Bionic Scandinavia

www.bionic.nu

 

Photosynthetic Optimization

- a short introduction

by M Sc Rune Ekman , Sweden

Valid 2012 and onward

Short Theoretical & Practical Annual Photoynthetic Crop Yield Potential Survey: The yield potential or "world record" in photosynthesis seems to be ~200 ton dry matter(=water free) biomass dry matter(DM)/ha if the crop is grown during 365 days/year. The champion biomass crop behind this is water hyacint (Eichhornia crassipes) where the whole plant (=shoot+root) is easily harvested due to its submersed way of growing in nutritious ponds or slow rivers.

In theory sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) seems to reach the same total biomass yield level on several hundred  thousand ha in commercial farmers fields  NE Australia where sugar cane growers get a total above ground (TAG) dry matter(DM)biomass/ ha & year of on average ~100 ton TAGDM biomass/ha * year in commercial production only by harvesting the shoot fraction. Sugar cane is purely vegetative(= never flowers and set seeds) - and consequently is also vegetatively propagated. Both the above mentioned crops grow fully in the tropic climate region during 365 days/ year as crops.

Most annual species have a shorter generation period. Sorghum of wild types(=high types without dwarf genes) have given  ~55 ton TAG biomass d  m/ha & year in Italy.

 

Fig 1:  Spikes everywhere and in every possible position (~600 spikes/m2)gives in Sweden about 10 ton /ha of wheat grain (13%water), but on New Zeeland  the crucial grain filling period is colder -and therefore longer-  and more humid which brought a new world champion in wheat cultivation reaching  15,6 ton wheat grain /ha (at 13% water) on average on an area bigger than 8 ha.

 

The Challenge of Photosynthetic Optimization

Photosynthesis is, however, a most complex process for a farmer to process regulate up to real high crop yield. In each crop at least 100 parameters can be listed affecting annual yield. Since their mix on each location varies considerably the local economic yields varies tremendously within each crop - like in wheat. The "pure effect" from the environment variability can easily be studied by sowing the same genotype (=variety or cultivar names)  on several different locations. The found variation between localities for instance in grain yield can then only be ascribed to differences between the localities. By analyzing the found values on each location and actively start to process regulate photosynthesis based on scientific principles and elevated understanding based on frequent measuring all - or e g the ten most - limiting  plant growth parameters can be revealed.

Above(pictured) is seen a  professional Scandinavian photosynthesis optimizing expert team working like that in wheat: a theoretical photosynthetic advisor and one of the best proven practical photosynthetic technicians & farmers in Sweden willing to adequately apply this approach. Agronomist and agroadvisor Dave Servin (left) and agronomic true polytechnician & "farmer" Sven Bramstorp. Together they annually achieve ~10 ton/ha of wheat grain based in the Swedish harsh climate based on their annual frequent team cooperation. Here they are summing up the growth season challenges a few hours before grain harvesting at 9 A.M.

The wheat grain weight fraction compared to total above ground (TAG) biomass is called grain harvest index and varies a few percent between cultivars, but is on average very close to 50% .

Since Mr Bramstorp get ~10 ton/ha of wheat grain his TAG biomass must be very close to the double  - which is ~20 ton/ha.

The Swedish "Foper" team above also get the ideal amount of spikes/m2 and seeds/spike.

However, in the Swedish climate when wheat reaches the grain filling period (July) this is normally an extremely dry and warm period. This gives comparatively small wheat grains in Sweden compared to the world record holders on New Zeeland  who frequently have cold and humid during the whole grain filling period. To balance such climatic difference is therefore met only with different crop developmental strategies.

Thus if we assume the same amount of spikes/m2 and grains/m2 then a crop having an average grain weight of 40 g/1000 seed will give a yield of only 2/3 of the yield a crop giving a grain size of 60 g/1000 seeds. Such types of challenges are tackled by the theoretical photosynthesists, and it is clear man is still in his infancy when it comes to photosynthetic optimization in the farmers field globally and in the farmers field. In wheat the "corridores" for e g fertilizer manipulations is very narrow within a specific cultivar before it lodges.

