Everything You Need to Know About Growing Alabama Hemp (Pt. 1)

by Travis C | Apr 15, 2019 | 420, 420 News, Blog, Business, Growing, Hemp, Science & Technology

Wow. Finally by the grace of God, hemp is finally legal. In Alabama, this is an exciting time and opportunity for many people.

With the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp is now considered a legitimate farm crop in the US. The problem is that hardly anyone knows how to grow hemp, and the people that have been growing hemp have only grown limited amounts, in limited environments.

Now Alabama and a number of other southern states have “legalized it.” But what does that mean?

What is hemp?

Hemp is considered any cannabis plant that has less than .3% THC. This is the only thing that defines what makes hemp legal in the US. With the new Farm Bill of 2018 comes the ability for farmers and states that have regulated the production of hemp to legally farm it.

Even though it’s called industrial hemp, there is very little industrial use of hemp today.

Out of hemp you can make everything from paper to plastics, cement to chipboard. We are on the cutting edge of this technology and we have yet to see industry spring up around it. In the future we will see the above and more utilized for industrial hemp. But until then farmers will have to settle on growing hemp for CBD extraction and potentially seed for food.

Growing hemp for grain can be lucrative. The seeds are inexpensive, however you have to be mechanically geared for the scale of this type of production. Think hundreds or thousands of acres.

CBD, or cannabidiol, is the most lucrative side of industrial hemp today. It is a medicinal component of the cannabis plant that doesn’t share any psychoactive affects with its relative, THC. CBD is used in everything from skin creams to anti-seizure medications. It truly is a wondrous natural supplement.

As of today, CBD is the only way that you’ll be able to be cash positive from any hemp farming activity. If you’re lucky enough to have applied and received an Alabama Hemp License to grow hemp, then it’s time to get started.

The Plant

CBD hemp has many growth patterns and harvest times. It can be planted from June to August in most of the US. Alabama hemp is no different.

Unlike its cousin (i.e. ganja, marijuana, herb), Alabama hemp is grown on a considerably larger scale, with very different techniques.

The first thing you need decide before starting in Alabama hemp, is whether you want to grow from clones or seeds. High-CBD hemp seeds are available for approximately one dollar a seed on the current marketplace. These are feminized seeds that only produce female plants (or at least 90% or female plants).

That’s right. You still can have some percent of males show up, but that’s a little more complex science than we want to get into now. Basically, if you buy 10,000 feminized seeds you’re mostly going to get female plants. Don’t worry if you get a little seed in your hemp either.

You can just as easily purchase traditional seeds that will randomly be male and females. On a small scale of 5 to 10 acres this could be an excellent choice. It is easy enough to cut down all the males as they show their sex, leaving only the females in your field.

However if you do this you have to plant at twice the density in order to compensate for losing half of your plants.

Clones are by far the best way to have consistent yields and performance.

In part 2 of this guide, we’ll go over tips for planting properly, keeping your Alabama hemp plants healthy and maintaining your fields.

You can also hear from somebody who’s breaking into the Alabama hemp industry right now, Brett Terry, on The Real Dirt Podcast.

4 Issues Cannabis Growers Deal With

by Travis C | Mar 14, 2019 | 420, Blog, Broscience Mythbusters, Growing, Science & Technology

Growing cannabis isn’t easy. In fact, growing great cannabis consistently is difficult for most. However, the issues growers face are widespread and much more common.

New growers face a lot of the same issues when they get into cannabis cultivation. But even experienced growers can face the same issues, especially when expanding.

The fact is, the bigger your grow, the more problems you’ll likely have to deal with. From mold and mildew to clogged lines and broken timers, here are some of the most common issues growers deal with, and how to deal with them yourself.

Powdery Mildew

If you’ve been growing, you’ve probably already dealt with powdery mildew. For the lucky few that have avoided PM up to this point, powdery mildew is a fungal infection that destroys your plants.

