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Post by pugs on Jan 13, 2009 20:20:08 GMT -5
During WWII hemp was grown in Coos County, Oregon for rope. Of course it reseeded a bit. I think it was finally wiped out in the early 70's.
Pugs
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Post by PatrickW on Jan 14, 2009 13:35:08 GMT -5
I'm not really current on what all the latest laws are here on this to be honest, but I suspect growing plants that don't contain a usable amount of THC is not very illegal. It's probably possible to get a permit, but it's also probably something I think you could just quietly do here if you don't intend to grow a lot of it. You just need to be ready to do a little fast talking if the police suddenly appeared. If the plants don't contain THC the police would not have much of a case to press charges in my opinion, and they don't use swat teams or otherwise overreact for something like that here. There are also enough specialists around, that I think they would know your plants were a variety without THC just by looking at them. Unless your plants are bothering someone or you are obviously planning to export smokable cannabis, I really don't think the police would bother you. There was a bit of an 'issue' here a few months ago. After years of Dutch breeders trying to create plants with the highest possible THC content, then patenting the resulting F1 hybrids, there was suddenly a surge of people being admitted to hospitals and psychiatric wards as well as having other mental problems. They figured out these new patented F1s were high in THC at the expense of CBD. I made a post about it here: www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?p=330I think most people didn't really want the new super strong varieties anyway, it's just because they were patented, the Dutch producers were able to control the distribution of it in the same way as the big food companies and F1 food crops. This was kind of an embarassment to the Dutch government, and I think they may be a little more serious about cracking down on things now. |
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Post by raymondo on Jan 14, 2009 18:46:32 GMT -5
Yes, Hemp and Marijuana are closely related plants, but not the same. I think they are the same plant (species), just different selections, like cauliflower and broccoli. It's legal in the state where I live to grow the low thc varieties (non-psychoactive) as long as you get a permit. They grow vast amounts of cotton west of me but the country is far better suited to hemp. I don't understand why they grow crops that are so ill-suited to the area. |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 1, 2009 13:53:03 GMT -5
USA is the only country that does NOT grow industrial hemp (IH). Wikipedia has a pretty decent article on the stuff: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HempI'm surprised to hear that there are seeds out and about. I would grow the stuff myself as part of a ground cover mix with rye and hairy vetch. I'm not sure I would go nuts with eating the seed. Do you toast them or take them raw? I kinda think they would be more useful for ingestion in the form of an oil. |
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Post by Owen on Apr 1, 2009 14:46:05 GMT -5
I would definitely be interested in growing hemp for the edible seeds if I knew the regulations involved. You're allowed to grow hemp in Canada, but my understanding is that the regulations are so strict it's not practical on a small-scale.
I don't really know, but hemp seems to me like a potential soil-building green manure crop. If it can produce all that biomass on poor soil it might be a good way to produce lots of organic matter. Even if it takes forever to break down in the soil it could probably be composted on a small or medium scale.
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Post by ceara on Apr 2, 2009 7:16:30 GMT -5
Hemp seed and oil is very good for you. Many people out there use Hemp seed oil as an ingredient for cold process homemade bar soap, but I never did as I found the oil too expensive.
Some people use the oil for cooking.
Then of course I've seen at Hemp Quebec in Montreal some hemp seed energy bars for sale.
It's a shame the government is so hard up regarding hemp. Hemp can be grown much much faster than trees and could be used for making stuff like paper, clothes, toiletry items and the seeds harvested as a food crop. Slugs and deer would enjoy it too. lol That's about the only downfall I see with hemp.
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Post by americangardener on Apr 2, 2009 7:45:53 GMT -5
Yeah.. like Ceara says.. Hemp seed oil can be used in anything just like you would corn oil, or vegetable oil or soybean oil. And they make flour out to the ground up seeds just like they do with corn... so it can be used in any food product that calls for flour. As to how a home grower would go about making the oils and flours that to me would seem to be an awfull lot of work. But, it could be done.
MNJ.. there are a couple states here where industrial hemp has been legalized. Didn't Conneticut just legalize it or some state around there? Just read that in the threads here not too long ago. North Dakota has had it legalized for over a decade that i know of. Only problem is the farmers have to jump thru hoops in order to get a permit. And from what i've read they haven't issued any permits yet. They have to go thru a back ground check, criminal history check, you know.. all the usual CIA stuff that they keep on ya. Then they have to have securtiy measures to protect the fields from the public.. and go thru regular inspections. All that good stuff for a plant that doesn't even contain a half of one percent of THC. But, supposedly it's legal in some states. I think i've heard of some others. Just i haven't heard a word about anyone actually being allowed to grow it. Just that on paper it's legal.
And you're right about the deer Ceara.. the deer absolutely love eating the plants. And they can smell em a mile away. Anyone that dosen't take measures to keep deer out is gonna end up with nothing but nubs sticking out of the ground. Don't know bout slugs.. the deer usually get em long before any slugs can even find the plants.