 

What is the wheat grain world record ?

The world record in wheat yield is set on New Zealand ideal wheat climate in 2010 to 15,6 ton/ha (Read more here !) of grain at 13% water -without irrigation. Such a world record wheat crop have a TAG biomass ~30 ton/ha. That yield level of TAG biomass  is reached in hemp comparatively easy by Scandinavian hemp growers without long training in conventional cultivation on aerated soils in the comparatively humid Scandinavian climate though the Swedish climate give us only two third of the wheat grain harvest of that on NZ. This is partly because of the very long photosynthetic vegetative growth "green period" in hemp compared to the same for wheat. Due to the ontogeny in hemp it is therefore expected that under optimized crop growth conditions hemp should have a higher TAG biomass than wheat on almost any location on the planet. One of the reasons behind is simply that the hemp crop is always fully green and vegetative in Scandinavia in September (150 days after sowing date - see picture below) while wheat is then turned yellow(non-photosynthesising) since second half of July in S Sweden and is harvested since one month when the picture below was taken.

A complete photosynthetic optimization in any crop up to theoretical possible yields means that the farmer must take full process control over ~100 growth parameters. 

In 1988 Rune Ekman achieved - in a "stoechiometrical trial" during ideal conditions a spring wheat harvest corresponding to ~35 ton grain weight/ha on a trial area of 10 m2 in the biotron at the Swedish Agricultural University at Alnarp, Malmoe, Sweden. The lodging resistance was enough only for indoor growth with the selected cultivar and can therefore not be reproduced in the field including rain storms etc typical for Scandinavia. The protein content was 16% and the baking quality exceptional. No biocides was used in the trials, just extremely well balanced nutritional salt solution developed based on thousands of field data among the best farmers in Sweden. This shows we are still far from the yield potentials in agricultural crops. Of major importanse is however that the plant breeders get enough research resources to select the genotypes with enough lodging resistance in wheat with an architecture ("idiotype") that has an adequate "straw design" to carry a spike that can stand extreme wether conditions.

A crop so far behaving like an ideotype crop from every aspect is hemp. Professor Kurhansky from Poznan, Poland told me in 1988 that "lodging is an unknown phenomenon in hemp". In EU hemp never needs any biocide spraying against competitors like weeds, insects, fungi, bacteria or viruses in the farmers fields if the Bionic recommendations are strictly followed.

 

Bionic Crop Advise & Development: Below is shown a typical hemp field the first year the farmer have followed the Bionic recommendations in Sweden. The photo was taken 150 days after sowing on September 12, 2007 on Oland, SE Sweden. The soil 
This crop has a total above ground dry matter(=0 % water, calculated)(=TAGDM) biomass of  ~25 ton/ha. Here about 60 plants/m2 are present at an average plant height of 4 - 4,5 m height in traditional cultivation without irrigation. The cultivar name is "Futura 75". The N application is ~160 kg N/ha on a sandy soil on Oland SE Sweden at latitude N 56.6 . So hemp is not a difficult crop to cultivate with high yields with high quality seed, and adequate fertilizer status quaaranteed by the farmer on a well aerated soil. A well aereated soil means that the soil is well ventilated imeaning that the soil resporation molecules CO2 goes out and O2 comes in naturally with high speed in the soil - the porous volume is good and the soil particle distribution adequate for respiration of plant roots during active and energy costly nutrient uptake. E g on a silt soil this is not adequate for hemp unless the humus content is causing aerated conditions.

Bionic growth models & cultivation recommendations strictly follows  a stoechiometrical application of the minimum law stated by Justus Liebig in the 1830:ies. "Soil structure problems" is by us frequently identified as too litle oxygen exchange in a soil for adequate root tip respiration(as important as Your own breething NOW) during energy consuming nutrient uptake.

The energy ("fuel") is supplied as saccharose going down from the leaves in the phloem down to the root tip outer 10 mm where the nutrient uptake zone is in most/all plants. 

