How do I rett and bale hemp fiber?
Field-dry hemp fiber under 15 percent, windrow it, and bale it. The HFGA textile standard then records how that straw was retted, and the bale spec comes from the buyer.
How do I rett and bale hemp fiber?
Cut the stalks, let them dry in the field to under 15 percent moisture, windrow them, and bale them. That field dry is the farm step HFGA describes. The textile standard then allows field retting, tank retting with the effluent captured, enzymatic retting, or steam, and it wants the method and the degree written on the lot. Bale shape and weight come from the buyer. rechem does not publish a number of days to leave it on the ground.
Related reading
Related reading
When do I harvest hemp fiber?Harvest hemp fiber when the stalk is the crop you sold, then dry it in the field under 15 percent before you bale. HFGA names the header, not a calendar date.
Baling is the farm step. Retting is the record of how those stalks were separated from the core before a mill will call them textile fiber. HFGA's spring guide tells the farmer to dry the cut fiber in the field to less than 15 percent, windrow it, and bale it. Round or square is the buyer's call.
When to cut is When do I harvest hemp fiber?. The grain harvest, if there is one, happens first: When do I harvest hemp grain?.
What the standard adds
HFGA's US Hemp Textile Standard permits field retting, controlled tank or water retting if the effluent is captured, enzymatic retting, and steam. It wants the degree recorded: under-retted, optimally retted, or over-retted. Chlorinated agents are out. Straw for that standard is baled at 15 percent moisture or below and kept under cover, off the ground, until decortication.
Imperium Fiber's standards page is the textile reading of that same path: retting declared on the lot, and the bale traceable to the field. Their conformance profile names field retting as the start of the route they declare. Heartland is the company that grows into that path.
What this page will not time
Days on the ground change with weather. A published day count from another state would be a guess, so this page does not offer one. The stand that made an even bale was decided at planting: What planting chemistry does hemp fiber need?. How that bale differs from a grain lot is How is hemp fiber different from hemp grain?. The map is Fiber.
FAQ
Quick answers about this part of the approach.
Is field retting allowed for textile fiber?
Yes. HFGA's textile standard lists field, or dew, retting as eligible, including for their long-line grade. The lot has to say which method was used.
What moisture do I bale at?
Under 15 percent, from HFGA's planting guides. The textile standard says straw baled at 15 percent or below, stored under cover and off the ground until decortication.
Round bales or square?
Whichever the offtake partner specifies. HFGA does not pick the bale on the farmer's behalf.
What is not allowed in retting?
The textile standard refuses chlorinated agents, and it refuses dumping untreated retting water into surface water. Imperium Fiber states the same chlorine bar.
Does grain straw rett the same way?
It can be textile straw after the seed is off, if it still meets the moisture and storage rules. The grain itself is not retted.