sprouting hemp , is it possible

[bearlove]

Hi every one , hope you all are super cool !!!! anyhoo

I bought a huge bag of hemp seeds thinking i could sprout them and have them in juices salads etc , however I have no experience with hemp seed , and am not sure what evryone means when they say hulled or dehulled

non the less , the hemp i bought has a had kinda outer shell and is sorta dark grey and crunchie when you bite it ,

i soaked them in water for 24 hours, drained the water and left them to sprout , every so often i would through some water on them to stop from drying out

its been about 5 days noe and still nothing not even a sign of a teensy little sprout

am i doing something wrong ? or am i being silly can you not sprout hemp?

hope anyone can help

xxxx

[FloridaPatty]

It is illegal to have hemp plants unless you get a certificate from the gov't. It's related to marijuana, so they are both banned. Hemp seed is sold in a way so that it can't be grown. Like removing the hulls.

[Ginger]

Yep, if you buy hemp in the shell, it has been steralised... so sad. The stuff is not only a superfood but would make so much possible in this world with it's many uses. Unreal that man can make a plant, a PLANT think about that, illegal! I think it is beyond obsurd. I don't see how people can actually allow that to go on.

[shashibala]

Hemp seed is irradiated. They don't want to threaten the marijuana crop by introducing pollen from no THC hemp plants.;) ;) ;)
Actually, the alcohol and cotton lobbyists have fought hard over the years to keep hemp out of the USA. It is so crazy!!! Hemp fiber and hemp oil could solve lots of problems for America. In the early days of this country it was mandatory to grow hemp.I am looking for non irradiated hemp myself, not to grow, but just because I don't want my food irradiated, thank you very much!


OOps! I didn't see that you are in the UK. Maybe you can let us know the deal about hemp in the UK if you find out???
Good Luck!

[fuggles]

Well, how does one sprout it ? If the seeds arent sterilised, irradiated etc etc .

[TaupeRawMan]

Hemp seed is irradiated. They don't want to threaten the marijuana crop by introducing pollen from no THC hemp plants.;) ;) ;)
Actually, the alcohol and cotton lobbyists have fought hard over the years to keep hemp out of the USA. It is so crazy!!! Hemp fiber and hemp oil could solve lots of problems for America. In the early days of this country it was mandatory to grow hemp.I am looking for non irradiated hemp myself, not to grow, but just because I don't want my food irradiated, thank you very much!


OOps! I didn't see that you are in the UK. Maybe you can let us know the deal about hemp in the UK if you find out???
Good Luck!

Nutiva's are not irradiated. They are from Canada.

[fuggles]

Okay, what I meant was , lets say we have perfect hemp seeds in the shell that are not irradiated or sterilised etc etc etc. How would one sprout them ?

Thank you.

[kaybee]

bearlove--since you are in the UK, you might be able to get sproutable hemp seed. I am in Ireland and the stuff I get from the local hfs sprouts fine. I have the same kind you have with the hulls on it. maybe try a different brand. I noticed that last time i went to get some, there were 2 brands, the kind in bulk, which comes from the healthfood wholesale place, and one from Hemp Cottage. I almost got the Hemp cottage one as it is more local...then i noticed it said on the bag "not for planting" or something like that, so i figured maybe those ones had been treated. the bulk one always sprouts for me in 2 days or so, so i'd say that yours has been treated i.e. killed. Now, the disadvantage to having hemp with the hulls still on it is that youre limited in what you can do with it. i supposed you could grind it in a coffee grinder, shells and all, and mix it into things; but it might be a bit like eating treebark... im not a big fan of eating the shells. But theres no way to get the hulls off, even if you sprout it. i tried letting it sprout until it got big enough that the shells started to fall off on their own, and it was the awfulest bitterest, totally unpalatable sprout i have ever tasted. so now i sprout them just until they crack their shells, then put them in the blender with some water and blend the heck out of them to make hempmilk. its more pleasant to strain the milk, but i also feel like i lose alot of the seed by straining it; the heaviest shells fall to the bottom, but if you dont strain it your still gonna get some pieces throughout. i blend it up with honey and vanilla. so anyway, id try another brand. or contact a raw foods distributor in the UK and see if they have them. but i just get them off the shelf at the hfs and they sprout fine...

[fuggles]

Yes it sprouted, hemp seeds from sainsburys , in the shell.

I used this technique.

http://www.michigan.gov/kids/0,1607,...5181--,00.html

these are the seeds

http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/8519/dscn3921cy5.jpg

these are my results.

It took 6 days to do that, and on the last few days i left them in a dark cupboard. I did an amateur job of it now that I look back on how to sprout properly, and it still worked !!