Thus oxygen - supplied by the natural or man made active soil aeration - in the root tip zone is as important as CO2 for the green leaves for photosynthesis. But the availability differs extremely much from location to location. During prolonged rain for instans or too much irrigation there will be no respiration at all for the hours sor days the locality soil porous volume is filled up with 100% water (= no oxygen in the porous volume of the soil). So photosynthetic optimization is really a highly balanced art for the farmers changing what is the location photosynthetic optimum from location(=field part) to location around the planet. In total about 100 parameters have to be optimized in each location for highest possible yield. Bionic is an advanced crop field advisor to farmers and institutes around the world based on plant stoechiometry and a purely scientific model leaving no parameters to random. This model was tested in the biotron at the Swedish Agricultural University in Alnarp, Sweden already in 1988 and resulted in wheat grain yield almost 35 tonnes/ha - about 5 times higher than the average wheat yield in the farmers field in Sweden.

Photosynthetic Maximum Yield: If all prerequisites are daily fully filled the total biomass accumulated after 365 days is ~200 tonnes dry matter/ha. In water hyacinth (Eichhornea crassipes) it can also be harvested in some places. In the case of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) around 50% of such a biomass can be harvested and is in the shoot. Farmers in NE Australia also does already today and on a big acreage and commercially. The average yield among a big group of farmers there is on average about 100 ton dry matter/ha after 365 days growth in tropical climate. If e g a crop like EUhemp is cultivated in an environment - like the temperate climate zone - where it can only grow in ideal sunshine and temperature during about 1/3 of the year it is expected that such a crop should give a dry matter total shoot yield in one season of around 1/3 of the sugarcane full annual yield. Bionic seed and cultivation recommendations showed already in 2006 it also does in the farmers field in Scandinavia and Sweden. Over 30 ton/ha (dry matter=0% water) was reached have been reached in the farmers field and has also been officially measured.   

 

Fig 2:  This 4,5 m high Swedish hemp "jungle" is only 150 days old ! Isle of Oland, SE Sweden Sept 12, 2007.

 

General Recommendations for

Hemp Cultivation

Recommendation valid for High(=normal) Type Cultivars Grown by Professional Growers for Legitime Industrial or Nutritional Purposes of Drugfree EU Hemp Cultivars and on big areas hectars. Thus dwarf types are not included

In the case of hemp (Cannabis sativa, non drug EU subsidised cultivars) its ontogenetic dynamics is very different from sugarcane. Each hemp cultivar has its own daylength reaction in the phytochrome system. This determines the onset of flowering.

However, by moving a cultivar to a higher latitude north or south from the equator the period from sowing to flowering in each cultivar can be manipulated to a later date. This give a higher annual shoot yield and may give a lower seed yield or even no seeds at all up on the polar circle due to a missinterpretation by the phytochrome system in the plant apex that is of high commercial interest with different potentials for each cultivars in each latitude.

The most common period from sowing to ripening seeds takes in most cultivars from 120 - 180 days. But the toal variation in this character is much bigger. Also extreme temperatures cause changed flowering strategy in some cultivars while others are not affected. This make the cultivar selection extremely important for each region.

Therefore hemp should under best growth conditions in the farmers field give only 30 - 50% annually of what sugarcane can yield annually. This is 30 - 50 ton TAG DM biomass/ha & year based on sun as the driving force behind photosynthesis. In Sweden, however these 30% has already been reached since we have already official estimations saying that a farmer have already reached over 30 ton TAB biomass d m/ha&year.

This was reached on a "potatoe soil" fertilized with broiler manure and peaked up to totally 160 - 180 kg N/ha by mineral nitrogen as Ca(NO3)2 in a humid climate but without irrigation. The current hemp crop had an average height of ~4 m.

