Category: Hemp

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Construction Growing Food Hemp Hemp

Have we found Hemp Shivs for Construction in Romania?

On Feb 23rd Andreea and I went to see some hemp. Two people sent us to Carei in the northern area of Satu-Mare where once (until ~3 years ago) there operated the last decortication (the process in which hemp fibers are separated from the wooden core which we need for construction) in Romania. It was a 5 hour train ride in each direction – and on the way there I was amused as I realized how far my life had come – I was excited to be on a 10 hour journey to see … hay!

This was also a wonderful opportunity for us to meet with Dorin Pop, a construction engineer who works with Teodor Pop of Lux Perennial. Dorin met us at the train station together with his friend and together we drove off to see hemp.

The picture below is what greeted us – deserted tanks where water used for retting (partial decompisition of the glue-like materials that holds together the fibers and the wooden core). In the background are fields where hemp was once grown. At the turn of the century in the area of Satu-Mare alone there used to be 8,000 hectares of hemp (for fiber) crop.

We met with Rodica Maxi who was the founder and owner of the decortication plant. The plant has been shut down for over 2 years, now there are just a couple of offices which are also in their last days. Rodica is one of the people responsible for recent legislation that lays out a simple legal process for acquiring license from the government to grow industrial hemp. She is looking forward to rebuilding the hemp-industry in Romania. Here is Rodica proudly showing and explaining to us abou hemp.

This image of a picture Rodica shows us standing proudly by fields of hemp seems to hold an entire history of hemp in Romania.

After a pleasant conversation we went to see the hemp. We were disappointed to find that the hemp is kept outside. A large venting pipe used to run from the plant and into this field where the leftovers from the decortication were dumped. We were surprised to learn that a form of hemp-construction has been going on in Romania for quite a while – that churches often purchased the hemp-shivs and used them as a stucco-sublayer for renovation and decorative paintings.

According to Rodica it is a pile of approximately 200 tons of hemp with about 10% fibers. This next image with people in it can give you some idea of the dimension of the pile.

We were extremely excited to be standing next to this pile of hay. This is the first time we’ve seen hemp and in such large quantities! The top layers are wet and rotted and therefor useless to us for construction though they would probably make an excellent fertilizer. But the middle layers looked very promising and we took a sample with us.

On the way home I kept playing around like a child with the material we took with us. As hours passed on the way back we realized that there may be a problem with the material. Outside is was probably frozen and thereforeĀ  looked and felt dry. But after spending some time in a sealed plastic bag it warmed up and began to sweat and a moldy smell began to form. We’ve been monitoring it for a few weeks and though visible mold has not appeared the smell is still there.

Rodica has offered us to take as much as we need at a symbolic price. It would be our responsibility to package and ship it to our land. It is a magical opportunity but we are still not sure about the reliability of the material for construction. We don’t want to build a house only to find after a couple of years that the insulation and breathability of the walls has been compromised and that they are rotting.

Stay tuned for more šŸ™‚

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Construction Growing Food Hemp Hemp Research Resources

Self Grown Hemp for Construction

Wouldn’t it be ideal if you could grown your own hemp and then use it to build your home? 1 or 2 hectares of hemp stalk is potentially all you need to harvest enough building materials to build a house. Imagine that – growing your own house!Ā  … but it isn’t a simple thing to do.

The hemp plant has four elements: seeds, leaves, fibers and a wooden core. The part you need for construction is the wooden core – also called the hurd or shiv. Separating it from the other elements of the plant requires effort. You need to grow the hemp, deffoliate it (remove the leaves) before harvesting, harvest or remove the seeds, harvest the stalk, let it ret (start decomposing so that the fibers can be separated from the hurd) and then decorticate it.

This finally step of decortication seems like the greatest obstacle – this is the process of separating the fiber and the wooden core. It can be done either through massive manual labor (of which I don’t yet have all the details – but it involves collecting the harvested stalks into small bales and then beating them to separate the fibers and wooden core) or in an industrial process. The indutrial process is usually designed to extract the fibers, the actual wooden shiv is simply a left over of that process.

It would be so much easier to grow your own construction hemp if decortication could be avoided – and this may be possible but my understanding is that it depends on the climate you live in. This research paper on Hemp-Concretes claims that it is possible to create hempcrete using both shives and fibers – BUT it is important to note that the research focuses on the structural aspects of the resulting hempcrete. It does not address the effect of fibers on insulation and breathability of the hempcrete.

Introduction of fiber to the hempcrete mix can cause humidity problems. When fibers are clumped together they tend to draw moisture and that is not something you want to happen in your wall. According to Steve Allin it is possible to add 5%-15% of fiber to the mix but not much more. This may be less of an issue in a hot and dry climate – but otherwise the risk seems unwarranted.

Maybe when the hemp industry matures it will be possible to cultivate stalks with very little fiber and a massive wooden core – which could then be used in whole? For now though it seems that self-grown hemp is not a feasibly reliable option for construction unless you have the means to decorticate it.

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Growing Food Hemp

Evolution of Hemp Processing – A Story in Images

I came across this PDF presentation on the European Indutrial Hemp Association website – it has some great and educational images in it on the evolution of hemp processing.

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Growing Food Hemp

What About Growing Hemp?

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Growing Food Hemp

What Happened to Hemp in Romania?

Hemp is currently our preferred method of construction so naturally we are looking around to see where we can find it. Eventually we also hope to grow it for personal uses for food, oil, fibers and to provide building materials for other Romanians who may wish to build with Hemp.

