for food and nutraceuticals.

The root? It’s left in the field to fertilize the next crop.

But it wasn’t easy to master wrangling sinewy hemp. “In the first years,” CEO Mark Reinders says, “if you looked at HempFlax, our courtyard looked more like a graveyard for burned-down agricultural machinery because hemp is one of the toughest crops in the world to harvest. The fiber is, I will say, the Kevlar fiber [of] the natural fibers. It’s so tough, so strong, even the strongest harvesting machine will break down [from] hemp if you do not modify it.”

Now, after more than 25 years in business, HempFlax has developed harvesting attachments for John Deere combines and breaker mills for decortication. The company contracts with growers in the Netherlands and Germany and grows its own hemp on nearly 1,500 acres in Romania. To allow for its consistent manufacturing of a varied line of products, the company handles harvesting and processing the hemp in all three countries.

HempFlax rose out of what cannabis breeder Ben Dronkers imagined when, in 1994, he founded the company about a decade after he launched the Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum in Amsterdam with cannabis cultivator and book author Ed Rosenthal.

“In the museum, a lot of people told [Dronkers] … that hemp will never become an industrial crop [again],” Reinders says. “So, actually, he founded HempFlax to prove to those people that they were wrong. And now, 25 years later, I think he succeeded in proving his [point].”

© Emily Rosalia

Courtesy Of HempFlax

Courtesy of HempFlax

Sustainably Grown

As it works to help reestablish hemp as a major crop, HempFlax outlines a commitment to preserving the environment in its mission and vision.

“As a society, we need to move towards a more sustainable way of living without necessarily losing [out] on luxury and comfort,” Reinders says. “Hemp is bringing a sustainable alternative to the market with often better properties compared to the non-sustainable solutions.”

Reinders learned how to grow crops sustainably early on. His father, Jan Reinders, operates a roughly 85-acre farm in the Northern Netherlands, growing hemp, sugar beets and starch potatoes. The younger Reinders grew up working with his father on the farm.

“Farming is lovely,” Reinders says, reflecting on those formative years. “I like to drive on a tractor, but I don’t like to remove weeds by hand in the field. That’s why I liked hemp so much.” The family spaced hemp plants out so they would out-compete germinated weed seeds for sunlight and suppress the weeds. And the family still grows that way, planting 120 plants per square meter and avoiding unnecessary weed-control inputs in the process.

“We also experience that in the year after the hemp crop, we have less weeds in our other crops, so we have to apply less pesticides to protect those crops against weeds. I think the total sustainability of the farm increases a lot if you [use] hemp in your crop rotation,” says Reinders, whose father began growing hemp to replace wheat, which wasn’t as lucrative.

Following an internship at HempFlax in the early 2000s and working in the recycling industry and potato trade for a few years, Reinders joined HempFlax full-time in 2008 and became CEO in 2016. He has bachelor’s degrees in crop production and agricultural business and a master’s degree in management.

When he worked in recycling, Reinders says he saw many of the positives of the process. Recycling plays a role in solving environmental problems, he says, but growing and using hemp for various end uses can help prevent many of those problems from occurring in the first place.

The crop can sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) that it only releases back into the atmosphere when it is burned or composted, according to a Guardian article penned by Mike Lawrence, Ph.D., director of the University of Bath’s Building Research Park in England.

End products created with hemp also have sustainable properties, such as hempcrete’s ability to absorb CO₂, as noted by researchers from India’s Central Building Research Institute and the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India.

Also, manufacturing hemp for one cubic meter (m³) of insulation material emits at least 15 times less CO₂ than manufacturing foam glass for one m³ of insulation and at least seven times less CO₂ than manufacturing expanded glass for one m³ of insulation, according to waermedaemmstoffe.com, a German informational website about insulation materials. HempFlax uses hemp to manufacture insulation for car parts, which Reinders says is more commonly done with glass fiber, adding, “… you’re not producing glass fiber, you’re making the car lighter, you have less energy use,” he says. “Those steps are plus, plus, plus, plus, plus on the sustainability level.”

This commitment to sustainability, along with a plan to expand market share, is reflected in HempFlax’s May 2020 launch of a building supplies division after it acquired German natural fiber insulation manufacturer Thermo Natur.

“Vertical integration is the most effective way of ensuring high standards are adhered to whilst also extracting maximum value from a synergistic supply chain,” HempFlax Chairman Guy Winterflood said in a press release announcing the launch of the building supplies division. “This is what we have achieved through this transaction, which is yet another avenue for HempFlax to capitalise on the fast-growing trends toward sustainability.”

Courtesy of HempFlax

Precise Farming and Harvesting

Since he learned how to avoid pulling weeds out of the hemp field, Reinders and his team of 70 have established many more growing and harvesting procedures to ensure HempFlax’s success.

