Here's a quick tip for Alabama hemp farmers. I'll get right to the point. Many farmers calling us for consulting services this week had one thing very much in common. While all having concerning questions and separate issues. One question in particular was common across the board. Lou, is there any one thing we could do to increase our yields above and beyond what we are already doing? My answer is YES and it's not to late.
It's simply called topping. Have you topped or been topping your plants? If you haven't, you're leaving money on the table. Now this method of tending to your plants is quite common yet most farmers will forget to do it or not even know they can. Well you can.
Topping is when you take the new growth from the center stalk and trim it off. That simple. What this does is by "topping" the plant off the plant material you snipped will seal itself off or basically heal itself and begin to produce new growth. This new growth is special because you no longer have one shoot continuing to grow you now created two and sometimes three on your first cut as seen in the picture below.
The picture in our cover photo shows two very healthy offshoots from our topping while our other picture shows three forming on this varietal. BTW do you notice the little male part growing from the node in the cover pic? Great plant.
Here's why all this is important. If you let your plant grow without any manicuring you will have a yield of X. Lets say each plant yields one pound without doing anything to it. But by topping you now have two new shoots then top the two new shoots when ready and you have four new shoots and wait a little more and top four now you have eight. You get the point. You now potentially have four to eight new main colas opposed to one. Now instead of one pound you have 2 to 3 more pounds if time is on your side. You have now given your plant many more surface areas for your plant to flower increasing your yield. No matter where your crop is now you should at least top once if you can.
This quick little tip could put tens of thousands of dollars in your pocket at harvest time.Grow smarter not harder and your plants will thank you.
I hope this quick tip helped. If you wanna get more details on how to top, where to snip, when to snip, what node to snip after and so on feel free to reach out to me. we would be glad to help you.
Until next time B Safe & B Well!
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