Episode 2742

- [Host] In 2014, Tennessee established a program of licensing authorized hemp producers. Tammy Algood visits a farmer in Springfield who is growing hemp varieties, specifically for CBD oil extraction. We'll gain insights into what makes this crop such a natural and profitable fit for Tennessee farmers. And Sheri Gramer tours a backyard garden full of inspiration for do-it-yourselfers. Stay tuned. Did you know the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence were penned on hemp paper?

- [Tammi] One of Tennessee's best agricultural secrets, hemp. And today we're in Springfield talking with Bill Corbin, who grows loads of hemp. Bill, glad to meet you.

- Well thank you, it's a pleasure to meet you.

- Tell us what got you started in this unique product.

- [Bill] Four years ago when they started the pilot program, I wanted to be involved early on. I was looking for alterative cropping. The margins in traditional agriculture, whether that be typical grain varieties for this area, tobacco, cattle, the margins are so narrow, I think the agricultural community needs to evolve, look for other avenues to try to concentrate more profits with fewer acres.

- [Tammy] So Bill, tell us about the type of hemp that you grow.

- There are three different varieties in this field. This for instance is a variety called Cherry Tang. And these varieties all are specific for extraction. The CBD values are exceptionally high in some of these, they don't have the growth structure to satisfy the fiber industry, so this is specifically for extraction.

- And when you say extraction, you're talking about the oil that's contained within the flower of the plant?

- I am, yes.

- Okay, so what you want it to do, it's got obviously lots of buds here, is this the beginning of a bud?

- [Bill] It is, it's starting to develop. A lot of this fan leaf, as it matures and loads flower this will become a lot larger, much, much more dense, and exceptionally heavy. A lot of this fan leaf material, it's called cleaning, a lot of this will dry up and waste away, removing a lot of the, I guess you'd say extra biomass, where you're left with more of a concentration of your bud material.

- [Tammy] So this plant blooms all the way up the stem, not just on the tip here, it blooms all over the plant.

- It does, quite a distance down, of course you have horizontal growth from that where you're building flower also. We work specifically with clones, and it is by far the most expensive route you can take in trying to produce a field, but we have to make sure that the consistency of the whole field is as close to identical as possible, the only way we can do that is from cloning. Anything from seed, the genetics are not stable, there are so many anomalies and variations that can happen, and where you have tests on a seed type that shows a very, very good profile, as far as CBD value, and your Delta 9 value of the THC composite, there might be plants that deviate from that norm, and when the state comes in and they test that, that crop is gonna be destroyed, so to guard against that, and have a very, very consistent marketable flower, we work through cloning only.

- So tell me when you harvest this, because I'm seeing a plant with all different stages of flower development, how do you harvest it?

- What we'll do is, we'll come in here, a lot like tobacco, and we'll take sheers and we'll cut this entire plant. Now, depending on how big this is at the time it could be that we're gonna have to section this, to handle, instead of being able to take care of the entire plant at one time, and we spike it on tobacco sticks and air dry it, we're putting frames in the greenhouses, we'll house in there, every barn that we're taking down and stripping out tobacco, every one of those barns will be double-cropped, refilled with hemp, we're right on the verge of building a very large structure over here specifically for hemp. Drying, and having the capacity, the room, this occupies, it needs so much more room, because, obviously you can see how bulky this is, to properly dry and not have the mold issues that can go along with it, requires an incredible amount of space.

- [Tammy] What are some of your challenges in growing hemp?

- Weed infestation and insect damage. There are no chemical remedies, either pre or post emergence, that are labeled for this, there are some bacterial teas and things that we can grow ourselves and then have applied, that gets into a whole different area that a lot of larger growers are gonna have to address this next year. Some corn borer worms in this crop, there's not a thing we can do about it, except try to weather the storm, but that can be devastating as far as damage goes. This variety works incredibly well in the New York State. Another variety over here, a variety called Randi, that will do exceptionally well in New York State. Late Sue, which by far is our bread-and-butter, does not, it has to stay in the field so, so long, their growing season is too short, so some of the things that we're doing, and I have three other varieties I'm gonna submit to TDA for approval, will be hopefully this next year, trialed on a smaller scale to see what reacts better in these growing conditions, because all these genetics are coming from the breeder that's part of our group in Colorado.

- So is Tennessee a good place to grow hemp?

- Tennessee is an excellent place to grow hemp, we have a very good, long growing season, and our soils are good, we generally have, unlike most places, have enough natural rainfall, where irrigation is not a necessity, we have a lot of growers that have the infrastructure that you need, because we are, especially in the Middle Tennessee area, South Central Kentucky, Western Kentucky, a tobacco based economy so to speak, and that means that we have the right infrastructure, the right equipment, a ready labor force, so yeah, it's an excellent place to grow hemp, the profitability of this crop is better than tobacco, I think people are gonna recognize that. As far as production goes, we're gonna have to, as a state, and Kentucky is moving faster than we are, they've had some really, really good support from the state government. We, just like Kentucky, have to have more of a whole plant mentality, looking at trying to find varieties that will fit more parts of the emerging market, than just chasing CBD.

- So you're in good shape Bill, let's go see what's made from hemp. So we've learned all about the flower that Bill grows for his hemp, but there's also producers that grow hemp for a variety of other reasons. And I'm here with Paige with the Hemp Association, to show us how hemp is used in a lot of different products that we use everyday. Paige, tell us about hemp, let's start here with this massive fiber that we've got here.

- Okay, so this is some fiber that's typically used for industrial purposes, this is some hemp building material, formerly known as hempcrete or cellulosic insulation, it's really great for eco and environmentally friendly buildings. Here's just some raw hemp seed with the hull still intact. This is hemp seed cake, so this is what is left whenever you press the seeds, and is used for animal feed. This right here is more of a textile grade hemp, where it's a little bit softer, a little bit greener, younger, so it doesn't have as much lignin content, it creates really great soft, wearable fibers.

- [Tammy] Yes this feels so soft and obviously you can use it in a lot of different forms, so that's nice that it's just so durable.

- [Paige] Yes, it's been blended with silk, and denim, as you can see, so it's very versatile. And then we have some hemp 3D filaments, so this is for 3D printing, and here are some 3D printed items, here's a hemp plastic cup, so this is a bio composite that is made with hemp, of course we have hemp string, so this is-

- [Tammy] So, that's what we normally think about with hemp, is rope, and string, and that type thing.

- Yes.

- [Tammy] And then, talk to us about the consumer products, because this is where I think it's interesting, tell us about these products here.

- Yeah, so these are primarily made with the hemp seed, these are dehulled hemp seeds, often called hemp hearts, and you can also make hemp protein, which is primarily the hull of the hemp plant, it has a good source of fiber, a great source of protein, bioavailable, all of your 20 amino acids, the hemp hearts themselves have a perfect ratio of Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids, so they're a great fish oil supplement replacement.

- And even in beverages, so we've got coffee, soda, even milk.

- Yup, so they're using hemp to press milk with, you can even find hemp ice cream, hemp yogurt, the sodas are really great and they're enriched with cannabinoids which are from the flower, but just an excellent source of nutrition, from the hemp seed.

- And then obviously we've got beauty products as well, so soaps, and creams, and what part of the hemp plant is used in these?

- Yeah, so the soaps are primarily made with the hemp seed oil, so they provide really nourishing benefits as far as extra moisturizing power, the creams and the tinctures down here are typically all made from the flower extract, so you can find full spectrum extracts or just isolate extracts. The isolate is just gonna be your CBD or cannabidiol, and all of these products right here are actually produced right here in Tennessee, too.

- That's fantastic. So obviously we've learned a lot about hemp today, and we realize that hemp is really hip, so Tennessee is on the cutting edge for hemp production, and Paige, thanks for being with us. For easy to grow houseplants, bromeliads are among the best. And today we have Calvin Owen of Tennessee Tropicals, gonna fill us in a little bit about successfully growing bromeliads in the home.

- For sure, bromeliads come in all different shapes and sizes, small, large, medium, colors, you name it. They're all members of the pineapple family, and this is a variegated pineapple, variety named Ivory Coast, now this is gonna be a larger bromeliad eventually, so you wanna make sure you have a lot of space. Typically bromeliads want very bright light, maybe even a little bit of sunlight indoors, allow them to dry out in between waterings, they tolerate neglect like no other. So that makes them very easy.

- [Troy] In the wild, where these grow, they're growing up in the tree tops, so to give people a little bit of perspective, they attach themselves in the crotch of a tree, or up on a tree branch, so they're up there in that bright light, but the only water they get is what falls

- What falls from rain.

- out of the sky.

- [Calvin] Right, a lot of them are epiphytes, like this tillandsia, this is Tillandsia Dyeriana, this plant normally doesn't grow in the soil. It grows on a rock, or a tree branch, and it just kinda hangs out and gets whatever water it gets from the rain that falls, and that's one of the things that makes most bromeliads able to tolerate neglect inside the house.

- [Troy] Right, so a very forgiving house plant. Now these two that are down here in the very front, are particularly interesting, they're almost flat to the ground.

- [Calvin] Yes, both of these are cryptanthus, this variety is Absolute Zero, because of the frosty looking leaves, and this variety is Elaine, and this variety is special to me, I had to acquire this because it's named after my mom. Her name is Elaine.

- Very nice. So on the pineapple, let's talk about it for just a minute, you said this grows larger, obviously this is just a small starter plant, but how big can we expect something like this to get?

- This particular type of pineapple, if it's happy, you can expect it to get two to three feet across, two to three feet tall.

- [Troy] So it would be another plant that would be good for a corner spot.

- For sure, corner,

- Whereas some of these

- smaller ones.

- maybe even up on a pedestal where it gets a little bit of sunlight, and where these leaves can kind of droop a little bit.

- [Calvin] Right, and curl around, that makes the best look. And eventually, if it's very happy, you'll get a nice pink pineapple from it.

- The thing that I like about this one in particular, when I was a kid I used to cut the top off of a pineapple every once in a while and grow one from the green part of the top of the pineapple. Spiny, very spiny. Not very friendly, and this has no spine.

- [Calvin] This is a thornless variety, that makes it even cooler.

- [Troy] Well we've looked at some really pretty little tabletop size bromeliads, but these are specimen plants that you've got up here.

- More landscape sized bromeliads, they would do really well indoors in a sun room, or outdoors in the summer in a shady place, very nice plants for containers out on your patio, but you definitely wanna make sure you have bright light in the winter, to overwinter them.

- But they would make great patio specimens on a shaded patio or maybe with a little morning sun.

- Right, little morning sun or very, very late afternoon sun, but they prefer to be shaded.

- They just come in so many different forms and colors, I mean from kind of silvery gray to these beautiful deep burgundies, and even without a bloom or anything, they're just such spectacular architectural plants.

- Right, they add a lot of structure, some of them have smooth leaves, some of them have spiny leaves, very upright, interesting conversation pieces, even when they're not in bloom.

- Well, and then speaking of blooms, this bloom actually is finished, but this is the seed pod on this plant, correct?

- Right, this is a Ursulaea, it's a fairly rare bromeliad, very spiny, the flowers were blue when it was in bloom. Now the seed pods have a nice frosting on them, and they will eventually make very large berries. But with bromeliads, with all bromeliads, once they bloom, that's the end of it. So she's making pups to be her successors, but this is the final hurrah, for that individual bromeliad.

- Right, and that's something we may wanna explore in just a little bit of detail, and like you just explained so well, once the main, what they call the mother plant, flowers, then that plant slowly, over a period of several months, dies off. But it almost always has made a pup that comes up beside it, sometimes two or three, and those will take over as the mother plant dies off.

- That's the next generation.

- Yeah, that's the next generation.

- So you will always have more, over time.

- And if you start with one, you may end up with two, or three, or four, you know, two or three years down the road, each time they flower.

- Easily.

- One more really beautiful plant down here at our feet before we go, is this really nicely variegated form.

- This is a variegated Vriesea, it has a very nice shape and form, variegated leaves. When it blooms it has a long spike that stands up about five feet tall and is bright orange red.

- That's beautiful.

- But it's very nice already, and even nicer once it blooms.

- We're in Nashville, Tennessee, and I am looking at one of the most beautiful gardens that I've seen in a long time. Lisa, tell me what you have going on here.

- Well, I was really excited to create a bee garden, and you can see, 'cause we've got all different kinds of bees, that they're really excited about it, so we have several colors of monarda, and cardoon, and I wanted it to be purples, reds, and fuchsia. And I think-

- [Sheri] And I think that's a good point that you bring up, most people would not put this combination together, and I think it works really, really well, I think it might be the silver pulling off everything else, that pulls it all together.

- [Lisa] You know bees like bright colors. So I chose the three brightest colors that I thought, the color pallet that went together. Oh, look at all the different kinds, that's just so fun. But I also love prehistoric looking plants and I thought that the cardoon, the silvery splashes, and the dramatic leaf structure would just be pretty with. It makes a beautiful bloom that's similar to an artichoke, it is related, but if you cut that off, I actually have cardoon in other parts of the yard that has existed for six or seven years, as long as you takes the bloom before it develops, then it will continue.

- [Sheri] So like most herbs, if you let it go to seed or flower then it stresses the other plant 'cause it's working on creating that beautiful flower, correct?

- Exactly.

- [Sheri] Okay, alright. But then the traditional bee bomb, as everyone knows it, is beautiful, and I have to say those bloom are quite large. And then you've got them edged nicely here, for a little detail of your boxwood, and what do you have down here, Sunny Border Blue, veronica. And then you've carried on the purple throughout this garden through here, and it looks great because you've edged it, which kind of makes it look nice and compact I think,

- Thank you. with the boxwoods.

- Yes, the Ruby Glow Anis, again, adds some wonderful red. Lisa, in this cute, little vignette here, you've got something growing that I'm not familiar with, and I want to share it, tell us about it.

- [Lisa] Oh, well this is a variegated acanthus, the variety is called Whitewater, and it's really interesting, it's unusual, it's hard to find, when the leaves first emerge they're very white though, sometimes I give it a little bit of shade until it begins it's variegation, but just another prehistoric plant, it's clear that's a theme in my garden isn't it.

- [Sheri] But they're cool. And then you've got a wonderfully large pot with a spiral boxwood in there, do you train that yourself?

- You know, I did! Lots of fun, David and I've kind of liked to trim and train things over the years, and it's kind of fun.

- And then you have beautiful lavender coming. And I noticed in most of your gardens you are edged and bordered with boxwood, is that a favorite thing of yours, you just like the English garden look?

- [Lisa] I don't know, as much as the English garden, as I really like the structure of boxwood, and then how you can tell unstructured I am a lot of times in my beds. I kinda let things, if they play happy together I let them be together, and so sometimes it's a little crazy looking.

- Lisa, I like what you've done here, explain to us please.

- Oh, thank you. This is a contorted filburt, and the nature of it is the foliage is all the way to the ground, but I appreciate the branching structure, so I removed the leaves, first of all that I can see out the window, I have a wonderful light that casts the shadows at night. I really like what it leaves me with. And then of course we've got the Chinese ginger under, and all kinds of little ferns, it looks like a little fairy land to me.

- [Sheri] It's very cute, very cute.

- [Lisa] Back to the prehistoric again, my little, I think succulents, again look like they could have lived long ago, my little prehistoric garden.

- [Sheri] Lisa I love your containers here, tell me briefly about these.

- Thank you, these are faux bois that are hand-painted, from a single piece of limestone, most of them in the early 1800s. And again, the prehistoric look of all the variety of succulents, just mixing color and texture, the end of the hot summer these will just be filled and gorgeous, I just like the look.

- And I gotta say, this is so cool!

- [Lisa] Thank you so much, well-

- And you braided this yourself?

