How do I prepare a field for hemp?

Ground you can get a stand on with the drill you own. Heartland adds hemp to rotations that are already corn, soy, alfalfa, or cotton. The Hemp Fiber and Grain Association wants a seedbed from a low-tillage disc when you can, without tearing the field up. The association's agronomy note also describes fiber hemp as suited to soils around pH 6.0–7.0 and to seasons of roughly 70–140 days. Match the seed to that, instead of forcing one variety onto every acre.

This is the pre-plant step: field enrichment, after the seedbed and before the drill. Planting itself is When and how do I plant hemp?.

The seedbed

HFGA's recommendation is a low-tillage disc: a seedbed, without disturbing more soil than you need. Chisel plow and no-till are acceptable if that is the farm. rechem's pre-plant chemistry is field enrichment on top of that prep, not a reason to skip it. The chemistry is organic. It is not a burn-down.

The soil standard under that choice is How does rechem chemistry treat the soil?. A sterile furrow is outside the approach.

Rotation

Hemp is the crop that uses a different market and a lighter chemical load. Heartland's partners are corn, soy, alfalfa, and cotton farmers adding industrial hemp to the rotation. HFGA hears from the same kind of farm, where corn, soybean, wheat, and alfalfa margins have been thin. Hemp is the diversification, not a promise that it outbids those crops on every acre.

Heartland also describes the crop as using 95 percent less water than cotton and leaving the soil healthier. That is Heartland's claim for the way they grow Imperium. It is not a rechem trial result.

After the crop comes off, Heartland's aim is a field that is healthier than it was. rechem's standard is the same idea from the chemical side: the products are organic and early, so the ground is not asked to recover from a broad kill. There is no carbon number and no microbe count on this page.