Knowledge is power – and a new comprehensive manual aims to empower New York State’s hemp farmers.
The recently released “New York State Cannabis sativa L. Production Manual” is described as a living document. It’s a comprehensive work in progress offering current data and findings concerning sustainable hemp cultivation to growers and members of the state’s cannabis industry to assist them in achieving a high-quality, profitable, and compliant yield.
The document has been put together by Daniela Vergara, a Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) emerging crops specialist, a team of Cornell University researchers and students, and industry experts and researchers from Alabama A&M University. There’s also been input from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“I think it’s the best manual out there,” said Ms. Vergara. “Everyone knows the industry needs resources to grow, and this was a wonderful collaborative process,”
Information contained in the manual includes:
- Introduction to Cannabis sativa cultivation
- Fibre variety selection, open ground production and calendar, fiber processing, and market preparation information
- Grain variety selection, open ground production and calendar, grain harvest and processing, and market preparation
- Cannabinoid variety selection, production calendars, plant propagation and cloning, controlled environment cultivation, harvest and processing
- Important lab techniques such as triploid varieties, sex reversal, micropropagation, and genetic testing
- The regulatory environment for hemp in New York State and the USA
- Tips on how to produce a hemp crop meeting international environmental and labor standards.
Incorporating full-colour photos, diagrams, graphs and charts, the document aims to make complicated information easier to understand for current and prospective hemp growers.
“My goal with this manual was that if someone wanted to start growing tomorrow, they could read this and find all the information they would need to be successful,” Vergara said.
While geared towards New York growers, the manual contains a lot of information that would also be interesting to those in other jurisdictions.
As research and knowledge about hemp builds, the manual will be updated to include useful new information. The full New York State Cannabis sativa L. Production Manual can be downloaded for free here.
