CBD OIL

Timing is tricky business in hemp and cannabis field farming. Plant too early, and farmers risk losing their crops to frost. Plant too late, and growers chance early maturation with suboptimal yields. 

It’s the reason The Hemp Mine, a hemp genetics and cannabidiol (CBD) company, created a virtual planting map to help growers make informed decisions about planting, testing and harvesting.

The map includes data points on average frost potential and daylength at different dates for nearly every county throughout the U.S. With this simple data, hemp and cannabis growers can not only make informed decisions about when to plant, which genetics to choose and when to start testing—they can also track their production schedule nearly down to the day.

But before delving into the map, it’s important for growers to understand photoperiodism.

READ MORE: How the Justice Family Transitioned Into Hemp

Photoperiod Primer

Cannabis and hemp are traditionally photoperiodic, meaning a certain amount of time in darkness will trigger them to flower. The number of hours needed in darkness, otherwise called a flowering response time, varies among different varieties. (This is not the case for autoflowering varieties, which will flower after a certain amount of time regardless of day and night length.)

Travis Higginbotham, an owner of The Hemp Mine, explains that cannabis falls into the short-day plant category, meaning it flowers when the night lengths meet or exceed its flowering response time—in other words, it needs long days followed by short days.

“This transition from a long day to a short day initiates flowering and causes the plant to go from vegetative growth to reproductive growth,” Higginbotham says.

Each breeder should provide the specific flowering response time of a variety down to the minute. (If not, Higginbotham suggests asking. This information is crucial.)

A variety’s flowering response time comes into play heavily when looking at The Hemp Mine’s data map.

Using The Map to Decide When to Plant

Using data from The Hemp Mine’s map, farmers can decide the best time to plant based on their genetics. This consists of a delicate balancing act between frost dates, daylength and how long growers want their crop to remain in a vegetative state.

“In the field, you don’t have the ability to manipulate lighting like you do in a greenhouse or an indoor environment, so you have to strategically plan your production outdoors so that you maximize the environment at the location where you are,” Higginbotham says.

First, farmers should look at frost potential. (This is indicated on The Hemp Mine’s map as DATEPERCENTAGE: For example, DATE10% on 5/22 would mean there is a 10% chance of frost on May 22.)

Farmers need to keep this in mind as they then examine day length. (This is indicated on the map in relation to frost potential as DLPERCENTAGE: For example, DL10% of 14.68 would mean on the same date that the frost potential is 10%, the day length is 14.68 hours.)

Higginbotham explains that farmers should only plant when potential for frost is low and when daylength is above that flowering response time. This protects the plant while allowing it to remain in a vegetative state in its early stages so it can bulk up and ultimately prepare to burst with buds. 

Farmers should look at one more data point before they decide when to plant, Higginbotham says: the date when the day length does meet that flowering response time. (This information is not available on the map but is easily found through an online search.) This will determine how long the crop remains in a vegetative state and exactly when it will begin to flower. The longer a hemp or cannabis crop remains in its vegetative state, the more yield it will ultimately produce.

As an example, The Hemp Mine’s Southern Cat Daddy cultivar has a flowering response time of 14 hours. This means farmers growing that variety should choose to plant it when the day length is longer than 14 hours. Also, farmers working with that variety should examine when the day length dips beneath 14 hours to know when it will start flowering.

Other Uses

Using these data points on frost potential and daylength, farmers can determine a plethora of other key factors to drive decisions. 

This information can help farmers choose genetics, as day lengths vary throughout the country. To maximize yield, farmers should choose genetics that allow their crop to stay in a vegetative state long enough to bulk the plant to the yields they’re aiming for. This can ultimately be determined through trial and error, but several weeks in a vegetative state serves as a rough benchmark for beginner growers. 

“Ultimately what dictates the yield per plant outdoors is the length of vegetative growth and light accumulation during flowering,” Higginbotham says.

Frost potential and day length can also help farmers determine when to begin testing their crop, as they can pinpoint the exact day the crop will start flowering. Higginbotham recommends hemp growers specifically test their crops several times throughout the flowering stage to remain in compliance with the 0.3% THC limit, which will also ultimately determine when they harvest.

And, while much of this data focuses on hemp flowering, Higginbotham says this data can also be useful to hemp farmers growing photoperiodic grain and fiber varieties as well. 

“This little piece of data is really something that can help any [cannabis] grower or breeder,” Higginbotham says. “It truly allows you to put a day-by-day schedule on paper.” 

