Cultivation

Because so many growers joined in, businesses and farmers are now seeing demand for that hemp shrinking.

An initial rush to plant caused a boom in the Tennessee hemp industry, but because so many growers joined in, businesses and local farmers are now seeing demand for that product shrinking. 

Hemp processor and retailer Bluhen Botanicals announced Wednesday it will be facing layoffs and cutbacks due to challenges across the industry. It opened a store in downtown Knoxville last year.

Entrepreneurs who broke into Colorado’s cannabis industry at the ground level — the growers — have endured economic whiplash over the last two years as the market for wholesale flower experienced volatile swings in price.

The average market rate slumped to a low of $759 per pound in 2018 after peaking at $2,007 per pound in early 2015. That rate has rebounded to $1,316 per pound this month, after five consecutive quarters on the rise, reaching the highest price in three years.

SALT LAKE CITY — Though not all products are expected to be in patients’ hands, Utah’s medical cannabis program will roll out by the state’s March deadline, officials say.

“So it’s a rush and a spring, but we’ve known that since day one. We just haven’t had a lot of time, so we’re blocking and tackling along the way and making sure we have some product available for March 1,” said Andrew Rigby, the state’s cannabis program manager with the Utah Department of Agriculture.

High Green News kicked off the first exhibitor highlight of the year at the Vancouver Lift & Co. Cannabis Expo. Established as Canada’s largest cannabis expo, Lift & Co. offers an experience for both industry business professionals and consumers to connect within the industry. The 3-day expo began on January 9 and runs through today, January 11.

Scientists are in a battle to learn what kinds of pests and diseases pose a risk to cannabis and how to beat them.

Amanda Brown’s job requires a knowledge of both biology and battle strategy.

As a biological crop protection specialist, she sends “armies” of beneficial insects in search of the pests that devour B.C. crops like cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers — and now, cannabis.

“It’s a beautiful system,” she said. “It’s a very holistic approach.”

As the North American cannabis industry takes off, cannabis industry veterans could offer new companies an edge.

Cannabis companies are increasingly turning to experienced cannabis growers and industry veterans to design their cultivation operations.

Rules are not made to be broken. The principles that underpin the development and use of therapies from cannabis are not to be “juggled”. Globally, we are now seeing the calamity caused by breaking these rules. The list of examples is long. These include using cheaper, fake ingredients in products, mixing cannabis flowers with lookalike plants, selling “mould-ridden” plants to clients, and peddling fake certificates of analysis.

Image: PAUL SANCYA | AP PHOTO

Dave Crabill and two business partners started small for their first foray into farming hemp, growing two strains of the now-legal cousin of marijuana on an acre along a dirt road outside the industrial city of Flint.

Image Source: Farmer Don Kruger is growing hemp for the growing CBD market in the U.S. Here, he examines a flower on a 22-acre field he planted on Sauvie Island in northwest Oregon. (Hal Bernton / The Seattle Times)

SAUVIE  ISLAND, Ore. — On a foggy November day, farm workers take clippers to a field of bushy green plants, snipping tops full of flower buds dotted with flecks of sticky resin.

By the end of the day, the cuttings dry inside a southeast Portland warehouse, hanging  from tall plastic trellises like aromatic curtains.

Dan Maclure planted eight acres of hemp on his Vermont farm for the first time this year, aiming to cash in on the exploding demand for CBD, a derivative of the plant reputed to ease anxiety and other ills without the high of its close cousin, marijuana.

He persevered when some of his hemp plants grew white with mildew and others failed lab tests and had to be destroyed. With his harvest now complete, Maclure has one more challenge to overcome: selling his surviving crop and recouping an estimated $140,000 investment.