I like that plan better. Although I applaud the aim of achieving maximum utility from this incredible plant.
I recall a selenium remediation trick that involved cutting the plant down & leaving the roots & a bit of stalk to do the work. Harvesting the plants, eg for fiber, may actually be necessary rather just a bonus…
I would strongly argue against using anything that looked like good weed** for pulling toxins that the plant actually bio-accumulates. Some moron will inevitably steal it and smoke it, or worse sell it as smokable.
Using plants with typical drug strain architecture to deal with fertilizer run-off should be an entirely different matter. Looking like good smoke might then just cause a problem with the regulators…
As far as making fuel out of it…pre extraction has it’s advantages.
I discussed using post extraction biomass for the All Power Labs generators with Fritz at Eden labs. Fritz said he’d talked to them, and it wouldn’t work. I was surprised that Jim would say he couldn’t set it on fire…about anything! Jim Mason is my hero, and I have only seen him fail at setting one object on fire. Then I went and looked at his generators again…they are gasifier units, and use the volatiles driven off of the biomass as their fuel source. We strip all those…
**I’m of course making assumptions about the genetic background (plant structure) of your high CBD vs low grade strains.
Edit: here’s a description of the vegematic and the snowball Jim failed to incinerate with it.