Starting your own hemp farm: What you need to know, from how hemp works, legal requirements, harvesting needs & challenges along with land needs.
Various tiny house farms are helping in improving the way of living of the owners. Although you do not notice the small businesses and farms are springing up every day. Nowadays, with the legalization of cannabis, are becoming a norm, the tiny hemp farm may become one of the best business ideas as well as a hobby for you.
So, here in this article, we will talk about some tips that you need to know if you are thinking about opting for a tiny hemp farm in your backyard. But, before that, we will talk about some other aspects of this that we should keep in mind while opting for growing hemp. We have described some of them below, check them out.
Is it legal to grow hemp?
The marijuana legalization movement gained speed in the nineties. Several states have started legalizing the marijuana cultivation, despite the federal ban on hemp products. However, a variety of legal roadblocks prevented the farmers from growing a hemp farm, but the scenario has been changed drastically recently.
36 states have now legalized the cultivation of hemp, and the first commercial planting happened in 2013 when Ryan Loflin, a Colorado farmer harvested 55-acre crop, first in the nation since 1957.
In raw numbers, the cultivation of the favorite flower of most of the people worldwide is still a minor crop. However, the scene is rapidly changing. In 2016 10,000 acres were grown nationwide. In 2017, the number reached nearly 26,000 acres, which is more than double the prior year.
Before trying to find a profession in hemp farming, or starting a tiny farm in your backyard, make sure that it is entirely legal in your area. There is a well-maintained list of state-level hemp statuses in the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Why grow Hemp?
Hemp grows more vigorously than that of other crops such as corn. Hemp growing requires less water, fewer pesticides, and fertilizers. Thus, hemp has earned hemp a reputation of the sustainable crop. The plant has more than 25,000 known usages, and it is one of the most eco-friendly alternatives for the other crops produced on an industrial scale.
The voluminous quantities of biomass that hemp produces can easily get used as the raw materials of biofuel production, livestock feed, paper, and textile industries. The seeds and the oil we get from hemp have many culinary and industrial usages too. Researchers have also found that you can make alternative building materials with the stalks. One such material is the hempcrete that helps in sequestering more carbon from the environment than the carbon emission required to produce it. You can visit industrialhempfarms to know more about hemp farming and production.
There are even more valuable benefits of hemp. The most lucrative industries that the hemp farmers are tapping into is the CBD oil production. CBD oil, a medicinal compound prepared from the cannabis plant containing zero THC. For this reason, CBD oil consumption is legal in all the 50 states of the USA.
Now we know about the benefits of growing hemp, here you will get to know about the top tips about starting your small hemp farm.
Tips to start your small hemp farm:
- The best growing conditions to work with: Before you start opting for the tiny hemp farm in your backyard, you should plan appropriately. The perfect conditions are essential to grow hemp properly in your backyard.
- First things first, check out the location before start cultivating. You should also think about the weather conditions around your farm’s locality.
- Remember that hemp grows best in warm and humid weather.
- The soil for cultivating hemp has to have a very well drainage system.
- Hemps seeds should directly be sewn in the ground if you want to grow your hemp plants
- Once after the sawing process, you should water the seedlings for the next six weeks.
- You need a lot of lands: Planning to start a hemp farm on your own? Well, you will need a lot of lands. Look, hemp is the type of plants that are for industrial applications, and not for the farmer’s market sales. Now, if you want to start your own business, you have to cope with the industrial needs of the industries. So, you should need a lot of lands to start your hemp farm. However, if you want to start a tiny backyard hemp farm, you can do that too, but only if it is legal in your area.
- The “red-tape quotient” is very high: Because of the legal obstacles, the hemp farmers will need some special licenses from their state. This means a lot of paperwork and fees. Some cultivators may also have to go through some criminal records and background checks too. In different states where it is legal, the hemp plants of different farmers go under some tests to ensure that the plants are below the certain threshold of the THC content. The plants might get destroyed.
- Suitable seeds are never hard to find: The first-time hemp cultivators generally look for the best quality seeds. However, if you search properly, great quality seeds are never far from your reach. You, as a hemp cultivator, only have to keep one thing in mind, and that is the seeds, must have a lower THC content than usual.
So, these are some of the tips you should keep in mind while trying to start your tiny hemp farm.