- [Lisa] Well, you know it's just fun to try different things, so they can grow all straight, but thought that might be something to do

- So this is what it looks like before you've trained it, correct, before you braided it, this new little baby here?

- [Lisa] Exactly.

- Something to aspire to, I guess. I love your meandering border perennials back here, let's talk a little bit about this. In the forefront we have Creeping Jenny, which some don't like, but you know it's such a beautiful contrasting color to everything else.

- [Lisa] Yes, it's certainly a bang for your buck isn't it.

- [Sheri] And keeps the weeds out as well. And then what's right behind it there?

- [Lisa] It's one of the many epimediums, or barrenwort, I think there's 44 now, and we have 31 of them in the garden. They're not really blooming now, but I still think they add architectural interest, I love the heart shaped leave, and of course, when they're putting off their orchid like blooms they're just incredible.

- [Sheri] And this right here, you also thinks this looks prehistoric?

- [Lisa] Yeah, that's Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow, again a beautiful foliage, but the flowers, also pretty spectacular.

- [Sheri] Lisa let's talk about this prehistoric plant.

- [Lisa] Yes, this is an acanthus, of course related to the whitewater you saw in the back, and it's in bloom! Mustn't touch though, it's awfully sticky. And then we have ligularia, this is Othello, I absolutely love the beautiful fan and the red underneath, it's just a lot of bang for your buck, and produces a beautiful canary yellow bloom couple of times a year. This is Ascot Rainbow again but bloomed, and I just, you know, how can you not appreciate the gorgeous foliage, and how it's perfectly variegated to the middle with that beautiful little red flower, and then the seed pods on the end, I mean it's just exquisite.

- [Sheri] I'm impressed, I mean, you have really textbook borders as far as your Oakleaf Hydrangeas, how you've got the tall blocking, your neighbors and your fence row, and then you go to the medium, and you go low in front, and then you go the creeping, and I think it's just spectacular.

- [Lisa] Oh, thank you so much.

- [Sheri] And we have another wort Lisa, what kind is this one?

- [Lisa] Ah, this is Lungwort. Not many people want to grow it. I don't think the foliage is especially pretty, sometimes I, or, excuse me, flowers are especially pretty, sometimes I pick them off, but I just love the foliage, I just think it's fabulous, and what a great name.

- [Sheri] That would be great in cut flower arrangements as well, just because of the variegation.

- [Lisa] Oh, good idea.

- [Sheri] You know, we have coined the phrase prehistoric plants, they're really not, but let's talk about this one right here, what is this?

- [Lisa] I just think it's the most incredible euphorbia, some people call it a Cranial Euphorbia, or an Upright Euphorbia, and it's just really special, and I have two of them.

- [Sheri] Well it is spectacular. One of my favorite cedars, Lisa, Blue Atlas, how long has that been there?

- [Lisa] This has been here for 17 years, underplanted by all kinds of sedum, and then mostly thyme. This is a constantly changing thyme bed, because as you know, some grow more aggressively than others, and-

- [Sheri] Well, let's talk about that for a second, because not everybody realizes, they think they can just plant thyme and it will just mingle and get along with each other, but it doesn't.

- [Lisa] Oh no, and so I'm constantly, when someone offends someone else I'm moving him around, and I don't let anyone take too much space, but as you can see, sometimes they take advantage before you get to them. But I like to continue to add other colors and textures, upright and low growing, for interest.

- [Sheri] And let's talk about your different heights of your boxwoods here.

- [Lisa] Well, this is a collection of miniature boxwoods that actually have also been here 17 years, and I have not begun clouding these yet, because they're just not large enough, and I've just begun clouding these, but yes, all different varieties, some of them more rare than others, and just again, architectural interest.

- [Sheri] Lisa, thank you to you and your husband, you have done such a wonderful job, magnificent actually.

- [Lisa] It was a pleasure to have you.

- [Sheri] Thank you. For inspiring garden tours, growing tips, and garden projects, visit our website, at VolunteerGardener.org, or on YouTube, at the VolunteerGardener channel. And like us on Facebook.