The Hemp Mine has a video further detailing photoperiodism and how to use the map here.

In a press release sent out this week, Trichome Analytical, based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, announced two new developments for their business: They have achieved ISO 17025:2017 accreditation and they are officially registered with the DEA for hemp compliance testing.

The press release also mentions their collaboration with Shimadzu, who supplies 80% of the lab’s equipment and supports the Trichome’s operations with technical guidance.

For the hemp industry, pre-harvest testing for THC levels is a requirement and labs are required to get registered with the DEA in order to perform that testing.

These announcements are somewhat timely, given the results of the election. Voters in New Jersey approved adult use cannabis legalization just last week.

Timing is tricky business in hemp and cannabis field farming. Plant too early, and farmers risk losing their crops to frost. Plant too late, and growers chance early maturation with suboptimal yields. 

It’s the reason The Hemp Mine, a hemp genetics and cannabidiol (CBD) company, created a virtual planting map to help growers make informed decisions about planting, testing and harvesting.

The map includes data points on average frost potential and daylength at different dates for nearly every county throughout the U.S. With this simple data, hemp and cannabis growers can not only make informed decisions about when to plant, which genetics to choose and when to start testing—they can also track their production schedule nearly down to the day.

But before delving into the map, it’s important for growers to understand photoperiodism.

READ MORE: How the Justice Family Transitioned Into Hemp

Photoperiod Primer

Cannabis and hemp are traditionally photoperiodic, meaning a certain amount of time in darkness will trigger them to flower. The number of hours needed in darkness, otherwise called a flowering response time, varies among different varieties. (This is not the case for autoflowering varieties, which will flower after a certain amount of time regardless of day and night length.)

Travis Higginbotham, an owner of The Hemp Mine, explains that cannabis falls into the short-day plant category, meaning it flowers when the night lengths meet or exceed its flowering response time—in other words, it needs long days followed by short days.

“This transition from a long day to a short day initiates flowering and causes the plant to go from vegetative growth to reproductive growth,” Higginbotham says.

Each breeder should provide the specific flowering response time of a variety down to the minute. (If not, Higginbotham suggests asking. This information is crucial.)

A variety’s flowering response time comes into play heavily when looking at The Hemp Mine’s data map.

Using The Map to Decide When to Plant

Using data from The Hemp Mine’s map, farmers can decide the best time to plant based on their genetics. This consists of a delicate balancing act between frost dates, daylength and how long growers want their crop to remain in a vegetative state.

“In the field, you don’t have the ability to manipulate lighting like you do in a greenhouse or an indoor environment, so you have to strategically plan your production outdoors so that you maximize the environment at the location where you are,” Higginbotham says.

First, farmers should look at frost potential. (This is indicated on The Hemp Mine’s map as DATEPERCENTAGE: For example, DATE10% on 5/22 would mean there is a 10% chance of frost on May 22.)

Farmers need to keep this in mind as they then examine day length. (This is indicated on the map in relation to frost potential as DLPERCENTAGE: For example, DL10% of 14.68 would mean on the same date that the frost potential is 10%, the day length is 14.68 hours.)

Higginbotham explains that farmers should only plant when potential for frost is low and when daylength is above that flowering response time. This protects the plant while allowing it to remain in a vegetative state in its early stages so it can bulk up and ultimately prepare to burst with buds. 

Farmers should look at one more data point before they decide when to plant, Higginbotham says: the date when the day length does meet that flowering response time. (This information is not available on the map but is easily found through an online search.) This will determine how long the crop remains in a vegetative state and exactly when it will begin to flower. The longer a hemp or cannabis crop remains in its vegetative state, the more yield it will ultimately produce.

As an example, The Hemp Mine’s Southern Cat Daddy cultivar has a flowering response time of 14 hours. This means farmers growing that variety should choose to plant it when the day length is longer than 14 hours. Also, farmers working with that variety should examine when the day length dips beneath 14 hours to know when it will start flowering.

Other Uses

Using these data points on frost potential and daylength, farmers can determine a plethora of other key factors to drive decisions. 

This information can help farmers choose genetics, as day lengths vary throughout the country. To maximize yield, farmers should choose genetics that allow their crop to stay in a vegetative state long enough to bulk the plant to the yields they’re aiming for. This can ultimately be determined through trial and error, but several weeks in a vegetative state serves as a rough benchmark for beginner growers. 

