Growing Hemp

Farmers prepare the soil for and plant hemp as they do other grains and oil seeds.  They then harvest it with a slightly modified combine and clean, dry & store the whole hemp seeds.

Hemp, because it is so different from current crops, breaks pest life cycles, and may attract a different set of pests (although we haven’t seen any do economic damage here in North America so far).

There haven’t been any GMO hemp varieties developed.  So – as hemp replaces conventional soybeans, which are almost entirely GMO, the number of acres planted to GMO crops drops.

With a good head start against weeds at the start of the season, hemp will quickly crowd out and shade weeds.  Hemp grows well in quite dry conditions.  Hemp for seed doesn’t require irrigation in all but the driest climates.  Almonds depend on a specific, dry climate and so irrigation to produce commercially. It is often said that each almond requires a gallon of water to produce.

Hemp seeds are a new market and don’t follow the cycles of corn or soy – and so offer farmers an opportunity to diversify their revenue and so reduce risk of poor crop prices.