The business grows varieties registered for use in the European Union, where the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) limit is 0.2%. HempFlax often uses Futura 75, a later-flowering, taller variety of hemp that can reach a height of 3 to 4 meters (9.8 to 13.1 feet) when fully grown; this variety grows taller in the Netherlands than in Romania, Reinders says, because of the longer days.

Due to HempFlax’s stake in so many industries and the high expectations of its business partners—ranging from product suppliers for Porsche and BMW to Dronkers-founded cannabis seed bank and hemp product retailer Sensi Seeds—diversification in growing is a must. The company has split its production for 2020 in roughly the following way: 1,236 acres contracted in the Netherlands, 2,224 acres contracted in Germany, and 1,483 acres at its farm in Romania. This is down from the roughly 8,600 acres that HempFlax, Europe’s largest independent hemp processor based on growing space, originally planned to farm in 2020. A lack of spring rain along with contracted farmers’ desire to grow other crops this year affected these plans.

HempFlax’s contract farmers in the coastal climates of the Netherlands and Germany grow primarily for fiber, leaves and “shives”—from the stalk’s woody core, or “shiv.” In addition to growing for all of this in Romania, the company also harvests seeds there. “In Romania, we have a more continental climate, and we are [at] a lower latitude where we can sow four weeks earlier compared to the Netherlands, and [hemp] flowers earlier compared to the Netherlands,” Reinders says.

Each climate has positive and negative aspects, Reinders says. For instance, Romania has worked better for producing seeds, but the region’s low rainfall and humidity compared to the northern regions results in less effective retting. The climate-diverse locales also help HempFlax avoid weather-related risks. “Climate risk these days is very severe,” Reinders says.

HempFlax has also spread its business risk—and improved its overall efficacy—by diversifying even beyond managing the cultivation and manufacturing of hemp. It also creates production solutions, including the attachments it has created for John Deere combines to harvest hemp stalks and leaves in one pass, Reinders says.

Using the combines, the stalks are cut to about 2 feet in length (at 15 centimeters above ground level) and left in the field for swathing, drying and retting. The business uses a turning process called “tedding” multiple times for an equal retting; rets until the stalks have a moisture level at or below 15%; and then swaths everything together.

Then, it's baled and transported to their facilities.

The roots, which stretch about 2 feet deep and spread out in all directions, improve the soil structure. So, HempFlax leaves them in the ground, Reinders says, though he adds, “If tomorrow a customer has a demand for roots, I’m pretty sure we will find a solution to harvest [them].”

Nothing Gone to Waste

At HempFlax, so named because the company used to use flax processing equipment, each part of hemp seems to have a purpose—and a specific means of manufacture.

The company’s nutraceutical offerings include hemp seeds and protein powder, and hempseed oil—created through cold-press processes, according to HempFlax product information—and cannabidiol (CBD) products that are extracted using CO₂, Reinders says. The company white labels its nutraceuticals.

When processing and manufacturing fiber, HempFlax begins with decorticating the stalk using its in-house designed breaker mill system, Reinders says.

Following decortication, HempFlax uses the shiv for animal bedding and litter, and construction materials. The shives meet a large sieve that separates them into various-sized particles. Then, the packing department uses machines to bale the fiber into their end-use products.

HempFlax markets its animal care products as highly moisture-absorbing and non-clotting. They’re also “dust-free,” allowing animals respite from “allergic reactions and respiratory problems.”

The company also uses other parts of the hemp plant in animal products. “Hemp fibers are a good nesting material, which can act as replacement to the synthetic wool nesting materials ...,” Reinders says. “In the animal feed sector, hemp proteins, oils, and CBD can all be used in animal feed products.”

After decortication of the hemp, HempFlax takes the fiber to a refining line, where it is heckled to separate the plant fibers and cleaned multiple times. “We reach up to a fiber purity of about 98% ..., refined and cut to length,” Reinders says. “We can do 40-millimeter, 60-millimeter, 100-millimeter length.” This is used for multiple purposes, including insulation for homes and automobile door panels and dashboards.

True to whole-crop-model form, HempFlax uses a vacuum in both its Netherlands and Romania factories to filter air and dust. Another good sieving separates all of the vacuum-collected hemp particles into different grades. Some of the larger-grade particles are used for injection-molded pallets and layers of horticultural pots.

What remains—the smallest particles, which Reinders calls “fine dust” or “flour”—heads to another destination. “It’s being sold to a company that blends it with manure from chicken and horses,” he says. “They pelletize it, and it’s being sold as a growing medium for the rose-breeding industry.”

From using the stalk to the “flour,” HempFlax makes the most of what the hemp plant has to offer, growing its business across Europe and ensuring its place as a major force in the hemp marketplace.