On Swedish organogenic black soils have principally the same yield level without any fertilizer application. If organogenic soils were ideally early sown and fertilized the TAG biomass d m/ ha * year will be considerably higher because they are well gas ventilated by nature.The root respiration can therefore be kept at a very high rate on organogenic soils thus maintaining a significantly higher root nutrient uptake through the whole season. Under such growth condition the hemp yield should be siginificantly higher than 30 ton/ha. Hemp in southern EU frequently reach a height of ~6 m and from india is reported special cultivars that may reach a height of 12 m according to scientific plant breeding literature within one year from sowing.  A big advantage with hemp is its extreme resistance against lodging.

Fig 3:  Two crops with very different flowering time strategy both sown the same day and above caught 72 days (pictured 2007-06-29) after sowing in S Sweden: spring wheat and hemp (Cultivar Futura 75) June 29, 2007. While spring wheat is flowering hemp is still strictly vegetative . The hemp shows up a "tremendous good behaviour" on a good potatoe soil. it is fertilized with broiler manure. The relative N deficiet caused by traditional storage is balanced up to totally 160 kg N-application by the grower familly at Elleholm Farm, Blekinge, Sweden. From now on it is appareent that a yield record is in the tunnel so it is followed up through .

 

Basic Hemp Cultivation Recommendations for industrial EU-hemp

Recommended Annual Sowing Time:    Bionic industrial hemp seed material can be grown commercially from the polar circle (="in the midnight sun area") on the planet to the equator - and still give high yields in all these regions. Extremely few agricultutal crops have this extreme climatic range acceptance and/or adaptation.

Temperate zone sowing strategy:  The hemp seed starts its germination in as low temperatures as +1°C according to professor Hugo Oswald (1959 (in "Utility Field Plants", 459 pp, in Swedish). Therefore - he says - "hemp should generally be sown as early as possible in the season". With certain limitations given under "Sow Depth Strategy" this is also for Bionic valid on any place in the humid temperate regions of the planet. The young plants can stand -12 °C in the night during its early development(ontogeny) without displaying the least damage.

Tropical zone sowing strategy:  However, in the tropical climate zone and by the end of the drought period too high temperatures may be a challenge at least to some cultivars causing unwanted pre-mature flowering. We saw this phenomenon in Australia in some cultivars during 2010 during conditions the farmers classified as "unusually warm".  in the tropical NE Australia they had a prolonged heat period from sowing to sprouting in hemp with temperatures above 36°C.  In this heat some cultivars "took their own decision" to flower extremely early, while others behave normal and as expected. Extreme heat by sow time can at least partly be balanced  by sowing the seeds 1 - 2 cm deeper than we normally recommend within EU. A colder sow bed temperature chills down the seed phytochrome system in the apex so the hemp plant behaves more normal in respect to the onset from vegetative to generative growth - normally it takes ~120 days from sowdate till You reach this ontogenetic  "click-stage" in hemp in traditional high types of monoicious (=homogenouscrop stands of) industrial hemp.  Further research is however needed within this topic.

 

In conclusion - irrespective of where Bionic hemp seed is to be sown and since hemp has a very long ontogenetic developmental time from sowing to economic harvest - it is always important that all delivered Bionic hemp seed is sown as early as possible in the season . Thereby also the incident annual dose of sun energy on each specific location - the ultimate driving force behind all photosynthesis (and 1 - 1,3 kW/m2 from 09 A.M. - 03 P.M. when there is no clouds) is utilized to the annual maximum on each location.

 

Recommended Seed Bed Temperature Range:     We recommend that the soil seed bed temperature on the farmers field/ location where the seed is sown is between > -2 °C (in the arctic if sown in a dry soil  environment on top of deeper ground frost which is ideal for earliest possible sowing in the season) up to to tropical seed depth maximum temperatures of <+33 °C at the seed depth (="seed bed").

Attention: In case the seed  bed temperature is higher then the recommended highest temperature at none a slightly bigger sow depth has to be considered - which is 3 - 4 cm.

To figure out the seed bed temperature around (astronomic) noon at normally 3 cm below soil surface a suitable and convenient digital termometer is optionally delivered on custom order to growers in the tropical zone.

