By Noah Chen
Getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to hemp plants can be a tricky endeavor. When done right, farming hemp is a rewarding and enriching process. On the flip side, there are certain pitfalls new farmers may stumble upon in pursuit of producing a premium hemp product. Enter spoiled hemp.
Nothing is worse than harvesting acres of high-CBD hemp from your fields only to have your crop decimated by mold during the drying, storing, or transportation process. Key to avoiding this is proper bailing techniques. When bailed properly, you can store hemp for long stretches of time while maintaining its aroma and potency.
Here are some techniques to remember when bailing your hemp, whether you do it yourself, or get help from a processor.
Dry! Your! Hemp!
After harvesting your hemp, the best way to keep mold at bay is to dry it first. This can be as easy as leaving it in the fields, or as involved as creating specific drying chambers that can speed up the process.
If drying your hemp proves too challenging, you can outsource this service as well. Arbor Vita8 offers almost one million square feet in drying space to accommodate your crop.
Whether you dry before or after bailing, hemp must be dry for the extraction process. Drying also maintains the longevity of your plants, since too much moisture in hemp can increase the change of mold. This invasive issue can destroy entire harvests if allowed to spread, leading to spoiled hemp.
After drying hemp ends up with about 10% moisture, so it’s not totally dried out and brittle. At this point, bailing will help your hemp stay dry and make it easier to transport. Using balers from a local hemp processor ensures reliability, but farmers looking to bail their own product can still do so.
For the perfect hemp bale
Round bales seem to fare better than square bales, as they are less susceptible to moisture. As the hemp continues to dry in the bales, it’s important to store them off the ground. Doing otherwise can lead to, you guessed it, mold and spoiled hemp!
Industrial balers are the best option for bailing hemp, but smaller farms can also make use of vacuum-sealed bags to keep their bales safe. When bailing your own flower, the key is to create tight, high-density bales, as these are the hardest for moisture to penetrate.
A word on wet bailing and spoiled hemp
It’s also possible to bail hemp while it’s still wet. The key is to keep the bales away from oxygen, since mixing with the air is what can lead to mold and spoiled hemp. Using the vacuum-sealed bale bags will do the trick. They also make it safer to transport wet-baled hemp to a drying facility.
This option comes in handy if you’re unable to leave your hemp drying in the field after harvest, or don’t have the space, on site, to dry your crop yourself.
As long as it’s done quickly and properly, even wet-baled hemp will arrive safely at your processor for drying and extraction.
Bailing hemp done right with Arbor Vita8
Nothing is worse than losing your crop to rot and mold because it wasn’t baled or stored properly. Having seen it all within the hemp industry, the team at Arbor Vita8 gets it. We carefully monitor every detail of our bailing, drying, and storing services to ensure the safety of your hemp crop. Not only do we have a massive drying facility, but our high-capacity dryer is top-of-the-line for those looking for a faster option.
Contact Arbor Vita8 today to learn more about all our services, including drying, storing, and bailing.
