so I'm going on a little bit of a road trip today I am driving out to
Burlington Vermont to attend a conference about growing hemp the
University of Vermont Agricultural Extension Program which is this program
that offers support education and best practices and research for farmers
growing here in the state of Vermont is hosting a day-long conference all about
him both the industrial side of hemp as well as the CBD side of hemp and because
I'm trying to figure out whether or not I want to grow hemp farm this year I am
attending this conference to do a bit of learning so I figured it's great to
bring you guys along today and let you learn some of the things that I'm
learning because when it comes down to it I really don't know a ton about
growing hemp I've read a couple of books I've done a little bit of research I've
talked to a handful of folks but I feel like there should be so much more I do
know before I try to take the plunge into doing something like this and so
you know let's see what we learned today
I realized that it was time to get more information out there really the goal of
the hem conference it's called the growers tutorial really to help farmers
learn how to grow him learn about him the plant itself how to best to grow it
and and products that can be produced from it I figured there would be a lot
of interest in the conference but it did go beyond my expectations we sold out
about a month before and kept trying to make more room in more room so next year
I guess we'll have to move to a bigger venue people see that hemp might be a
way to diversify their farm or grow their farm or start a farm and be able
to make a living we don't distinguish ourselves in Vermont with quality and
craft and so forth this may be of readiness people from out right now in
five years from now twenty thousand days are farming the grass will pretty much
take care of this is a little bit of the Wild West a lot of people are gonna try
to grow and some might grow better and some might end up with moldy plants that
can't really be processed in the CBD so you know I think it's important that
everybody goes in with their eyes wide open that they may or may not succeed so
right now we don't know where the top side is and I think Vermont's main niche
is to again produce a quality product a clean product product I'm an organic
grower that may be consumers out there really look for that for my brand well
I'm really just AM a beginning up farmer I haven't grown any yet and I'm gonna
buy plants from another greenhouse farmer because with my multiple jobs I
just can't do it all but I'm going to try 500 plants and that's about half an
acre much smaller than a lot of the big producers for sure now that it's
federally allowed I'm going to give it a try
I really appreciate thanks for taking out him to do this thanks that guy right
there he's Vermont's lieutenant governor see this is why this is such a cool
state to live in the statement of principles defined
got one of the things I'm realizing is that there's a crazy amount of legal red
tape that's required to go through if I'm gonna do this it's a little bit
overwhelming lily hill CBD this is broadband grew this year we went to
Oregon CBD seed we had super haze lifter and Elektra so this is trimmed hand
shrimp flower all the terpenes are still there it smells really good seeing a lot
of failed operations a lot of seen a lot of great incredibly successful
operations so now this year I'm working to take a lot of that experience and
knowledge and really scale up and a large operation here in Vermont going to
help supply a lot of the labs and other people's trying to start their own CBD
products in Vermont with either biomass smokeable flowers or supply the
processors with their biomass er then creates the CBD oils
all right just kind of intense in there but I figured I'd just step out for a
minute and give you guys five things that as I'm walking around and talking
to people that I am observing about book the conference as well as this idea of
trying to grow him number one there's a crazy amount of interest the amount of
people at this conference is like overwhelming I mean they're just going
everywhere all the rooms are like jam-packed I was talking to the the
people who organized the conference and they said that they have like way way
way over exceeded what they expected they have hundreds of people watching
this conference online it's just there's just a massive amount of interest to
both growing hemp here in Vermont as well as trying to grow it broader I
guess from my perspective that's good in the sense that it means that there's
going to be a market and support for it but I do worry that there might
potentially be some sort of bubble or increased competition or you know larger
growers that would make it really hard to be profitable at a smaller scale
everyone sees a dollar sign in this and thinks that oh I can't do this
you know farming is a very unpredictable incredibly difficult thing to do farming
is it's farming you know and growing hemp is still farming so it's there's a
lot to it there's a lot of considerations that have to be made you
know basically from soil prep you know to pests and then harvesting at the
right stage and drying so it's you know it's a process it's learning a whole new
career for somebody so you don't just you don't just do it one does not simply
walk into Mordor number two do your homework I have been talking to
everybody here and the thing that people encouraged me the most to do is my
homework and don't go into this blind there are so many people who are out
there who have this misperception that trying to grow hemp means okay just walk
right in there and you know plant some seeds and then
go harvest them and you know do all sorts of great stuff with all the
perhaps you're gonna make and it just doesn't work that way everybody I have
talked to here today has insisted that it does not work that way you don't just
magically get money for putting some seeds in the ground understanding if
your soils are appropriate and everything that will go into preparing a
field to be ready to plant him how to grow it and then how are you gonna
harvest it so I think there's lots of considerations not just one the more you
learn about it the more prepared you'll be my experience is that several of the
