First Flowers – Midsummer Hemp Report
It’s the last week of July and I’m just starting to see a few of the hemp plants beginning to flower–days are getting noticeably shorter now, about 14 1/2 hours today, enough to get the hemp started on the big transition from vegetative growth to flowering. A key milestone in the hemp growing season for sure.
Been pretty dry this month. Just irrigated everything tonight but the brook is getting quite low and if we don’t get rain this coming week it will be down to just a trickle. Hoping it doesn’t come to that!
One thing I’ve noticed this year is that the hemp plants are noticeably smaller than last year. I’ve rotated to a new field but the preseason soil test was solid. Probably could’ve added a little more nitrogen when the hemp was first transplanted but the plants look nice and healthy and they just got a second application of alfalfa meal, worm castings, and compost last week. Plus they’ve had a couple rounds of fish hydrolysate which they absolutely love. We’ve had some hot spells, perhaps that’s slowed them down a bit. But nothing to complain about, there’ve been zero pest issues (knock on wood) and things seem to be humming along nicely. Always good to see the plants in great shape heading into flowering season.
One big project this year is to make a lot of seeds–my goal is to not buy more seeds next year but to use my own instead. One advantage is cost, of course, but even more importantly, over time I’m curious to see if the hemp adapts to my particular climate and soil. It may take several generations but my understanding is that the plant genetics will be influenced positively by environmental conditions, so in theory future generations will be more resilient and hardier for my location. We’ll see. Another advantage to making your own seed is eliminating the risk of hop latent viroid, a very serious affliction that can be transmitted through seeds as well as clones, pollen, and even tools like pruning shears. I’ve heard that in some parts of the country this disease is quite prevalent and can be devastating to your crop. By keeping everything here safely in-house, it should help reduce the risk considerably.
As we head into August I’ll be hoping for plenty of sun but a good soaking rain each week (ideally!). Can’t control the weather, but one can hope, right?
Looking forward to another crop of big beautiful fragrant hemp flowers!