PM thrives in warm environments, which makes your flower room a great spot to sprout its spores. The reason PM is so hated by growers is that it can’t be cured. Once your plant is infected, it must be destroyed. Then you need to spray down the rest of your plants with some fungicide to prevent the PM from spreading any further.

Luckily there are organic options for dealing with PM so you cannabis plants will still be consumable.

Bugs

As long as plants exist, so will bugs that try to eat them. When it comes to cannabis specifically, the most common bugs growers encounter are aphids, mites, thrips and white flies. There are other bugs that can be problematic if you are an outdoor grower, like grasshoppers and crickets.

When it comes to bugs like mites, that are so small you can’t see any problem until your plants are affected, it is better to be proactive in the grow. The options for pesticides and insecticides are vast, but there is a select list of products you can use on cannabis. Keep in mind that the permitted products on the list don’t apply in all states. For example, some pesticides permitted in Colorado are not permitted in California.

Irrigation Issues

Irrigation issues normally plague growers who are producing on a larger scale and must use irrigation to compensate. While a drip irrigation system is extremely cost effective and efficient in the grow, one problem can throw off your entire system.

Other issues that can arise in your irrigation are mold and mildew, which can do just as much damage to your plants.

One clog in your tubing that goes unchecked can result in the death of however many plants are down-line from that clog. And in a large scale operation, that can mean hundreds of plants. However with regular maintenance, checking your lines for clogs consistently, cleaning them out often, and timers and notification systems that you can set up, these problems can be easily avoided.

Environmental Control Issues

There is a small window of environmental settings that allows cannabis to thrive. Straying too far outside these climate requirements is detrimental for your plants. A lot of new growers will just throw some plants in their room and feed them, without much regard for the temperature or humidity of the room.

The easiest way, though an expensive option for the hobbyist or home grower, is to have an automated environmental control system. You can set up monitors that track your temperatures and humidity, and notify you when there is a fluctuation. Of course, if you don’t have a proper ventilation system or A/C and heat set up in your room, a controller won’t be of much use.

As long as plants are growing, bugs will try to eat them. Hand watering won’t always be efficient. Cold weather will damage your plants if not accounted for. These issues seem obvious, but a lot of people deal with them every day.

But you don’t need to break the bank and build out the next generation grow room to be efficient. There are plenty of DIY options for irrigation, as well as simple and easy to use pesticides that are also organic for use in cannabis. And you don’t need a high-tech environmental controller to stay on top of humidity.

If you’re willing to put the time and work in to save the money, you’ll be fine. Or if you got the change to spare, spend it wisely.

New Year, New Industry

by Travis C | Jan 11, 2019 | 420 News, Blog, Business, Culture, Science & Technology

2018 was a big year for the cannabis industry. 2019 is poised to change the industry even more.

The cannabis industry grew on a global scale in 2018. Not just in the United States, but around the world. More places are starting to accept cannabis as medicine and recreation, with even more planning to get on board in 2019.

While there are plenty of small or local changes to cannabis in the US, here some of the biggest changes in the cannabis industry that came in 2018.

Canada Legalization

Canada legalization of cannabis was a major victory for the industry in 2018. The government of Canada legalized the recreational use of cannabis across the entire country, with local governments still being able to limit the law.

However compared to legalization within some states of the United States, Canada legalization is run entirely by the government instead of private businesses. All licensed grows, manufacturers and retailers are government run. This has had a split impact on the industry as a whole in Canada.

While access to cannabis has become much easier — consumers can order cannabis online, for delivery, directly from a government website — supply currently cannot meet demand, causing backorders, long delays, moldy and stale product, and other problems.

The biggest problem Canada legalization has adversely caused is an increased use of the private market. If they government can’t supply its people but says it can be the only source, people will go to the private market to get the products they want without the long delay and risk of bad product.

Farm Bill and Industrial Hemp

difference between hemp vs cannabis CBD

At the end of December 2018, Donald Trump surprisingly signed the Farm Bill of 2018, also known as the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. Among many other adjustments to the agricultural industries in the US, the farm bill also separated the definition of industrial hemp to be different from that of cannabis.