Micro climate check: When Bionic seed is sown first time in a new tropical region Bionic strongly recommend that the grower on each location check that the maximum temperature recommended is not exceeded. The Seed Bed Temperature should be checked during astronomic time between 11 - 13 (=around noon) for each location if the soil temperature may exceed this temperature. The temperature check should be done by a  digital termometer designed for this (optionally delivered on customer demand by Bionic). It is crucial that the temperature shall be measured during full sunlight by the responsible technical staff at the farm before "strategic sow depth" is finally decided. If You are unsure donīt hesitate to call us any time at +46 730 85 56 78  at any time between our time 08 a.m- and 12 p.m.(yes midnight). Sweden is 1 h before Greenwich time in Britain. Never violate the highest  temperature recommendation - for the best of Your own economic results in hemp. 

 

Seasonal Humidity & Irrigation:    It is strongly recommended that the seed is sown in locations where humidity is traditionally regarded as comparatively good by nature. A fully developed dense crop stand with full coverage percentage on the soil has an ideal evapo-transpiration by +25 °C  of ~6 - 7 mm water column per day. If the soil structure allows good aereation parallell to the irrigation of the crop and soil this will cause full nutritional uptake for maximum growth, if just all elements are available in this soil water solution. If humidity is lower than ideal a corresponding growth limitation will govern the continued growth speed hour by hour during the day and will thereby decrease the potential yield in hemp proposionally according the the Liebig Minimum Law published by Justus Liebig in the 1830.ies.

 

Oxygen & other Gases Exchange in the Soil Structure:    As important as humidity is in the microscopic soil cavities for optimal plant growth is also - at the same time - the presence of high levels of "air oxygen" (=O2) in the soil cavities. Principally all types of living organisms down in the soil are locally adapted to the speed of oxygen exchange on different depths in the soil: microbes, fungi, isopodes, worms, mammals, reptiles etc. Donīt forget that this collective organism demand in the soil also include the plant root population whose biomass/ha  is normaly the most active respirating fraction among all organisms in the soil. Especially during certain growth phases the oxygen availability on the depth level where most of the nutrients are present is frequently a growth limiting factor. This is also frequently a major explanation why two locations fertilized and sown in the same way frequently get different agronomic and economic yield. Normally You can not directly fertilize Your crop with oxygen. However plowing activities normally raise the oxygen availability at least down to the plow base bed. This is a reason why farmers should plow to get a higher oxygen transport to deeper levels in the soil. Farmers themselves are talking about "improving the soil structure". Oh Yes, this is indeed crucial for to get real high yields in any crop, but there are atoms behind these structural positive effects and that is primarily increased oxygen exchange in the soil. As a consequence CO2 and to some extent also CO( a strong respiration gasous toxin for all aerobic(=oxygen loving) organisms. Even before CO leaves the soil it will be "transponated" into  CO2 . A good soil structure simply include a much better exchange of all "life gases".

Finally a hemp crop itself is one of the best soil structure improver there is on the global market. This is caused by the size of hemp. Normally and in most crops plant physiologists assume a "crude mirror relation" between the shoot height of an annual plant and the expected root length of the same species. The deep roots of hemp will thus after the season be gasous channels for ventilating the soil that on most soils cause a yield increase in the next crop after hemp. This is very well known in e g Scandinavia among farmers since over 100 years. A yield increase of 10 - 20% in the next crop after hemp (including hemp itself as a next crop) is normal on Scandinavian farmers field.

 

Soil Preparation:    It is of outmost importance that the final soil preparations in the form of harrowing is made as late as possible before planned sowing with the aim to kill all annual or at least chock & stop occationally all perennial weed species. This will increase the chance considerably that the late hemp crop stand will kill all weeds - annual or perennial in that field before the end of the season caused by full shadowing of the weeds so they reach below the photosynthetic compensation point causing their dead. A dense crop stand of hemp will catch more than 99% of incident sun light, thus leaving less than 1% of the sunlight to the weeds. This is normally not enough light for weed development of their life cycle. The careful mechanical soil preparation before hemp sowing is therefore even more strategic than in e g cereal growing (who - as a group - have much lower soil coverage than a hemp crop during most seasonal time from around 6 weeks after hemp sowing and especially in monoicious hemp cultivars fully onward up to economic harvesting. Your carefull soil preparation before hemp sowing have thus at least a two crop or two year effect which create new possibilities without any form of biocides for the farmer in a biological way no other crop species actually can achieve  based on a crop species and a conventional sowing machine.

