CBD market is growing at a phenomenal speed as I am writing this column. The estimated growth of this market is over $2 billion by the year 2020, that is a staggering 700% growth from the present volume of the market.
Growing CBD yourself
Why should you grow CBD yourself when it is available in the market? That the market is ballooning means new manufacturers and wholesalers will spring up in the future – possibly in your area – to make CBD possession and consumption easy for customers.
True, all of these are on the cards. But I still advise you to grow CBD by yourself because industrially manufactured products are never 100% reliable. The same sources that estimate the CBD market size to be $2 billion, also estimate hemp-derived CBD to account for slightly over 20% of that market.
CBD derived from hemp has a plethora of health benefits. I am not dismissing cannabis-derived CBD as it cures an array of health problems, I am stating hemp derived CBD is used for a broader range of purposes such as food, body lotion, eye-drop, etc. When you grow CBD yourself, you decide whether it’d be hemp derived or cannabis derived.
Additional ways of revenue
When you are harvesting hemp derived CBD oil, there’s more than one way to make money. CBD oil is used for medical purpose, but hemp oil has plenty other types of usage. Industrial hemp seed oil is used in manufacturing plastic, paints and lubricants. It is also used when making shampoo and detergent. The go-herbal movement forced manufacturers to move to herbal alternatives to non-herbal products. Hemp seed oil is herbal.
Put simply, growing hemp derived CBD can be an excellent way to make money. So, if you haven’t seriously considered harvesting CBD yourself, now’s the time. The longer you wait, the more you cut down on your chances of making profit. Already, there’s competition in the market. Multinational companies like CBD Biotech, Chineseinvestors.com, Gaia Botanicals and CV Sciences have introduced an army of CBD-products. The sooner you enter the market, the better.
The growth techniques
The very first technique is identifying the right strain. The two major strains of cannabis are indica and sativa. Indica has a high THC percentage and sativa is high in CBD.
So all you need to do is find high sativa strain cannabis plants and harvest them, right?
Wrong…
It’s not easy to grow a sativa heavy strains. They require a lot of care and supervision. Indica-heavy plants grow in harsh climate regions, so they require minimal care. Typically, strains don’t grow more CBD than what their genes allow. However, taking a very good care of the plant is a must if you want to maximize CBD production.
Understand the growth atmosphere
It’s hard to single out one atmospheric condition that leads to CBD production. There are multiple atmospheric factors and they are equally responsible for the production of CBD. There have been studies, though. To discover the elements that influence the growing environment of CBD dominant strains. But such studies failed to dig connection; they only discovered mere correlations.
The general rules of thumb, followed by growers include watering in moderate amount. Both under watering and overwatering are bad for the strains. The plants should be a little on the dryside all the time and never max the soil temperature beyond 21°C. These atmospheric conditions underlie industrial hemp production. They may not be suitable for all types of CBD strains.
As there are no definitive scaling factors for CBD, you need to learn from other growers, do what they are doing.
Get high-CBD strains
Getting CBD strains is not enough. You need to get high CBD strains. CBD strains are of two types – photoperiod strains and autoflowering strains. Photoperiod cannabis strains don’t automatically flower. The transition from vegetation to flowering requires switching from 18 hours light and 6 hours long darkness to 12 hours light exposure and 12 hours darkness.
Autoflowering cannabis strains, on the other hand, don’t require exposure to sunlight or artificial light for a certain period in order to flower. The strains flower irrespective of whether they are exposed to light.
Hybridization
Hybrid strains are hybrid for a reason. They are genetically modified to produce maximum amount of CBD. Medical marijuana makes your work easy, but having access to it can be difficult. Hybridization is a quick solution to this problem. Get yourself hybrid strains. Such strains are genetically programmed to yield a high amount of CBD.
Know when to harvest
When it comes to cannabis, the unsaid rule is not too early, not too late. However, if your objective is to yield CBD in increased amount, harvesting late doesn’t hurt. In fact, it can be beneficial for harvesting. If you harvest too soon, yields will lose potency. But if you harvest a bit late, you can expect more CBD and CBN than THC.
Conclusion
This article gives you generic idea on cannabis harvesting and how to ensure the plants will yield more CBD than THC. The detailed arts of growing – such as, soil and air temperature, nourishment, etc will be discussed in the next article. Until then, Goodbye.