Making the most of it

Growing hemp for fiber is an ever more popular method of growing hemp. Hemp fiber growing is very similar to other traditional crops like wheat. There is very tight spacing involved, and harvesting is usually done with a combine. When you harvest hemp for fiber, it’s important to understand what parts of the plant are valuable, and how you need to handle the product. The plant contains three real parts that can be sold as a commodity.

First, there is the seed. That seed can either be used for next seasons crop, or sold as grain. Secondly there is the “herd” of the plant. This is the soft, mealy-textured part of the stem. It resides on the inside of the main stalk of the plant. The “fiber” of the plant is actually the outside “shell” of the main stalk, and all of the bilateral branches. This extracted fiber material can then be sold to textile manufacturers, clothing manufacturers, building material manufacturers and plenty of other emerging producers of hemp-based materials.

...check back next week when we dive into maximizing your crop for seed & grain!