Hawai`i Industrial Hemp Research Project
II. The Year 2000
| Before experimental plots can be planted a specialized plot planter has to be built. It will go through several incarnations.
The first real plots are planted on Jan 22, 2000. |
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| Reality: The birds come and take the seed.
Hemp is the world's premier birdseed. The struggle with birds will be the greatest difficulty in raising hemp in Hawai`i. |
The only practical low-tech solution --so we can get on with our work --is to cover the plots. |
| Eventually, after several months of experimentation, the hazards to production are retreating.
Full stands develop. When stands are thick, weeds are suppressed. We focus on getting the soil better prepared for hemp. |
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The germplasm being used in these initial trials comes from breeding programs in France, Germany, Hungary, The Ukraine and Romania.
Because Cannabis is photoperiod sensitive (flowering is controlled by night length), varieties bred in northern Europe flower quickly at 20 degrees N. latitude where nights are long as day. (European varieties will also flower too quickly in the US cornbelt. ) The historic American hemp, "Kentucky Hemp," came from Asia. So while we test the European material, we have launched germplasm collecting expeditions to Asia. In 2001, we look at material from China and Japan. |