Before the bill was signed, hemp and cannabis were under the same definition, with a sub-definition of hemp being any part of the cannabis plant with less than .3% THC. However, as sub-definition, it was still considered a Schedule 1 narcotic under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

The farm bill separated industrial hemp from the traditional cannabis definition, and created a federal definition of industrial hemp, being the same definition as before, but off of the controlled substances list. This has opened up the possibility for a massive hemp and CBD industry to develop.

While it’s too soon to say where the industry is headed — it will most likely be a year before the new bill takes full effect — the Farm Bill and legalization of industrial hemp means big things for the future of the cannabis industry.

First Year of California Legalization

california legalization needs to be controlled by farmers

California has a population with over 10 million more people than the second place contender, Texas. It was expected for the legalization of cannabis in California to expand the already developed marketplace in the state to great new bounds. However the new laws in place have had almost the opposite effect.

The cannabis marketplace in California was already the biggest in the country, despite the majority of growth occurring in the private market. It was inevitable, then, that the new, legal market would work its hardest to eradicate this competition.

Extremely limited licenses available to the highest bidder resulted in hundreds of farms and private operations having to shut down, simply by not being able to afford a legal license. This was the case for a large portion of the cannabis community in California, opening up the door for larger companies with more capital interests to enter the market.

With the biggest companies buying as many licenses as possible, the OGs of the industry are left with little options. Either continue to operate in the private market and hope to get a license before getting caught, or leave the industry in California.

It’s been a tough year for a thousands of growers across California, and 2019 most likely won’t prove to be much different. Despite its flaws however, California will still be a huge legal cannabis marketplace, and most likely surpass all other states, with the end result being the eradication of the private market entirely in the state.

An Eventful Year

2018 was a year full of surprises. Colorado passing Amendment X, The Farm Bill, California’s industry revelations and more. This year had its ups and downs, it’s issues that split the community, but overall the industry is in a better place than it was a year ago.

More states have legalized both recreationally and medicinally, cannabis is more acceptable in social culture than ever before, and more people are learning about the lies they were told during the drug war movement. Some are already saying 2019 will be the year of weed, while others think the bubble is bound to burst any day now.

We’ll just wait and see what’s in store for cannabis in 2019!

Listen to The Real Dirt Podcast!

Listen on iTunes

Listen on Spotify

Hemp vs Canabis CBD

by Travis C | Jan 2, 2019 | 420, 420 News, Blog, Science & Technology

If you’re familiar with CBD and its medicinal benefits, you may be wondering how to get it, or even more so, where it comes from in the first place.

If you have no idea what we mean when we say CBD, check out our starter guide to CBD explaining the basics.

CBD is most commonly found in industrial hemp and cannabis plants. But is there really a difference between the two? It isn’t so much that CBD from hemp is better or worse than CBD from cannabis, but how hemp is grown compared to cannabis makes a big difference.

Hemp vs Cannabis

Traditionally, Hemp is grown on an industrial scale, hence the name industrial hemp. Plants grow closer together, forcing them to grow up instead of out.

In contrast, cannabis is grown more spaced out which allows the leaves and flowers to fan out and gain potency. While hemp is mainly used for its stalks in uses from making paper to clothing, cannabis is bred much differently.

The biggest difference between hemp and cannabis is the THC content. Hemp is grown to have minimal THC. To legally be considered hemp, that amount must be no more than .3%.

Cannabis on the other hand is usually grown to have as much THC as possible in order to provide its maximum psychotropic effects, AKA the “high”.

Hemp Legality

So, a hemp plant with a THC content of .5% would be considered psychotropic cannabis and therefore federally illegal. This is despite the fact that such a low THC content would have little to no effect on the average person.

In fact, industrial hemp was made legal in 2009 by the Industrial Hemp Farming Act. But if you couldn’t guess by the name of the bill, this only applies to industrially grown hemp.

This “legal” hemp was only permitted for use by research facilities or higher education research. So unless the hemp was being grown on an industrial scale for the sole purpose of higher education research, hemp was still illegal.