“Ultimately what dictates the yield per plant outdoors is the length of vegetative growth and light accumulation during flowering,” Higginbotham says.

Frost potential and day length can also help farmers determine when to begin testing their crop, as they can pinpoint the exact day the crop will start flowering. Higginbotham recommends hemp growers specifically test their crops several times throughout the flowering stage to remain in compliance with the 0.3% THC limit, which will also ultimately determine when they harvest.

And, while much of this data focuses on hemp flowering, Higginbotham says this data can also be useful to hemp farmers growing photoperiodic grain and fiber varieties as well. 

“This little piece of data is really something that can help any [cannabis] grower or breeder,” Higginbotham says. “It truly allows you to put a day-by-day schedule on paper.” 

The Hemp Mine has a video further detailing photoperiodism and how to use the map here.

I have heard everything from “No one in their right mind would spend the energy in Europe when the U.S. has the most developed infrastructure in the world and $13 billion in sales” to “Is it even legal there?”. And yes, when you come from the West Coast cannabis world, it’s hard to imagine anywhere else but the West Coast of the U.S.A. 

Europe has taken an infrastructural leap forward by starting off the pharmaceutical, medical and GMP supplements path. As an American-European from the West Coast cannabis world, remembering how the U.S. started/progressed, remaining patient and stretching the grey matter crossing the thresholds of pharmaceutical manufacturing, is serious.

Costs to Do Business

Which country you choose to begin operations in decides if cannabis is more or less expensive cap-x and opp-x to the U.S. And don’t forget the Euro conversion. Clearly, working near main cities like Berlin and Geneva will be expensive both for land and competition for talented staff. I chose Portugal, which greatly reminds me in terms of geography to a mini-California on the coast of Europe. Portugal also boasts the most progressive cannabis rules and is home to large cannabis producers like Tilray and Clever Leaves paving the way in the EU market. Greece is also one of our top locations, due to being cannabis friendly and another coastal country with great talent and reasonable costs to live and operate. 

Excitement

All of Europe is buzzing with cannabis. Somai Pharmaceuticals tracks over 387 star-ups in cannabis around Europe, South America, Australia and Asia. The excitement when Colorado first announced cannabis legalization in 2014 is the same feeling in Europe now. Most groups are collaborative yet guarded at the same time with the uncertainty of how EU cannabis plays out. Patient demand exists, and similar government wills are at play, but all in the direct backyard of big pharma. 

Right now you see huge companies that will always exist and small companies that will always be a part of competition. It’s likely that Europe will shake out to be 30% large to medium company mix and 70% medium to small companies. So, the feeling of room for everyone exists there. This is not surprising considering the legal market in the world is $17B in sales while the illegal market is estimated at ten times that market. And new demographics from around the world are opening up to cannabis for pain relief, sleep and other ailments for new age groups. 

Brand New Infrastructure

Conforming to standard guidelines like pharmaceutical manufacturing, GMP supplement manufacturing and GACP farming is just plain normal. U.S. state-by-state expansions really missed the boat on this, and state rules without federal guidelines aren’t good for businesses left guessing or consumers. Eventually, with federal legalization, some infrastructure rebuilding will be needed to conform to standard procedures. I am unsure if the systems are even capable of handling tens of thousands of operating facilities with or without regulation, but starting off at the highest level of pharmaceutical grade is a good way to build consumer and regulator confidence. Learning pharmaceutical and supplement GMP manufacturing is a precise and studied endeavor coming from the U.S. cannabis market. The US hemp industry is embracing this on a supplement level. I now curl up to online courses and formulation books.

In time, all of Europe’s 741 million population will have access to cannabis related products. With standardized processes, new infrastructures and good-old fashioned entrepreneur energy Europe will be a massive market. Sure, the early adopters will need to struggle through regulations and rule creation, but the lifestyle in Southern Europe is the envy of West Coast USA, where laid-back lifestyle and organic food is the minimum standard. 

The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is scheduled to vote on the rescheduling of cannabis and cannabis-related substances during the 63rd reconvened session in December 2020. This scheduled vote follows an earlier meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, during which the Committee recommended the rescheduling of cannabis and several cannabis-related items, effectively removing cannabis from the list of scheduled substances. While participating countries will make the decision regarding rescheduling cannabis through an international forum, domestic lawmakers and international policymakers will maintain a close watch over the outcome, as the consequences of such a vote may affect the direction of the cannabis industry in their respective countries going forward.