Here is what we know:

  1. There used to be a promising Hemp industry in Romania – very little remains of it.
  2. The soil and moisture conditions in Romania are excellent for growing hemp.
  3. We tried contacting Advantages (hemp naufacturer from Timisioara) and were told they no longer exist.
  4. There is an impressive international! Romanian company in Solanta called Canah that manufacture wonderful hemp-based food-products.
  5. Though they would like to rely on local (Romanian) supply Canah imports most of its raw materials.
  6. It is (theoretically) possible to grow hemp in Romania – for which you need an approval in advance and additional monitoring while you grow and harvest the crop.
  7. Every year, just before Christmas, hemp seeds appear in Romanian markets – they are used to bake a traditional holiday-cake – it is unclear where these hemp-seeds come from (one speculative theory is that it comes from Moldova).

One of the (numerous) ecological aspects of hemp is that it can be grown (and processed) close to where it is actually needed. This reduces the need to transport it across great distances. Transporting it leads to carbon emissions which defeat it’s ecological benefits. We are making an effort to find a Romanian farmer from whom we can purchase the hemp we need to build our home.

Though we will do our best to leave as little ecological damage in getting our hemp it would be an ironic-shame if we had to take our money elsewhere (Hungary, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Holland, UK, etc.).

So my question to anyone who happens to read this and know something about it is what happened to Hemp in Romania? Why was it illegalized? Why was a promising industry shut down? Who could possible havy gained from this? What can be done to fix what looks like a tragic mistake for the Romanian economy?

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Growing Food Hemp

Information on Harvesting Hemp – Part 1

Inspiration

I am currently living with an inspiring notion that we will (1) be able to grow the hemp needed to build our future home and (2) that we will have enough land to grow a houses-worth of hemp every year so that someone else will be able to do the same.

Introduction

Though I have to say that the more I explore the world of Hemp the more doubts about this being a feasible goal. At the end of this post you will find some links and PDF’s I read and that led to my current understanding.

Hemp seems to be a relatively easy crop to grow. It’s strong, it doesn’t require pesticides, it grows pretty fast (~4 months) and it even renews the land in which it is grown. The more substantial challenge is harvesting and processing it.

Three Parts of Hemp

There are three parts to the hemp plant – each with it’s own uses:

  1. The seeds can be used for all kinds of food products, oils and other medicinal by-products.
  2. The fibers have all kinds of industrial uses (from clothes to cars) – they are the middle layers of the stalk covered by a thin protective layer.
  3. The hurd – the wooden core that is left over after the fibers have been extracted – which is the part popularly used (together with lime) for construction (although I have come across information that indicates that it is possible to use the fibers and curd together for construction – which means that they don’t need to be separated).

Some Hemp Harvesting Facts

  1. Seeds and stalk don’t mature together – they are (or at least should be) harvested at different times. Both the seeds and the fibers have (different) optimal times for harvesting – beyond which both lose some of the potency and qualities.
  2. The seeds don’t mature all at once – they tend to mature in two cycles. Harvesting time is when you think you can harvest the most mature crop (when some of the seeds may have decayed or lost their potency and others still not quite matured).
  3. Hemp is a tough plant – so you need resilient and strong harvesting tools. The strength of the fiber means it’s hard to cut down and the length of the stalk means it will catch on to and jam any moving part it finds (for example – combine machinery) – which means that you either need powerful harvesting machines – or that harvesting may be slow and tedious.
  4. Hemp is a tall plant (much taller then wheat or barley) – which means you need harvesting equipment that can reach up high.
  5. When the stalk is cut, it is useful to do it in such a way that it is then easy to collect into bales – if I understood correctly what this means is that the harvester needs to leave the cut stalks uniformly oriented on the ground.
  6. The stalks should be cut as long as possible – long fibers are generally better and more useful then shorter ones.
  7. It is possible to harvest both seed and stalk. Seeds go first (duh!) – but then you not only need tall harvesting equipment but it also needs to be sharp and fast spinning – so that the stalk is cut cleanly – leaving long fibers in tact.
  8. The primary processing for seeds is removing them from their shells – I still don’t have information on how that is done.
  9. The primary processing for stalk is separating the fibers from the wooden sheathe (this is called “decortication”- whichI am guessing comes from the idea of removing the core and, apparently, originates from a medical surgical process of separation). There are numerous methods for this – but generally they seem to be divided in two: industrial processes and organic/natural processes. I am less interested in the industrial aspect so I focused a bit more on the natural processes. Apparently the idea is to use water to cause decomposition of a kind of “glue” that keeps the fiber and curd attached. Usually natural dampness like dew will do the trick. You need to keep an eye out on the crop until separation begins – then you need to let it dry for a few days. I am not yet clear on all the details of this process.

All these facts seem to eminate from an industrial/financial view point. They are focused on creating optimal yields and financial returns. If harvesting and processing hemp can only be done using heavy and expensive machinery – that means that growing just a few acres or a hectare of hemp isn’t feasible.Ā  I was somewhat discouraged by this. But …

Since hemp has been grown for hundreds of years (if not thousands) I am sure there is much knowledge on how to do it on a smaller scale – for home needs but I haven’t been able to find any information on this yet. It may require more manual labour but I am confident it is possible. Our needs are humble – maybe to build another small structure for meditation, enough seeds for eating, making oils … the needs of a small family.

I’ll continue to look for more home-oriented information on this – I promise to share it here when I do find it.

Resources and Further Reading

Links:

PDF’s: