Demand for seeds29 Jul 2019 20:16
“These plants do not like wet feet, so people are going to have to be very mindful of where they plant them, as far as Florida rains,” Kelley said. “And then we have an insect issue that surpasses any other state.”
Kelley is hoping to have millions of seeds that can withstand Florida’s bugs, rain and humidity available for hemp growers by the time the state’s program is fully operational. That could be as early as the end of the year, according to Bell.
Because of the “explosive growth in interest” in CBD products, “there’s a huge shortage” of hemp seeds, according to Kelley, whose Sunshine Hemp partners include Tallahassee lobbyist Jeff Sharkey.
“That’s where Florida growers are going to need to find the right seeds for Florida, at a price point that works. The prices on these seeds are going up exponentially,” Kelley said during a telephone interview while he was overseeing work in the field of a Kentucky farm.
The hemp program is the second wave of a “green rush” that’s engulfed Florida, where medical marijuana operators are routinely selling licenses for upwards of $50 million, less than three years after voters legalized medical pot.
But cultivators like Kelly have done their best to separate hemp from its sister plant in a variety of ways, including the nomenclature to describe the plants.
For example, types of hemp are referred to by their “genetics,” rather than “strains,” as in the marijuana arena. Instead of the term “mother plant” used in the pot industry, they’re called “stock plants” in the world of hemp.
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