The recreational use of cannabis is legal in four countries—Canada, Uruguay, South Africa and Georgia—and is decriminalized in several others. A vote to remove cannabis and cannabis-related substances from the list of scheduled drugs will likely encourage more countries to revisit how they approach the legal classification of cannabis on a domestic level. This extends to the possibilities of more countries legalizing cannabis or decriminalizing it in an effort to take a softer stance against the use of cannabis and prepare for involvement in a potentially extensive and financially lucrative global cannabis trade market.

There are three international drug treaties governing cannabis that strictly oppose the legalization of cannabis in any of the participating countries. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 classifies cannabis as a Schedule I and Schedule IV substance, requiring countries to adopt special measures of control to prevent the illicit traffic in and misuse of cannabis.

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 focuses on the psychoactive component in cannabis, THC, and regulates cannabis-related substances. The recommendation of the WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence is to remove cannabis and THC from the scheduled drugs on this convention altogether. Finally, the 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances governs the trafficking of cannabis and requires participating states to maximize efforts to prevent such offenses. Rescheduling cannabis will likely mean revisiting and amending all three international drug treaties in part to account for this change in policy.

A vote to reschedule cannabis will also drastically change the landscape of the global cannabis trade market and open the door for countries to enter new international treaties that focus specifically on the international regulation of cannabis. The result is the creation of a new international cannabis market where participating countries can benefit from working with one another as opposed to operating under the current landscape, which leads to legal disconnect and invites the illegal smuggling of cannabis across international borders.

U.S. policy toward cannabis currently stands as one of the largest hurdles against rescheduling cannabis through the CND. Historically, the U.S. has played an influential role in the international regulation of drugs, including acting as a driving force behind implementing the existing international drug treaties in an effort to promote its staunch opposition to drugs on an international level.

Should the U.S. elect to support the rescheduling of cannabis through the upcoming CND vote, such a change in international policy would surely garner a review of domestic federal and state regulations. While the recreational use of cannabis is currently legal in 15 states (with Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota recently joining the list), as well as for medical use in 35 states, the federal government still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1971. Rescheduling cannabis on the international stage provides lawmakers in the U.S. with the opportunity to revisit removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.

Recent trends suggest more states are moving towards legalizing cannabis; thus, there is growing support within Congress to legalize cannabis federally as well. Changes to domestic policy and the international drug treaties will ultimately reside at the discretion of Congress. The question will be whether Congress will act to legalize cannabis first or wait to see how other countries react to a proposed amendment to the international drug treaties.

Optimism for an actual vote this December is measured. The CND has delayed the vote to reschedule cannabis several times in recent years, though the positive takeaway from these delays is that the topic is receiving legitimate, complete consideration. However, there is also a political convenience that accompanies avoiding the vote to reschedule cannabis. For some countries, the current framework of international drug treaties provides sufficient flexibility under which these countries can regulate cannabis to their liking. While some countries, such as the U.S., utilize this flexibility to allow some form of acquiescence to the states, other countries use this flexibility to enact a significantly stricter stance against cannabis.

For example, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 states, “a Party shall not be, or be deemed to be, precluded from adopting measures of control more strict or severe than those provided by this Convention” (Article 39). Under this provision, countries such as China and Russia are able to take harsh stances against cannabis use, including implementing punishments such as the death penalty. With such a wide spectrum of approaches to the regulation of cannabis around the world, the question becomes whether there is truly a consensus on regulation that would result from rescheduling cannabis. While the probable answer is no, the benefit of moving forward without a consensus may merit a vote in a favor of rescheduling cannabis.

Another reality to take into consideration is the ongoing pandemic. As COVID-19 cases continue to increase steadily, there is speculation that rescheduling cannabis is not a high priority item, and the CND will delay the vote once again. In a way, rescheduling cannabis forces countries to review their domestic policies, and countries may instead be more inclined to approach the subject when they are less concerned about the spread of COVID-19 and can focus on the global and domestic implications of rescheduling cannabis and cannabis products. With so much uncertainty currently surrounding the topic, we are best set to patiently wait and see how the vote unfolds in December.

Joshua Horn is a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP and co-chair of the firm’s cannabis law practice group. He can be reached at jhorn@foxrothschild.com.

Jonathan Dolgin is an associate at Fox Rothschild LLP who handles a variety of corporate matters, including within the firm’s cannabis law practice group. He can be reached at JDolgin@Foxrothschild.com.