 

Fig 4:  During grain filling in spring wheat the hemp crop continous to grow vegetatively - in height. This picture was taken 2007-08-05 (August 5:th). Flower buds are still not seen in the hemp crop, while the spring wheat is now finalizing its grain filling. Mr Anders Henriksson is about 185 cm in height.

 

Fertilizer Application:     The ideal weight relations between nitrogen(N), phosphorus(P) and potassium(K)  is 100/8/110; These are the elemental weight relations between N/P/K that shall be present preferably in the location allready by sowing.

Generally speaking we recommend that a first year the nitrogen application should correspond to almost 1% of the expected dry matter(=0%)shoot biomass. If hemp is grown on a minerogenic soil we recommend a first year that plots are made with N applications in different small plots from 100 - 180 kg N/ha. The application of K should be at least the same amount of kg K/ha as the kg N application/ha. The optimal P application on each location globally is expected to lie in the range 1/10 to 1/13 of the N application.

In humid soil areas we recommend that the nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) availability on the specific location should never be below 100 kg N/ha based on soil analysis and the farmers fertilizer strategy added together.

To this comes ammonia-nitrogen (NH4-N) produced or applied on the location.

Unless water and oxygen are not growth limiting too often during the growth season then every kg of the applied fertilizer will be sucked up selectively like a vacuum pump is emptying a gas volume.

In case irrigation is available on a trial location we recommend that the fertilizer application at least a first trial year can be increased ~50% on all mentioned major elements.

Fig 5:  On 2007-09-12 the spring wheat crop has now been harvested. The hemp crop is still growing vegetatively. According to an official estimation the hemp crop passed 30 ton these days.

On irrigated soils be eager that the oxygen deficiency period for the main population of root tips following immediately after irrigation as an effect from a probably 100% filled pore volume is durable the shortest possible time after each necessary irrigation. During these oxygen deficiency periods most crops including hemp are expected to have very limited nutrient uptake due to concomitant oxygen deficiency until the water has percoleted further down in the soil profile and thereby leaving room for new air gases comming into the soil pore volume again. Such strategies will raise the yields especially on loamy soils.

 

To this may be added that hemp has a big preference for nitrate NO3-N in the soil compared to NH4-N. So farmers who give the hemp 40 - 70% of the N in form of NO3-N will give the hemp an extra high possibility to kill 100% of the weeds on that location according to observations we have done frequently.

The best manure fore hemp seems to be broiler manure followed by human and cattle manure. It is important that the manure is not laying above the soil but is mixed in the soil well to give the best slow release.

Traditional storage of manure cause - as we all know - very expensive smells. During traditional storage of manure worldwide at least 1/3 of the nitrogen is lost from the manure. This is done very "spontaniously" by nitrification bacteria living in an enormous "nutritional luxury" they have never found before in the soil. In the manure hill these conditions may continue for a whole year because the high humidity inside the manure. So nitrification bacteria literally eat up 30 - 50% of the N the plants could have got. In the manure hill the nitrification bacteria let the consumed N out as NOx-gases into the air. Under more natural availability of nutrient most of these NOx-gases would have been converted to NO3-N which is exactly what the hemp prefere. But by unconsciousness the farmer world is now feeding it directly to the air where it high up contribute intensively to the green house gases insted of boostering photosynthesis in the ground. 

This is the causal reason while - on the same soil and in comparative field trials - manure as the only fertilizer gives an average yield of only about 2/3 of the yield of conventional farming if e g the P-application is the same in the trials.

