I am not going to encourage anybody to break the law. And, at this time, Cannabis production/possession is still a Federal crime in the United States.
That said, there are "windows" where cannabis can be legally grown for fiber or CBD oil. There are also states, like Michigan, where cannabis has been decriminalized and state law allows individuals to grow a limited number of plants for personal use*. Those states which have decriminalized cannabis probably do not have any language that would prevent a person from growing that same limited number of plants for fiber or seeds.
If the Feds were to decriminalize "weed", this is how you might approach the issue.
Latitude
Cannabis plants are a bit like onions, latitude matters. Some seed-lines do well in the tropics. Some seed-lines might do well between latitudes 30th (Austin, Texas) and 40th (Indianapolis). Other seed-lines might do well north of the 40th parallel. Daylength is a clock that triggers many important biological processes like the binding of fibers (lignification) within the stem and daylength varies by latitude.
Scholar.google.com is a good resource for field-trials and yield information. For example, if you were to search "cannabis fiber yield data" you might learn that Kompolti was the top cultivar for fiber but worst for seed production in Alberta, Canada field trials. or you might learn that Ferimon performed well in Quebec. Han-NE seems to perform well through a wide range of latitudes but it is a "bushy" plant and the hank of fiber is more of wad-like than the long, non-tapering strips from Ferimon.
Pollination
Most fiber cultivars are sold as "non-feminized" seed. Some cultivars have both male and female flower and are self pollinating. If you grow any quantity of either, they will put pollen in the air that will cause THC or CBD producing plants to set seed and stop flowering. The people growing those plants will be very, very angry.
Timing harvest
The fiber is strongest and easiest to extract when the male plants first start to pollinate. That forces you into a decision: Are you growing for seeds/oil or are you growing for fiber? Additionally, planting to maximize fiber production involves planting the seeds much more closely together while seed production has much lower seeding rates per acre.
Growing fiber plants "legally"
There is a lot of red-tape involved and, at least in Michigan, you must grow at least an acre and you can expect to be visited by state officials at least twice during the growing season.
*In Michigan it is legal to grow up to 12 plants of cannabis for personal use. My wife could grow an additional 12. The plants must be enclosed and the entrance must be locked. The plants must not be visible from the road or adjacent driveways. I was told by a semi-reliable source that you can rent out part of your enclosure to other adult, Michigan residents who wish to grow cannabis but it behooves you to have paperwork clearly identifying the extra plants as somebody else's property. My semi-reliable source suggested that "share-cropping" was a common method of compensation via the minor quantities gift provisions of the Michigan cannabis laws.
Personally, it would be such a pain in the behind that it would not be worth my time, and the fact that it is still a Federal crime.
Weren't there other 'fibers' just as useful ?...burlap (Hessian fabric) formed from jute, sisal, tow,?
ReplyDeleteYou might as well add linen.
DeleteI think hemp trounces them in terms of yield per unit land. Also, there are strains of hemp that are good as close to the poles as the 50th parallel which isn't so much the case for the other choices.
If you really got stuck for fiber, Buttonbush, a common weed in corn and soybean fields can be retted for fiber. I also read that nettles have been used for that purpose but I have my doubts. Inner bark of mulberry and basswood (linden) are usable but strips are of limited length.
Which is probably why far north people think in terms of animal skins instead of fiber!
DeleteLinen fiber is strong but the retting process and all the work removing the non-fiber from the mess made it high class clothing.
DeleteI just looked up hemp and the same procedures are required. As many of our founding fathers advocated for or grew hemp for fiber (sails, rope and so on) it's productivity per acre is impressive. Sadly, most of what you can easily look up on the internet is orientated to the drug culture viewpoint. Memes of George Washington with a doobie and so on.
While animal skins can be useful clothing, ask yourself how fronter life would be without ropes and cordage. Lewis and Clark expedition carried much hemp cordage. When they abandoned their expedition ships they carried much from the craft.
ERJ, you have just sent me down a rabbit hole of fibers. Thanks for adding to the trivia store.
ReplyDeleteIf cannabis is still a federal crime why didn’t they prosecute the farm owners when they busted them for their illegal alien work force which included minor children even though it is legal in California!