However in December of 2018 the Agricultural Act of 2018, commonly known as the Farm Bill, was passed by the House, Senate and President Donald Trump. This new farm bill changes the definitions of industrial hemp.

This means that hemp will no longer just be grown for research purposes, but an actual commercial marketplace can be established.

Hemp CBD vs Cannabis CBD

Now that hemp has been legalized, the already blurred lines separating hemp CBD and cannabis CBD from a legality standpoint have become even more blurry. However this is actually good for the consumer.

Hemp traditionally carries more CBD, whereas cannabis carries more THC. Through crossbreeding of low-THC cannabis strains with high-CBD hemp strains, new strains are being created that look, smell and taste like regular cannabis, but have .3% or less.

Soon, hemp flower will look identical to cannabis flower, and more people will start to consume high CBD flower as much as THC flower. Industrial hemp for now will still be grown mostly on large scale for mass production of CBD medications derived from the whole plant.

The reality is hemp and cannabis are the same plant, they have just been bred in different ways. Now that hemp is legal, the two will start to merge again, and we might even see some new breeds start to appear. It’s an exciting time to look into hemp.

Cannabis Stocks: Understanding the Market

by Travis C | Nov 30, 2018 | Blog, Science & Technology

With Canada’s legalization passing this year, the stock market, more specifically cannabis stocks, are exploding.

The United States was the largest legal cannabis industry in the world with just the few states that have legalized. That all changed when Canada legalized cannabis on the federal level.

Canada created a national industry that spans the entire country, with a government managed program that handles distribution. Being the first first-world and G-7 country to enact widespread legalization, Canada’s stock market has seen a surge in new cannabis IPOs.

Cannabis Stocks in the US

Canada has the ability to allow cannabis businesses to go public now that it is legal. The United States still classifies cannabis as a Schedule 1 narcotic with no evidence of medical benefits (I still laugh out loud when I type that), and such does not allow legal, recreational cannabis companies to participate in the national stock market.

This puts cannabis businesses in the US in an awkward position. Unless they are an already listed pharmaceutical company that is creating a cannabis-derived medicine. Also with hazy laws currently regarding CBD, companies like Charlotte’s Web are able to be listed.

Other than CBD companies and pharmaceutical companies, the main stock options related to the legal cannabis industry is the supply businesses, i.e. the pick and shovel sellers. To elaborate, during the gold rush, a bunch of people may have gotten rich by finding some gold, but a lot more people got rich selling the picks and shovels to find it.

The majority of cannabis-related stock options in the US currently consist of packaging companies, safety technology companies, equipment companies (hydroponic equipment distributors), consultants and R&D companies or pharmaceuticals.

Cannabis Stocks in Canada

Due to Canada’s new laws and accessibility to the CSE (Canadian Securities Exchange), businesses operating in legal cannabis states in the US have started to list their companies north of the border. Companies like MedMen Enterprises and Green Thumb Industries are American companies that will be listed on the CSE.

It would appear that the majority of companies from the US joining the CSE are vertically-integrated, with businesses throughout the country in many different realms of the industry, from real estate to licensing to distribution. And while it is more difficult to invest in the Canadian stock market from the United States, it is possible.

Other than American companies listing their companies on the CSE, the majority of cannabis stock in Canada is, well, Canadian. With no worry of federal scrutiny, cannabis businesses in Canada can operate without problems from the government, build businesses and eventually list them. For this reason the CSE is expected to consistently list more and more Canadian cannabis stocks as the new industry grows and more businesses thrive.

So while Canada’s new industry is quickly expanding and opening up stock options in the Canadian stock market, the US market in terms of cannabis stocks is still struggling. The larger companies that are taking advantage of the CSE from the US are already multi-billion dollar companies, and thus will be highly sought after stock.