Patrick.. you're lucky you live in such a great country. Here our police don't differentiate between the hemp and the THC containing varieties. It's all the same charge. And a seed is considered as a full grown plant in court so long as it's sprouted. One sprout.. manufacturing and distrubution charges in court. They even made a big deal out of arresting Woody Harelson a couple decades ago for planting three seeds. He was doing it to show the absurdity of not allowing hemp to be grown.. and the government was not about to let anyone get away with anything. Even sterile seeds can get ya arrested here. Just ask woody. The official reason given here for making hemp illegal is because it looks like the recreational varieties. We all know that's bull.. that the one growing 15 ft tall and straight as a phone pole with little to no side branches is the hemp and the one looking like a 5 ft tall bushy chistmas tree with lots of side branches is the one they use to get high. But, what can you do? Here we can make laws outlawing things just cause they look like something that we have no reason to have illegal in the first place. Next they're gonna make flour, powdered sugar, corn starch, and baking soda illegal cause it's just looks like it should be illegal. Our cops supposedly are too stupid to tell the difference between legal things and illegal. So we're just gonna cover all the bases and make everything illegal. We're about half way there now.
Yep.. you sure are lucky you don't live with an insane bunch of politicians trying to hunt down and cage people who self medicate.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 2, 2009 9:26:53 GMT -5
Industrial Hemp is a highly viable source crop for:
# Hemp is very fast growing. It grows and produces cellulose (for paper or biomass energy) 4 times as fast as other plants.
# Every part of the hemp plant is usable or returned to the soil.
# The stalk of the plant consists of fibers and cellulose. The fibers are used to make rope, cloth, composites (such as automobile door panels), and even reinforce concrete. The cellulose is used to make paper, converted into fuel, or made into plastic.
# The seeds are very nutritious. They contain oil high in omega 3 and omega 6 essential fatty acids. The American diet is deficient in omega 3s. They also contain a very high quality protein. The oil is also used for fuel, lubrication, paint, etc.
# Hemp does not deplete the soil (except for nitrogen which can be provided by rotating with nitrogen fixing crops); on the contrary, hemp actually improves the soil.
# Almost anything that is made out of petroleum can also be made out of hemp. Plastic is basically stabilized nitrated cellulose.
# It takes less chemicals to make paper from hemp than from trees and the resulting paper lasts longer. And you can make 5 times as much paper per acre per year with hemp than trees.
# Cloth made from hemp is stronger, softer, warmer, longer lasting, and more absorbent than cotton cloth. Huge quantities of pesticides are used to grow cotton but hemp does not need pesticides.
I have some hemp yarn that I was going to use to make socks. It's a little to stiff for socks but it will make wonderfull wash clothes.
HOWEVER, there is another equally maligned but highly useful crop that can be obtained free of charge if you are more focused on actually growing something than complaining about government stupidity, and that is kudzu. Don't get me wrong, I am totally for complaining about government stupidity, there is just so many facets to complain about! But, it's useless to waste to much time in the project because unless we are planning a coup, it produces not value added product.
In fact, if we get use of the "farmer's field" next door, I'm thinking of putting in kudzu to get the land ready for our use.
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Post by marjeta on Apr 3, 2009 12:54:18 GMT -5
Hey, Sammy
I'm a proud owner of 9 thoroughbreds. Most of them are retired from racing. I got like a half of them as a gift because the owners couldn't (wouldn't) keep them anymore and they were in terrible shape. Ex racehorses have a ruined organism because they were fed with junk (loads of grain which is unnatural for the horse and his guts's microflora), stressed, ruined backs (broken too young) and hooves (shoed too young - shrinked hooves because they couldn't grow) etc.
It's a very nice gesture from you to save an ex-racehorse. You'll have a lot of work and worries untill you'll get him back in shape, but it's company will compensate all the problems.
Hemp is excellent for horses. Just about 30gr daily, freshly ground. I was thinking about growing hemp this year but I still haven't decided. It's way better than other grains. Avoid corn and barley. Oats, buckwheat, spilt, flax and hemp is ok (actually flax and hemp are the best if I'd have to choose).
Good luck!
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sammyqc
grub
Urban, small raised beds, Zone 5 (Canada)
Posts: 94
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Post by sammyqc on Apr 3, 2009 16:55:06 GMT -5
Thanks marjeta!
I am particular to thoroughbreds myself. Right now I am riding an old ex-race horse turned hunter show horse, and he is so much fun. He is 20, but you would never know it to see him or ride him. Acts more like a 5 year old some days, and when he's feeling particularly good will goof off and try to prove that he was a racehorse once by trying to take off on me.
The whole reason I became interested in hemp was because I was doing some research into equine nutrition, and I found hemp to be such a fantastic food for them. I plan to supplement my own horses hemp when I eventually get them, and I am trying to convert other people at the barn where I work. The only issue I can't find info on yet (haven't looked super hard though) is if there is any possibility in the hemp causing a positive drug test. Some of the people who show are concerned about that, and as there is a zero tolerance policy they are very reluctant to even take the chance. Anyhow...
There are lots of resources out on the big ol' intraweb, and good places to order seeds, oils, soaps, hats, socks, purses, etc.....the list is endless.