ReplyDeleteI am speculating.
DeletePeople accused of criminal activity trigger a cascade of protections that are burdensome to execute. The prosecutors would have to prove the farm owners knew of the "illegal activity" on their property.
Deporting illegal immigrants is business or administrative law. Long-time precedence do not trigger the 4th and 5th amendment protections.
The operation was shut down by shipping the illegal alien workers out of the country. The cost-benefit of investigating and prosecuting the farm owners made that activity a distraction.
Additionally, the needle seems to be slowly tipping toward decriminalizing cannabis in the US. I am not saying it is a good idea. Too much of it is used by kids whose brains are still developing, but seems to be the way the winds are blowing.
We have to approach the legalization of cannabis with great care- to ensure that it does not attract crime. The experience of the state of Maine is a horror show of corruption and crime as Chinese drug cartels have taken over much of the state including thoroughly corrupting the state government and state police. The details were all laid out in a recent Tucker Carlson interview with Steve Robins, an investigative reporter based on Maine.
ReplyDeleteContrarian View so how has the "War on Drugs" been going on since June of 1971 when we "Started it"?
DeleteAny successes or victories we can point too?
Aside from the so-called kindness of Narcan and issuing clean needles for the junkies what has improved?
Crime IS. Where there is profit, there is crime.
Some would say GIVEN Califorina's FAILURE in creating Legal Taxable Pot Dispensaries that allowing folks to grow their own would ELIMINATE the profit margin of criminals.
I was looking up how the Chinese ended (or at least crippled) the opium addictions. Had to LAUGH how PC and sterile they described it.
Real History from old books I've read (and still own).
They burned the fields, shot the dealers and arrested the folks in the opium dens. If they were found a second time using opium they were dragged out to the streets and executed. They borrowed a line from the English Privateers and gave prize money to the ships that intercepted opium shipments.
War to the Knife. And even then, just suppressed it a lot, until that generation was gone and public shaming kept opium a disgrace in a very "Face" oriented society.
Even today where drugs are grown and processed the Drug Lords punishment for use is execution in public and often the families involved also. Very little drug use in those areas.
Drugs are a very powerful force. Gentle efforts to "Win" a "War on Drugs" doesn't work.
I'm not an advocate of the "war on drugs". In fact, the half measures that states have taken to "decriminalize" or "license and tax" drug use and production have made the situation worse. Because I believe in freedom, and "doom" is one of the roots of the word, I think all drugs should be legalized and the users left to suffer their Darwinian consequences. Making abhorrence of drugs a part of our national culture is the real solution. For example, when I lived in the Netherlands you didn't see any Dutch people in the marijuana dens in Amsterdam, because Dutch culture considered drug use degenerate and sub-human. What we can criminalize and deport is the wave of Chinese and other mafia gangs who have taken over the corrupt industry in the states that have legalized drug production under state "regulation".
DeleteBack in the late 70's, we grew "okra leaf" cotton. I was told it was a variety that needed low sun to mature. During summer in the high plains, it grew tall and resembled Mary Juana. Lotsa of refer addicts would drive by the USDA fields slowly. We'd trim it back in late September and transplant it in pots in the hot house. It would mature and be harvested around March IIRC. Weird stuff.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a market for the fiber. My employer just sold some seriously expensive industrial equipment to a processor of hemp in the upper Midwest that's using the fiber to make acoustic tiles. Test samples arrived in the form of big bales. We ran tests with the customer present on Friday and had PO for a several hundred thousand dollars the following Monday.
ReplyDeleteQuite of bit of hemp grown legally here in Kentucky, mostly for the oil. There was a huge amount of pot grown here at one time but has been reduced to a fraction of the amount harvested in the 70's and 80's. An excellent book on that time period is called The Cornbread Mafia.
ReplyDeleteA History of Growing Industrial Hemp in Kentucky by James F Hopkins is a pretty good read if you can find it.
DeleteI happen to have a copy somewhere in one of my out buildings. At the time, there was more Hemp grown in Kentucky than Tobacco.