Six Truths About the Hemp Industry

Are you getting started in the industrial hemp industry or working to grow your crops and business? In this article, we share six truths we’ve learned about growing hemp, working with clone providers, and successfully producing smokeable flower or product for biomass. 

Invest Wisely

While you can make good money selling industrial hemp products, the crop is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Growing hemp for smokeable flower, oil, or product biomass is complicated and requires a lot of work. There’s no easy way to do it, and it isn’t fail-proof. Don’t invest more money than you can afford to lose. 

Plan and Monitor Carefully

Industrial Hemp is not an easy crop to grow. When you choose to grow it, you’re choosing lots of daily work. Starting up requires getting licensed, planning your field or greenhouse space in detail, researching and selecting varieties with many factors in mind, and testing, amending, and maintaining the nutrients in your soil. 

Once your hemp clones are transplanted, they require daily monitoring. You’ll be scouting for pests, weeds, fungus, and bacteria. You’ll need to keep a close eye on fertilizer rates and irrigation, adjusting for the different plant stages. 

Once your crop has started flowering, you’ll need to take samples and run weekly tests to monitor your product for compliance. Harvest is typically done by hand. Be prepared to do this extensive, constant work in the hemp industry.

Research Your Provider

Carefully research the companies you’re working with to source Hemp Clones. It can be difficult to find a reliable provider who is honest and will consistently offer healthy plants. Your provider should exercise transparency by being available via phone, a complete website, and in-person at their facility. 

They’ll be able to give you customer references and details about their products. They’ll have a proven history in horticulture and be able to offer you coaching on how best to grow your plants. Look for a provider who can provide multiple COAs on each variety they sell and never promises that a variety won’t go hot. 

Superior Hemp Clones is a reliable provider that meets all these criteria. For a company that stands by its plants and customers, check out our Hemp Clones here.

Start Small in the Hemp Industry

You may have experience growing a few hemp plants, but there’s a huge difference between growing 10 plants and growing 4,000 plants on 10 acres. Large quantity grows are more complicated, more challenging, and a lot more work. 

We recommend that you start small and focus on high-quality smokeable flower or product for biomass and earn profit from quality rather than quantity. As you learn, add more acreage or greenhouse space with additional plants.

No Hemp Is “Safe” from Going Hot

Many providers claim to have hemp varieties that won’t go hot, but all hemp will go hot eventually! A provider can’t say that a cultivar won’t go hot in your field; there are too many factors in play: grow conditions, genetics, stress on the plants, and more. The only way to know for sure that a variety won’t go hot in your field under your conditions is to grow it there and see the COAs for several weeks. 

Closely monitor any variety you plant, and don’t trust a provider who promises that a certain cultivar will never go hot.

Know How to Read and Validate a Certificate of Analysis

Your provider should be able to provide multiple weeks (4-6) of COAs. Be aware, however, that this piece of paper can be counterfeited. You can determine the validity of the COA you’re provided in a few ways. 

• Scan the QR code to verify that it will bring you to the testing facility that created the COA. 
• Make sure the batch and test numbers match. Any differences raise a red flag. 
• Be sure the COA has the provider’s name on it, but be aware that sometimes it will have the breeder’s name instead. 
• Question a COA that has an unreasonable CBD:THC ratio on it, like 50:1. That kind of data should be a red flag that something went wrong in testing or that it’s an anomaly for that one week. 

Check out our blog on how to test hemp and read a COA to become more familiar with the process, document, and what to expect.

The industrial hemp industry is an exciting place for your hardworking and adventurous spirit! As you research and learn, please reach out to us with any questions and feel free to inquire about our products.