CHAPTER 3
H E M P
S U P P R E S S E S
W E E D S ?
Yes it does! very text on hemp going back thousands of years see “Marihuana The First Twelve Thousand Years” by Ernest L Abel which describes in detail the smothering ability of Hemp. There is however one catch whereby the plant is vulnerable at the seedling stage.
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Once it is a week or two old, provided the strike rate has been high & evenly distributed, NOTHING seems to be able to compete. Hemp has been successfully used as a smother crop throughout history. Even when grown as a seed crop at a density of one or two plants per square meter Hemp shows this ability to smother other plant life. The Chinese have a seed variety with seeds produced in abundance the size of small peas & reportedly use NO herbicides.
H E M P 7 7 %
H U R D
I S
C E L L U L O S E
Many pro-hemp people (even the NZHIAI in the past) regurgitate this claim, it is simply incorrect. he outer bark which contains nature’s longest & strongest natural fibres, has between 38% to 52% cellulose content (Bedetti and Cigaralli 1974, van der Werf 1994) The hurds, the inner woody core, were found to vary between 32 & 38% cellulose (Bedetti and Cigaralli 1974 and van der Werf. 1994)
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