Thereby we regret to say that "eco growers" allways from a stoechiometrical standpoint utilize all elements in manure exept nitrogen less eco-effective than "conventional growers" do if they add an amount of N in form of Ca(NO3)2 corresponding to about 50% of the N content in the conventionally stored manure.

The only case in which these statements are not valid any longer is on farms which starts to immediately dry and pelletize the manure and store it below 13% water till You need it next season in the field in Your crop.

The only way to eliminate these losses is by immediate drying of the manure and pressing them to fertilizer pellets that are storable fre of N-losses. This will also contribute significantly to decrease the NOx-gases in the air if done consequently on a global basis.

The most economic utilization of traditionally stored manure irrespective of origin - and the most efficient way to get the maximum out of Your traditionally stored manure is therefore in hemp that - among farms who have it - You apply about 2/3 of the nitrogen(N) in the form of manure and 1/3 of the N in form of nitrate NO3-N.

Since hemp is also known to take up calcium (Ca) in amounts about 6 times more than the same shoot biomass weight of wheat contain,  we strongly recommend that the nitrate should be applied as calcium nitrate - Ca(NO3)2 - which is quickly dissolved in a humid soil thus facilitating a quick uptake of the hemp root by mass effect law where the plant root is like an effective actice "vacuum pump" behind which all streams disappear due to its active uptake in a massive population of root tips.

Since hemp has such a long vegetative period (much longer than in e g most cereals) usually at least the same applied manure nutrient levels seems to be taken up by the hemp crop the same season. This is valid up to very high levels of manure application on all soils and soil types we are familiar with in Scandinavia. 

Calcium is a most important component in calcium-pectate, which is the glue or biocement between the cells in all plants. Apparantly hemp use this substance much more than other crops, which is the reason behind the extreme lodging resistance observed in hemp - an extremely valuable character for safe photosynthesis throughout the season.

Fig 5:  "This crop is still growing" says the hemp experts in Sept 12, 2007 at a crop age of 150 days after sowing. This crop had these days officially passed 30 ton/ha of TAGDM biomass.

Row Distance:    On all places we deliver seeds and have visited we find the the all types of wild animals are very attracted by the dense shadowing crop stand a hemp crop offers. We call it a game magnet. This is a very positive characters for the hunters. To minimize the damage e g big deers of several kinds we have in Scandinavia (some species with the height of a man) we have found that if the growers sow the seeds on double row distance (~25 cm) there will be very little damage in the crop made by the most animals within the Scandinavian fauna. 

 

Seed Rate Strategy:     With the Bionic seed quality and if You follow our recommendations given in this context we recommend based on 10 years experience and field visits in the farmers fields that a first year you try to aim at a seed rate of 20 kg seed/ha. If You got a good crop stand already during the first cultivation year with 100% coverage of the soil (thus fully killing 100% of the weeds) and if the field was fully cleared from all types of weeds we recommend that the second year and onward You go down to 18 kg seed/ha the following years.

By this approach You always get rid of the weeds on most soils of You follow all aspects of our recommendations.

However, to fully reach the full weed killing effect by hemp on extremely dry land and on "eco farms" on minerogen soils where the nitrate level is extremely low compared to the soils of "conventional farms" the eco grower sometimes have to raise the seed rate up to 30 - 40 kg according to our experience among farmers in Scandinavia.

So, if You didnīt reach full crop coverage on ground the first year (an equation between number of plant and fertilizer availability on each soil and location) - and You didnīt get rid of 100% of Your weeds of that location we strongly recommend You to increase Your seed rate the next year since weed free fields are most economic and is something so easy to get during hemp cucltivation - especially our monoicious cultivars are extra efficient on 100% cleaning your field from weeds. Donīt ever miss this possibility to get a fully weed free field totally without biocides with hemp. Hemp seed is much cheaper than biocides and all surrounding equipment. So Your sowing machine is also your 100% weed killing tool when You fill it with hemp seed and sow it with the right seed rate for 100% weed killing.

