Any one have any ideas I’m doing 150 acres on a shoe string budget. If any one has any info on bulk ammendment prices or were to get the ammendments cheap please let me know will be much appreciated thanks
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What state ?
Oregon
Have you tested any of your soil? Nectar One Shot is cheap
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Waiting on soil analysis assuming I might drop some lime for ph but it’s very good land been used for cattle for years lotts of cow poo so hoping to go super cheap on ammendments maybe a good till in at beginning then a good top feed wen the flip then maybe plant some cover crops to juice it up just trying to make game plan for cost involved
If you’re in Oregon then Concentrates supply in Milwaukie has an awesome selection of amendments for very cheap and the staff there are super knowledgeable and helpful.
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Nice I’ll check Them out thanks for the info greatly appreciated. But I’m still trying thy o here what other people are thinking about what they thy hink the cost to ammend an acre is if any one has any thy thoughts please chime in. Thanks again for the guy old info @rasputin
@Lemonade_Dave If your soil is good like you say, you have no worries friend. You can plow and disc like you want or sow into the ground. Keep the microbes alive and they will do the work for you. You can top dress once in flower and make it through. You’re on a shoestring budget for a 150 acre field and at the brink of getting into sustainable agriculture or fertilizing with cheap walter white shit. I know what I wouldn’t use.
I second Concentrates Inc
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I own a farm and do soil mineral and plant health consulting for other hemp farms. The typical cost of balancing soil with mineral amendments is (and should be) in the $150-200 per acre range. It obviously depends on your soil type and content. Get a soil test with base cation saturation numbers, and I can help you out.
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@TTTGB I use that vital earth on my regular thc plants and the love that stuff def good nutes we are fully sustainable probly gana be the only hemp farm doing co growing in the rows instead of plastic. @distillat3r I will message u as soon as I get my soil analysis back here soon do you have any ammendment suggestions as far as companies or specific products like a all purpose? thanks for the good info I am assuming arpund 150 like u say just trying to wrap my head around all of this and get outside opinions before I pull the trigger.
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Grow commercial cannabis in Ca. Spend 5k an acre and that is way over kill.
1k/ acre will supply enough macro and micro nutrients for hemp farming at that scale.
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@ChronJ still seems kinda high but I was quoted 10k a acre last year but that was for seed ammendments tractor work labor and such just to plant that seems high also I hear of people no tilling and planting with no nutes getting good results I’m trying to make my shit look good tho
Thats the problem with cannabis growers growing hemp. No corn or soybean farmer is spending $1k per acre on inputs, they are barely making that in revenue per acre. Growing hemp for CBD is molecular farming and you have to factor the cost of every step in the supply chain to produce that molecule, and do so with the intent of keeping future costs down without injury or damage to the soil for the coming years. $500 per acre in input costs is still too much.
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Tilling also depends on your mineral content, flocculation, and compaction of your soil. I cannot make blanket statements as to if you should till or not. The goal is to work towards a system of closed or cycled inputs and not require external inputs or deep tillage, but in the first years, a soil has to be cultivated and balanced before you can achieve this. Ideally, you are putting down only about 50% of the amendments every year from the previous year, and in a 4-5 year period, you are balancing soil minerals, building organic matter in your top soil, manage weed pressure using cover crops, livestock foraging, mechanical cultivation, and getting to a point where you don’t need tilling or tons of external inputs. But if those elements are not present in your soil when you are starting out, they have to get in there somewhere. Cover crops and biology alone won’t make elements show up in your soil that weren’t there to begin with.
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$500/acre is nothing, even corn farmers spend that much.
Farmers are grossing $100k an acre with hemp, if they know what they’re doing.
We spent about 1500 per acre this year.
Also we didnt till it in we spread it and then made rows. The farmers we worked with were lazy. It worked great tho. DM me for consulting/ amendments if you want.
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I am talking strictly mineral/fertilizer inputs and not talking about any labor or mechanical field prep, irrigation, or infrastructure costs. Yes, current margins on hemp are great, but don’t expect it to stay that way. By keeping inputs low and investing in your land and soil, you are future-proofing your farm for when the day comes that margins on hemp are similar to that of corn or soybean.
We can all brag about how much we made, but the writing is on the wall. If you put yourself in a place where you are continually dependent on high input costs, you won’t be able to compete in 2-3 years, just like all the recreational cannabis farmers that were historically spoiled and are now being priced out because they never bothered to learn how to grow great cannabis for cheap.
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