It most likely won’t be until federal legalization passes in the states that we will see cannabis stocks really start to appear for Americans to add to their portfolios. For now, you can invest in pharmaceutical companies, holding companies, and some others. It is also possible that if demand grows enough for the American cannabis stocks listed in the CSE, it will become easier to invest from the states. What will happen is still uncertain.

Guest Feature: The Myth of Indica and Sativa

by Travis C | Nov 14, 2018 | Blog, Broscience Mythbusters, Growing, Science & Technology

There is a commonly held belief that Indicas are short, stout, broad leaf plants that are physically sedating or relaxing and Sativas are tall, narrow leaf plants that are invigorating and uplifting when ingested.

There is actually no truth to this belief, but it continues to be perpetuated online and in dispensaries throughout the world. The reality is that the myriad of cultivars that we smoke/ingest are all Indica.

Indica and Sativa Origins

After years of rigorous research from botanists and ethnobotanists, there are still different theories regarding the evolution of cannabis taxonomy, but what is widely accepted by most is that C. indica is the vast majority of biotypes in North America and that C. sativa includes only European hemp.

In Robert C. Clarke and Mark Merlin, PhD’s comprehensive text, Cannabis Evolution & Ethnobotany, they discuss the history of cannabis biotypes from several different perspectives, the most plausible being from Karl Hillig, PhD. You can find these biotypes in the table below:

CANNABIS BIOTYPES ACCORDING TO HILLIG (2005)

Acronym & Biotype	Binomial	Early Range	Uses
PA- Putative Ancestor	C. ruderalis	Northern Central Asia	Possible- seed and crude fiber
PHA- Putative Hemp Ancestor	Unrecognized or Extinct	Balkan peninsula Caucasus Mtns	Possible- seed and crude fiber
NLHA- Narrow leaf Hemp Ancestor	C. sativa ssp. spontanea	Eastern Europe Central Asia	Seed and crude fiber
NLH- Narrow leaf Hemp	C. sativa ssp. sativa	Europe	Seed and textile fiber
PDA- Putative Drug Ancestor	Unrecognized or Extinct	Hengduan Mtns Yungui Plateau	Possible ritual and medicinal
BLHA- Broad leaf Hemp Ancestor	Unrecognized or Extinct	Eastern Asia	Possible seed and crude fiber
BLH- Broad leaf Hemp	C. indica ssp. chinensis	China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia	Seed and textile fiber
NLDA- Narrow leaf Drug Ancestor	C. indica ssp. kafiristanica	Himalayan Foothills- Kashmir to Myanmar	Euphoria- hashish, “marijuana”
NLD- Narrow leaf Drug	C. indica ssp. indica	South & SE Asia, Middle East	Euphoria- hashish, “marijuana,” fiber, seed
BLD- Broad leaf Drug	C. indica ssp. afghanica	N. Afghanistan, Pakistan	Euphoria- hashish

As you can see from the chart, the only ancestor of C. sativa hails from the Balkan Peninsula. The ancestor of C. sativa ssp. spontanea is a Narrow Leaf Hemp Ancestory from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the modern C. sativa spp. sativa is Narrow Leaf Hemp from Europe. Both the ancestor and the modern C. sativa have been used as seed and crude fiber, not for intoxication/euphoria, as in the case of the Narrow Leaf and Broad Leaf Drug C. indica.

I know this news is hard to accept for some, but we already know that it is the cannabinoids (THC, CBD, CBC, etc) and the terpenoids (myrcene, pinene, limonene, etc) that elicit the therapeutic, invigorating, sedating, and other affects that are associated with ingestion of cannabis. Since we know that it is the cannabinoids and terpenoids that produce the favorable (and sometimes adverse) effects, why do we keep saying it is because it is an Indica or Sativa?

It is time we stopped disseminating misinformation and educate ourselves about the true properties of cannabis (or what we know so far). Remember there are well over 100 cannabinoids and we have identified only a handful. We still have a very long way to go before we truly understand what contributes to the therapeutic and euphoric effects of cannabis.

Hear more on the myths of Indica and Sativa in this week’s episode of The Real Dirt featuring Jessica Baker!