farms that I visited they didn't have the ground cloud they they need to be
prepared before they plant and number three seeds and soil and plant stock and
what you're using is crazy important first thing that you want to consider is
soyal because you can't grow a healthy plant without Halle soil make sure it
doesn't have heavy metals make sure that it has if possible have been in organic
production and preserved in organic production without synthase really
understanding what you're starting with so picking your piece of property
testing your soil getting the proper nutrition into that soil in the fall
ideally so that you're getting a baseline for your crop I mean right now
there's a good value in the crop but if you're just planning something you're
tilling your stick in a play on the ground you're gonna get a result but I
think I think that being thorough and and really knowing where your
biologicals are in their soil what it's missing getting that stuff working for
you the winter before is the most important step make sure that you have
the right types of clones and make sure you have the right types of plants that
are suited for your climate and suited for your contacts and was suited for
what you're gonna ultimately be doing and what product you're gonna ultimately
try to make okay number four sell before you grow so one of the things that I've
been hearing is I've been talking to a lot of folks who are experienced in this
it's stressing the idea that you need to sell and have your market in place you
know you need to be ready to go if you're just waiting for your harvest and
then you're trying to do your marketing or you're trying to set up in a
relationship you're gonna be way behind that's not that different than a lot of
other commodity markets I guess though I will say I was personally a little bit
naive in thinking that oh I could sort of figure something out along the way as
I get stuff planted and as it gets tough growing know if I'm gonna make this work
I'm gonna need to be ahead of the game and I'm gonna need to have my market in
place before I'm even planting later the spring in place before you even start
it's one thing to grow it but that to actually get a processed and get it into
a consumers hand and dollars in your pocket to hold for me being a farmer
where we found most and then I think the fifth thing and
arguably the most important thing that I feel like I'm learning here today is
that you can't dabble in this if you're gonna grow him if you're gonna grow
cannabis for whether CBD or industrial hemp usage you got to be all in this is
not just a hobby type of thing you got to make sure you have the right
infrastructure in terms of harvesting you got to make sure you have a plan for
drying storing and transplanting your crops you've got to make sure you've got
all the angles planned out and you can't just single cheek this exercise you
really have to be all-in two cheeks as I'm starting to think
about this idea of growing hemp I'm recognizing that if this is what I do
this is what I do I can't dabble in a whole bunch of other stuff and have a
whole bunch of other side agricultural enterprises going on I got to be much
more focused especially given the time I have in the amount of time I can
dedicate to doing something like this
and we started this we are fourth year would be planting again
first year was kind of hard but every year since being quite a bit better
anything that can give Vermont's rural communities and agricultural producers
another way to use the land and support themselves their families and their
communities as good so how important hemp becomes you know it's an unique
plant in that it's oil it's fiber it's seed and botanicals that are derived
from it all have values so you know we're really watching Vermont farmers
and producers while they think make the most of it there's gonna be
some kind of bubble at some point I think we're still on the up but even
when the bubble goes down that's where I said there's gonna be some losers but if
you start here with the economy and you go up to here and you settle here that's
still a net of a much better situation what we're seeing is a total like it's
reaching critical mass literally and energetically and that's exciting
my name is Marty I'm from Canaan Vermont and I'm just getting into the hemp
business we're trying to decide if it's something that's that we can make a
profit on we were here at the convention to figure out how much the seeds are
what we need for equipment to harvest it if we can do it with a knife or if you
need a twelve thousand we want to know if we need a planter and there's just so
many questions asked it that's why we're here
the more that I listen about the insects getting in there now one gentleman just
told us a deer don't eat it so that's a good thing there's also been people in
Colchester stealing it and it's not worth anything unless you can find a
processor so that's another question we had you if we go for a because they have
what do we do with four acres at fifteen hundreds of seeds in April and there's
around $1 C to $6,000 used to play plus your your time to get your land ready we
started out thinking it was gonna be a nice little hobby but it can't be if you
got that much money in it I totally identify with what you're saying right
there because that's exactly what I have an old dairy farm I've got plenty of
space plenty of hay pasture but I've heard of it over would be bad and they
and they say it's very labor intensive now maybe that's what she was saying
about taking the leaves off it checking them all to make sure they're the right
breed maybe that's why they're so labor-intensive so if you're out there
all summer you can't get another job you lose that money now
well that was most definitely an educational experience I feel like I
learned a lot but I also know I have way more to learn and as to the question of
whether or not I want to grow have myself I still don't know I feel like
there's a lot of details that I should have nailed down that I don't have
nailed down and I recognize that this would be a massive commitment at the
same time though I feel like I see a ton of opportunity and I guess I'm gonna
keep trying to learn some more be sure to hit the subscribe button and follow
along on this journey as I'm really trying to build a farm in Vermont and
maybe grow some hands