Look at the seed on the left.

http://img123.imageshack.us/my.php?i...scn3923nq1.jpg

the other seeds.

http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn3924ix7.jpg

I am also going to use the jar method aswell as the paper towel technique.
I will also plant them in soil when they sprout.
Will it grow this time of year in england ?

and would an easy green sprouter get those results ? comparable to my pictures ?

[coco]

sure, you can sprout those in the jar. if you're going to use paper towelling use some without the ink though. that method is good if you're doing it so you can plant the seeds as the jar method will end up in a big tangle that's hard to pull apart.

one note, the shoot will look like it's growing a fuzzy white mold, those are the root hairs so don't touch them! they are neccessary to the plant.
you can purchase rockwool or peat tablets for starting baby plants, you stick one or two sprouted seeds into each one and keep them under a moisture dome until they are a bit bigger. this is great for early sprouting to get your plants started before it's warm enough for them outside. then when it warms up enough they are ready to go in the ground and already on their way. that means an earlier harvest and if you time it right two harvests in one season, three if you're really lucky. hemp is a weed too so it is very hardy but i still recommend fertilzing the soil, especially for mulitiple crops per season. use something organic like compost or seaweed.

have a great time! you should have a bumper crop of hemp seeds if you let it pollinate and mature naturally. i'd LOVE to do this, those little suckers are so darn expensive! and for what? they grow so easily and abundantly, it's amazing!

[coco]

oh yes, and the sprouts do taste pretty awful but deer and other animals will eat them anyhow when they're pretty little. that's another good thing about starting them indoors, when they are a little plant animals avoid them, they don't taste good to them anymore. you need a light to get them to grow that big at home though. just don't get caught trucking around with a bunch of little rootlings when you go to stick them in the ground, it would be pretty fun explaining to the police that you're only growing something to eat and not the other stuff! no one would believe you i'm afraid.

and with the seeds, you can blend them for hemp milk as stated above. the shells are horrible to eat i find, way too crunchy.

[fuggles]

what light should i use ? a regular one ???

and

im on ebay.co.uk, typing in peat and rockwool separately, some good results

am i just loooking for a rockwool block ?

[coco]

yes a rockwool block, use a carpet or exacto knife to cut it up into squares, about 2" square should be right for 2 sprouted seeds per block. soak the wool and then use a skewer stick to poke a hole and drop the sprout in, root pointing down of course. you might want a humidity dome to keep them in for a bit, you can make something up yourself. it looks like this http://www.4seasongreenhouse.com/hea...on-p-2007.html. i have seen sprouting tents made just with a clear plastic bag. here's a pic with saran and sticks http://www.gardenscure.com/420/image...d7ada73538.jpg
here's an excerpt from a growing site:
To construct a moisture tent over the seedling container, place a baggie or piece of cellophane over the seeded soil. The cover will keep the humidity high and temperature elevated. Seeds usually need only one initial watering when under a humidity tent. Remove the cover as soon as the first sprout appears. Leaving the tent on will lead to damping-off and other problems.

keep the wool dampish, you can either add some water to the bottom of the tray and let it get sucked up or you can mist the sprouts with a spray bottle. i suggest that last when they have leaves. not too wet or you will get rot. a good trick is to keep the tray on a bit of an angle so it can drain any excess water.
some put the wool into soil as soon as possible, the cubes can be dropped into pots of soil when they are turning into baby plants. the roots can easily work their way out of the rock and into the soil.

as for a light, natural light is different during the seasons and so there are two kinds of grow lights, one to encourage growth and one to encourage flowering at the end of the season. this would be when your plants are producing seeds and will be outside so no need to worry about that. what you want is a plant light or grow light. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grow_light
(can you believe i'm pulling all of this out of my head more than a dozen years after i lived with the grower? geez, free girlfriend labour. at least i learned a little something eh?)

hemp grows in a very similar way to cannibis and you will find an enormous amount of grow info on that on the net. way more than info on growing hemp i'm afraid. and you can find places to trouble shoot and ask questions as well. it's a bit of a sticky subject because you personally aren't doing anything illicit but your online sources may well be all about that so take care where you go and what you ask and what computer it is from etc etc. and best of luck!

[fuggles]

yep, it works

http://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-foru...ead.php?t=4937

Must only be American Seeds

[fuggles]

Yep, its definitely planting. The Uk seeds are definitely plantable and turn into plants.

BtW, this picture was tkaen at about 3 o clock today, its now about 9 o clock and its grown another centimtre ! I would take pictures of the others but the battery has run out.

Also, Im going to do 10 batches of the paper towel method a day and get about another 40 rockwool peletts.

http://img388.imageshack.us/my.php?i...scn3925ag5.jpg

Edit, :: so in answer to the original poster, yes, you can sprout hemp, and I will have a full hemp plant in a month hopefully

edit: also, im looking into a simpler way of doing this, just soaking the rockwool and putting a seed in, to see what happens