The State of Georgia has now joined the hemp revolution!

[url]https://www.gpbnews.org/post/look-inside-georgias-first-legal-industrial-hemp-field[/url]

Wont happen in Texas till 2020.

Hemp is growing again at George Washington's farm in Virginia!

[url]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hemp-makes-return-george-washingtons-farm-180970131/[/url]

Hmm, I'm not sure what I am growing but it is known as ditch weed around here. Every year about 6 stalks magically appear under the windbreak and smack in front of the car parking area. I've pulled it. stomped it, and last year I just left a bit but it didn't spread. The flower seeds must be viable long before they look dried out. One stalk fell down and I was lazy to do anything (and there is poison ivy further back). I bet next year I have two embarrassing clumps in the landscape for all the world to see.

Do you growers have this pop up in weird spots?


- Lisa

And...the inevitable abuse of hemp markets:

[url]https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/04/us/kern-county-10-million-marijuana-plants/index.html[/url]

I saw that about the California arrest. Someone was dreaming big. And that is a neat article about Washington.

The USDA just published their proposed Federal rules for hemp. Farmers are very upset about them, to say the least. It looks like they were written to put all of us out of business. The thc limits are very strict. My crop this year would have passed...by .02%...just barely. The new proposed rules say that if a farmer fails the test, he has to pay the DEA to come remove his plants. You can't even kill your own plants legally.

The new rules are not final yet, so hopefully they change a few things.

I was at a conference on Farm Bill roll out.
One session was on hemp.
The new testing method the USDA adopted is a [B]Total [/B]THC testing requirement. Total THC is the molar sum of delta-9 THC (“THC”) and delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (“THCA”).
So, if you were .2 or .3 last year, this number would probably double with this new testing method. Plus, it has to be sampled 15 days or sooner before harvest, which is when the levels are peaking as it is. The crop trial results had 4 varieties, and all 4 would have failed this new rule, some by 3-4x the limit. The trial was replicated on 4 different farms. The only one that passed was when the harvest was conducted June, and the yield reduction was so big, the crop showed a 20k loss per acre.
From the slides I saw, I don't see how anyone is going to produce a legal crop, unless they harvest WAY before fall when the levels havent spiked yet, which will put a huge hit on yield.
IF this rule holds, the only way this industry survives as is, is if someone breeds a 0% THC strain.

Basically, THCA is a THC precursor. THCA becomes THC through heat or light (called decarboxylation). So the new test heats the sample to convert the TCHA to THC to add it the existing THC found to get total THC. This addition in testing ups the percentages.

I was just at the Hemp Summit at the state fairgrounds today. They told us that the new usda rules will not be adopted until the 2021 growing season. Next year, we will be tested for delta 9 only, like we were in 2019. The usda is still taking public comments on the new rules, and may still ease them somewhat. Just today they extended the public comment window for one more month.

I tested at .32 THCa and non detectable delta 9, so I would have just barely squeaked by. They did also tell us today that there is a margin of error factor from all testing that may allow for a little more room.

As a seed producer, I have to look two years ahead instead of one, as it takes a year to make the seed. Right now I can see the older cbd strains coming back into demand. CBD percentage on them would be less than 10%, but they are very low in thc.

The direction I will more likely go is CBG, which will be the next big fad. As a bonus, cbg varieties are low in thc and would pass the strict usda testing. But the genetics are very difficult to obtain. $1 a seed, but $100,000 minimum order is typical.

The whole thing is asinine.
Just decriminalize all cannabis and solve all the issues with one move.
But then that would mean less pigs at the trough from bureaucrats to agents to ag personnel to lab workers, lawyers and on and on....

Here's a situation where you are penalized for growing healthy, robust plants that produce maximum fruit and nutrition that push you into "too good" for public consumption.

[QUOTE=Cole_Robbie;751478]I was just at the Hemp Summit at the state fairgrounds today. They told us that the new usda rules will not be adopted until the 2021 growing season. Next year, we will be tested for delta 9 only, like we were in 2019. The usda is still taking public comments on the new rules, and may still ease them somewhat. Just today they extended the public comment window for one more month.

I tested at .32 THCa and non detectable delta 9, so I would have just barely squeaked by. They did also tell us today that there is a margin of error factor from all testing that may allow for a little more room.

As a seed producer, I have to look two years ahead instead of one, as it takes a year to make the seed. Right now I can see the older cbd strains coming back into demand. CBD percentage on them would be less than 10%, but they are very low in thc.

The direction I will more likely go is CBG, which will be the next big fad. As a bonus, cbg varieties are low in thc and would pass the strict usda testing. But the genetics are very difficult to obtain. $1 a seed, but $100,000 minimum order is typical.[/QUOTE]

I was in a small convenience store yesterday for a cup of coffee. I noticed some tiny glass jars marked $25.00 within a locked display. The product looked like tiny, dried flower buds. I asked the lady what she was selling in the jars. Her reply was marijuana. I thought she surely meant hemp buds, but with my lack of knowledge of marijuana and hemp; I still don't know what was for sale in the display case and I don't want to pay $25.00 to find out.

Lol it was probably a gram of cbd hemp...for $25. Processors are paying that much for a pound right now. $10,000+ per lb when sold by the gram for the same product is a tad bit of a markup.

By the way, "marijuana" is what Mexicans called cannabis in the 1930s. The government latched on to that word to start banning it, because the racial connotations helped politically. And then it became the word we all use today.