I eat the raw seeds, shelled, about 4 tbsps a day. They taste a little like sunflower seeds. I like them. You can also make granola, add it to yogurt, salads, pastas, you can buy flour and make bread, cookies, whatever you want. The possibilities are endless.
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Post by castanea on Apr 3, 2009 22:11:56 GMT -5
Industrial Hemp is a highly viable source crop for: # Hemp is very fast growing. It grows and produces cellulose (for paper or biomass energy) 4 times as fast as other plants. # Every part of the hemp plant is usable or returned to the soil. # The stalk of the plant consists of fibers and cellulose. The fibers are used to make rope, cloth, composites (such as automobile door panels), and even reinforce concrete. The cellulose is used to make paper, converted into fuel, or made into plastic. # The seeds are very nutritious. They contain oil high in omega 3 and omega 6 essential fatty acids. The American diet is deficient in omega 3s. They also contain a very high quality protein. The oil is also used for fuel, lubrication, paint, etc. # Hemp does not deplete the soil (except for nitrogen which can be provided by rotating with nitrogen fixing crops); on the contrary, hemp actually improves the soil. # Almost anything that is made out of petroleum can also be made out of hemp. Plastic is basically stabilized nitrated cellulose. # It takes less chemicals to make paper from hemp than from trees and the resulting paper lasts longer. And you can make 5 times as much paper per acre per year with hemp than trees. # Cloth made from hemp is stronger, softer, warmer, longer lasting, and more absorbent than cotton cloth. Huge quantities of pesticides are used to grow cotton but hemp does not need pesticides. I have some hemp yarn that I was going to use to make socks. It's a little to stiff for socks but it will make wonderfull wash clothes. HOWEVER, there is another equally maligned but highly useful crop that can be obtained free of charge if you are more focused on actually growing something than complaining about government stupidity, and that is kudzu. Don't get me wrong, I am totally for complaining about government stupidity, there is just so many facets to complain about! But, it's useless to waste to much time in the project because unless we are planning a coup, it produces not value added product. In fact, if we get use of the "farmer's field" next door, I'm thinking of putting in kudzu to get the land ready for our use. Great post about both hemp and kudzu. It's rare to see anyone post something positive about kudzu. |
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Post by PatrickW on Apr 4, 2009 3:53:39 GMT -5
I dunno Dave. I have my good and bad days when it comes to living here. I'm not going to get into it all here and now, but it's certainly true you have to take the good with the bad.
A lot of people are getting fed up with the Dutch policies on cannabis, including the Dutch themselves. These policies might change in the coming years. Especially after this business of Dutch plant breeders creating super F1 varieties that sent people all over the world into hospitals and mental health clinics, just for the sake of creating protected varieties in order to create a cartel on their distribution, that I mentioned in my earlier post here. I don't see them ever cracking down on hemp for fiber and seeds however, or using of swap teams for this kind of thing. I also don't see them prohibiting commercial F1 varieties, while continuing to allow OP varieties either. It will surely be an all or nothing decision.
I sent out a number of yacon tubers this year to growers all over Europe and the US. Within Europe we're not supposed to have border controls any more, but both the French and UK customs officials intercepted and opened some of my packages anyway, delaying them for several days. One I sent to Colorado in the US declared simply as 'yacon tuber', with no value, and it went right through without any delays or other problems. It's kind of annoying that any plant materials I send within Europe have a high probability of being delayed for several days for customs inspections.
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Post by marjeta on Apr 4, 2009 5:12:42 GMT -5
Sammy, have you seen this website: www.hempforhorses.com/ ? 20 is still a youngster.  In Europe a 10+ year old horse is thought to be old, 20 is very old (no comment). In Australia it's common to ride 30+ year old horses. My oldest lady is 15. She's still in bad shape. I got her so underfed and neglected that you can't believe. Hemp can only contain a minimum level of THC. The producer is supposed to do the tests. So maybe it's not so wise to feed it to horses that compete (blood tests) - it may happen that the hemp you were using unfortunately contained a little more THC than allowed. But I guess it's rare. PatrickW, if you'll have some yacon tubers to spare, I'd be interested in trying them. |
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Post by PatrickW on Apr 4, 2009 10:18:29 GMT -5
Hi Marjeta, no problem. I'm out of this year, but I'll have more next year. The best time to send them out is February, so if you get in touch in January or February, it should be no problem. I send out too much stuff to too many people, so if you don't remind me, I'll never remember.
The other person here who could send you some is Frank (orflo), who lives in Belgium, in case you can't get a hold of me for some reason. In fact you could ask him if he still has any left for this year.
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Post by canadamike on Apr 4, 2009 18:37:19 GMT -5
The choppers are equipped with special cameras that will capture the wavelenght of marijuana, and on their screen it will show red patches in a field of green, not a real ''picture type'' image. At least in my country. In a thirld world country like the US, without any technology, it might be different  ;D |
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In Europe a 10+ year old horse is thought to be old, 20 is very old (no comment). In Australia it's common to ride 30+ year old horses. My oldest lady is 15. She's still in bad shape. I got her so underfed and neglected that you can't believe. 
