Frank Höppner is an expert on industrial hemp at the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI), Federal Research Institute for Cultivated Plants in Braunschweig. He explains who is likely to meet the Republic’s needs under the new rules for cannabis cultivation and consumption – and what makes cultivation so special.
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Cannabis will soon be allowed to be consumed as a recreational product. Where will it come from?
By law, everyone can grow up to three plants. However, how this should be controlled has not yet been regulated. Otherwise, it is planned that cannabis will be allowed to be grown on a larger scale by registered clubs for their members from July, subject to conditions. Currently, cannabis is produced in large quantities only for medical applications. The Cannabis Agency of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices has issued several licenses for this purpose.
Frank Höppner determines the THC content at the Institute of Plant Production and Soil Science at the JKI to control hemp fiber cultivation in Germany.
(Image: J. Kaufmann / Julius Kühn Institute (JKI))
Where do people who want to grow get the seeds they need?
There are currently no seeds available for this in Germany. You will have to order it over the Internet, which is basically what we already do today. Only cultivation is, or was, forbidden. The seeds come mainly from the Netherlands and that will certainly not be a problem.
Politicians are proposing to use empty pig pens to grow drug cannabis. And industrial hemp cultivation also works very well on the field. So can farmers benefit from the new law?
No, farmers do not benefit at all from the new regulation. Even the cultivation of industrial hemp, for example for insulation materials or textiles, is still subject to reporting under the Narcotics Act and is also monitored. According to this, the hemp may contain a maximum of 0.3 percent of the intoxicating tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This is different in countries like Canada, India and the USA. Contents of several percent are permitted there. In addition, growing drug hemp is something completely different.
In what way?
In order to get good quality cannabis, the plants must be looked after in the same way as medical cannabis. And this only works indoors, air-conditioned and with techniques that are not the norm in arable farming. Light, temperature and humidity must be optimized to extract high THC levels. Outside, the weather fluctuations would be far too great for consistently high THC production.
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“The plant should always remain in the flowering phase”
Are there any other differences between the cultivation methods for commercial and drug hemp?
The cultivation of drug hemp is designed to harvest only the flowers. The plant should only remain in the flowering phase, producing flowers and leaves but no seeds. This is the only way I can use a plant permanently. If drug hemp were grown in the field, it would eventually switch to the generative phase and produce seeds and then the plant would die.
Why doesn’t this happen indoors?
Because only female plants grow there and are not fertilized. This situation is difficult to create outside.
How is the plant harvested?
THC is found in the sticky secretions of glandular hairs, which are found in varying densities on the epidermis of plants. If I want to have pure THC, physico-chemical methods must be used. For marijuana, fruit husks, stems and leaves are only crushed.
How great is the risk of plant diseases?
Of course, there is a certain risk of fungal diseases, which can spread quickly indoors due to the higher humidity. Once a fungal disease spreads into the root area, the root is damaged and the plant quickly dies.
Are pesticides used as antidotes?
The growers will of course intensify production as much as possible, but I don’t assume that they will work with a lot of pesticides. After all, they generally want to consume their product themselves. However, something like a chain of custody is not anchored in the current law.
(Older brother)
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