 

Fig 6:  Visiting hemp experts in a Swedish hemp field  during mid September 2007. They are satisfied to see that different hemp cultivars "are developing so well" during conventional cultivation in the Swedish humid climate when the high quality seed is "curled up" to a 450 cm high crop in within 150 days from sowing by the Bionic growth advise given to professional growers. The cultivar behind is "Futura 75" 2011-09-12 on Oland, SE Sweden

Sow Depth Strategy:     Professor Hugo Osvald (1959) recommend  in his encyclopedia "Farmland Utility Crops" on 596 pp  a sow depth of 3 - 4 cm.

However, based on the development of modern sowing equipment and in dialog with the customers Bionic have found that a sow depth of 2 - 3 cm is today even better in most cases at least in humid areas and where the sowing time and sprouting is during  low temperature.

However, in arid soil regions the risk for drying of the sow bed - causing delayed sprouting - is bigger on a superficial sow depth than if a little deeper sow depth is applied. The final decision on the sow depth strategy we therefore leave over to the farmer himself who is the best professor on his soil based on former experience.

We emphasize also that it is most important that 100% of the sown hemp seed is covered by the soil. Exponated seeds will very soon be picked by birds due to its high attraction related to seed size and content.

 

Sprouting: Sprouting is usually seen at a time after sowing corresponding to 100 day*degrees C. It the day of sowing is day 0 this means - simplified - that if the temperature is stable from sowing to sprouting (=emergency) on 10 °C it will take 10 days after sowing before the emerging sprouting. If ve have 25° C it will take 4 days to sprouting is seen.

 

Ideal Crop Density:  If You have roughly 60 plants/m2 You have ideal plant density if You have conventional fertilizer application levels and a luxmeter showing around 1% Lux of the level above/beside the crop. This is an ideal crop stand during good nutritional conditions. Eco growers getting smaller plants should aim at proportionally higher plant densities - sometimes up to 120 plants/m2 on minerogen dry soil with stoechiometric low fertilizer availability compared to what hemp growth can be on good fertilizer availability. The crop density should be estimated when the grower can still walk in the rows without touching the plants - in most cases 3 - 6 weeks after sowing strongly dependent on temperature if You have followed all our recommendations. 

 

Fig 7:  Februari harvest of hemp, Oland, SE Sweden, 2008. The harvester hardly seen behind the high hemp crop is a Crone Big_X V8  with 650 hp. The harvestor has a board 750 cm cutting broad for mays and has a harvest capacity to chew down hemp into 40 mm pieces - or even less - with a capacity of 100 ton/hour, which is a massive load. The water content is below 13% when it is harvested.

 

Limitations: This recommendation is valid only for Bionic newly delivered seed quality distributed worldwide to the farmer in full accordance with the EU rules that Your national ministeries has to agree to. Bionic industrial hemp seed has a guaranteed  normal germination of around 90% by arrival at the farmers door.

Bionic strongly recommend that You as a farmer never apply this recommendation on other seed material with unknown or lower germination percentage because there are stochiometric equations underlying that will go wrong and therefore causing agronomic disasters for the growers - e g weeds taking over the area instead of a hemp crop with 100% canopy coverage over the weeds. If they are applied on big areas without former year experience on necessary local soil and climate adjustments and without respect for Bionic Scandinavia written or oral recommendations adapted to each location they may cause economic backlashes Bionic Scandinavia is not responsible for, Bionic Scandinavia can not eather be blamed for annual recommendations in e g water precipitation.

We just guarantee the seed quality and have a knowledge what is optimal for the delivered seed from crop growth optimization point of view. Our amweden howbition below is just to tell our highly respected growers worldwide what should be the best growing conditions for the seeds based on knowledge on photosynthetic needs from crop plants in general grown for commercial reasons - and especially in our - for us - well known industrial drug free hemp cultivars based on hundreds of field trials and field observations in the farmers field based on our former recommendations and biomass & economic yields since 2001 mostly within Scandinavia but also within EU.

2011-11-28 Rune Ekman

Bionic seed customers can call my cell phone +46 730 85 56 78 for further advise based on regular cell phone fees from Your place to mine.