Grant Paton – Sustainable soils – Environmental Fertilisers Ltd
This summer we decided to trial growing a hemp crop on some very flogged out maize ground.
This soil is marine clay and had been experiencing diminishing maize crop yields and returns during the last five years to the point where the land owner wasn’t prepared to risk (financially) another crop of green feed maize.
So after a few home brew rums we came up with a lease agreement and plan.
With a Reams soil test and a Lismore soil test results in hand we applied a 14 tonne per ha fertiliser mix of 10 tonne/ha of compost and 4 tonnes/ha of minerals, comprised of paramagnetic rock dust, soil force, gypsum, trace mineral microbial feeds and microbial inoculations (Bio-Vam, 10/25 and Combo-12).
After obtaining a growing license for hemp we proceeded to plant and learn.
We finally harvested the crop, dried the seed and have harvested 750kg/ha of seed.
Full Article:
http://www.sunlive.co.nz/blogs/5305-hemp-crop-on-hauraki-plains.html