Here is Cannabis scientist Robert C. Clarke discussing the 2018 field trials in Tasmania that I participated in. The plan was Rob would grow the hempseed and I would turn it into branded hemp foods and get it into people’s stomachs. The trial was 172 acres (70 ha) and 19 varieties.
There are a few pearls in the talk such as…
- hemp needs as much nutrient inputs and water as other crops like corn,
- moving a certified cultivar even 2° in latitude (220 km or 140 miles) from the latitude where it’s from (Canada, France, Italy, etc.) changes it,
- monos should theoretically yield more than dioecious but don’t because of the breeding by the French, and
- if all you want is as much raw fiber/biomass as possible then go with unflowered Chinese varieties which flower later thus are better-suited for latitudes more Equatorial (unless you just want fiber not flowers).
That last point could also be the key to fiber for tropical latitudes; don’t flower them just grow the Chinese beasts for biomass using light supplementation to retard flowering.
Why is latitude so important to photoperiod hemp? Because latitude controls hours of sunlight and the plant begins to flower as light approaches 12/12, 12 hours of sunlight in late September in the northern hemisphere:
Click here for the paper on the trials he mentions.
Check out the video:
And here are yet more videos from that project: