Farming Smokable Hemp In Oregon

[GrowGnome]

Hello everyone. I'm here to network and learn. I'm a 2nd year grower near Portland. I have a strong interest in smokable hemp, high CBD, and CBG varieties. Anyone in my area growing hemp?

 

[threatco]

Hey. Welcome! I am curious, what led you to be interested in smokable hemp?

 

[GrowGnome]

Hey. Welcome! I am curious, what led you to be interested in smokable hemp?

Hey @threatco, my interest in smokable hemp began when I started learning about the industrial value of hemp, it's seemingly endless. From fiber to high CBD, hemp is a powerhouse. The medicinal properties of CBD and CBG are incredible. The minimal amounts of THC are appealing to certain demographics that don't enjoy the psychoactive effects, and that's the same kind of customer that my company sells to. The legality of growing it at scale has far less red tape as well.

 

[threatco]

Sounds like there is a nice little niche market for you to cater to. I am really curious. Hope you don't mind some questions.

Do you enjoy smoking hemp your self? Does it taste like normal cannabis? Can you get all the same good variety of terpenes? Is it intended to be sold mostly as dried flower, or mostly in concentrate form?

Is it still only female plants that are consumed?

 

[teejacks]

im very interested in this as well as i want to be able to grow a high cbd strain that looks like that fire but has barely thc. smokeable cbd is going to be huge in my opinion. it makes you feel great. i did a closet grow over the winter with a cbd kush(2:1), quebec cbd(20:1), cherry blossom cbd (hemp20:1). the cherry blossom hermied pretty hard but the quebec cbd looked fire. so im trying that one outside now. i hear starting a cbd strain from seed your cbd ratios will vary. you should take clones from a tested mother to make sure cbd ratio is high or something. we will have to wait and see!

bad pic but, quebec cbd product. lots of "hairs" or whatever

 

[GrowGnome]

Sounds like there is a nice little niche market for you to cater to. I am really curious. Hope you don't mind some questions.

Do you enjoy smoking hemp your self? Does it taste like normal cannabis? Can you get all the same good variety of terpenes? Is it intended to be sold mostly as dried flower, or mostly in concentrate form?

Is it still only female plants that are consumed?

My customers tell me that they enjoy the flavor and aroma just like normal, high THC cannabis, but quality results start with quality genetics. Most hemp is definitely NOT for smoking. The diversity and quality of terpene profiles found in high THC cannabis is more abundant than what you can find in the hemp world, but it's only a matter of time before these profiles are found in high CBD hemp cultivars as well. There are highly skilled breeders out there who have been at the task for many years already. For most, it would be difficult to identify the difference between a nugget of marijuana and a nugget of hemp without a lab test. Pertaining to end usage- concentrates, oil, dried flower, or industrial products like textiles or building materials, etc... it all starts with specific genetics selected for the task.

 

[GimpDaddy]

Howdy High Hello! You wouldn’t happen to be from GnomeGrown, would you?

 

[GrowGnome]

Hello, GimpDaddy! No I am not a part of GnomeGrown, though I admire their work. I have been collecting garden gnomes for about 15 years though. Ha ha!

 

[weedtech]

This left me just a little stunned ... And then I started thinking about consumer sentiment and all that fizzy, flavored water with malt alcohol in it...

Ya. But I think Hemp is not gonna be a good word unless it gets somehow rehabilitated. And that would take some large pile of cash.

 

[GrowGnome]

This left me just a little stunned ... And then I started thinking about consumer sentiment and all that fizzy, flavored water with malt alcohol in it...

Ya. But I think Hemp is not gonna be a good word unless it gets somehow rehabilitated. And that would take some large pile of cash.

Hi Weedtech,
Could you define what you mean by rehabilitated?

 

[weedtech]

Howdy @GrowGnome

Hemp has a long association with fiber and textiles. I don't find the idea of smoking hemp appealing at all. I had my fill of brick weed in the 70's and that was kind of my first impression from the term. I get there would be a market for the product profile ( I like everything but getting stoned ) and there can certainly be great CDB strains that don't suck to smoke. I just find calling it Hemp to feel like misdirection or lack of marketing imagination.

I don't think many are going to want to smoke Hemp without alot of convincing, hence the need for marketing expense. Figuring out how to define something different, that seems otherwise equivalent but perhaps has some different compelling quality to drive a margin is important to have a viable market.

I could certainly be completely mistaken - but that is how I think of it at the moment. I don't know how hemp farmers operate, or how that market works.

 

[GrowGnome]

Good morning @weedtech

Anyone want to help me come up with a name to describe this variety of cannabis?!

I completely agree. I'll elaborate on what I consider 'hemp.' I've been in the hemp industry for a few years now and I sometimes forget about the original feelings and thoughts that are evoked when the word hemp is used, and even how my own perceptions have changed over time. Let's talk about definitions.

As far as the Federal Gov is concerned, "The 2018 Farm Bill defines hemp as the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of the plant with a delta-9 THC concentration of not more than 0.3 percent by dry weight."

Generally speaking, modern hemp can be split into two categories, 'High CBD' and 'Industrial,' though they're both 'Industrial.' When I think of Industrial Hemp, I think tall skinny fiber varieties that are made for rope, textiles, fuel, insulation, construction materials, grain, and was used as currency by Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers! ha ha. If I had to guess I'd say only in the last 15 years or so, have High CBD strains achieved the .3% THC threshold.

These cultivars are essentially High CBD Marijuana strains that have been crossed with hemp varieties until a stable line of .3% THC has been achieved, all so that it can fit the Federal definition! Modern smokable hemp has less to do with taxonomy and more to do with selective breeding in order to be legally compliant. You could argue that modern Smokable Hemp has primarily Marijuana lineage, where the THC has been bred out it. The terpenes, trichomes and nose are almost on par with MJ, and it's only a matter years before they're equals. The breeding going on is incredible.

So @weedtech, you're right, hemp needs to be rehabilitated and it has been and is currently undergoing rehabilitation. Due to legal necessity, that rehabilitation is giving birth to something entirely new and it makes me so excited. It's not quite Marijuana and it's not quite traditional hemp either, and calling it High CBD Hemp, isn't so great either. So what should we call it? How do we market it?? I'm open to any suggestion. This question has bothered me for years. If I had to guess what's going to happen, people are still going to call it hemp and a new definition and new feelings around the word will gradually emerge.

You know that old adage, if it looks like a llama, smells like a llama and spits llama, it's probably and alpaca? If it looks like marijuana, smells like marijuana, it could very well be 'hemp.'