I'm under the assumption based on the progression and potency of the kind people smoke or use otherwise, there has to be 2 completely different methods to grow each one. Based on news reports profiling these cartels that set up huge grow operations, they have to have people working to nurture individual plants, doing whatever is needed. Reason I say that is, there is always an encampment, they often times show law enforcement on site and what is left behind from a group of people living on site.
Judging by whats on you tube showing the harvest of the industrial type, its a much heavier population of plants that does not contain any significant amounts of THC,(well you can't see that there, but they are different)Industrial hemp is grown without having to look after individual plants from what I can see. So one is mass production and sure like they did 15 or so miles north of here a few years back, there were several thousand plants found in a remote area in a predominantly agricultural area, unbeknownst to the land owner. I assume that was not destined for rope, but who and how many people were looking after it? I think it was one of the largest busts on record. It's definitely not something you toss in the ground and come back months later to and collect as high grade smoke. If it was, it would be unstoppable like ditch weed.
There is definitely a distinct difference, and I guess people are pushing it, authorities trying to sort it out given the current affairs about legality.
I think the eradication of industrial hemp was similar to the situation with trolley cars and a company like GM wanting to build buses. Same thing happened, trolley cars were eliminated, replaced with buses and it was big business like GM that made it so with however it was done, they wanted the profits off those sales, nothing was to stand in their way.
Thinking on the other side of it, if industrial was legal, one would think that there is also validity to someone wanting to use it as cover for the other type. Not sure how cross pollination would work, but they would get mostly seed or grain, more than anything to smoke as I understand it in regards pollination. If the female gets pollinated, you get grain. Not sure how that works entirely, similar to other self pollinating plants except there are male and female plants. How do they get all females in a stand of either type without having to go in and remove the other type. Is industrial all male, both or what? If both, then you can't grow the other without getting grain. There is a demand for the seed to and I have seen hemp infused products at the grocery store, trying to think where in heck I saw it now.
That would drive the eradication guys in the helicopters nuts if there were commercial crops of the industrial hemp that had the other mixed in. They make a 100 or so flights a season locally + routine calls, and its becoming more evident that people have attempted growing in their back yards, gardens and so on, which explains their presence here at times, looking closely around peoples homes. Past few years they have been checking here and the surrounding areas. A friend who I let cross through here on a side by side said someone got nailed in recent times doing just that, and that explains why we have seen them above our houses as of late, they never flew like that around here before. Fields of industrial... even with those high tech cameras they have, would seem impossible to find the illicit stuff anyway, which if was all seed, there is nothing to smoke, well someone would probably still try to make use of it given how people are. Look on the web, tons of photos of what they smoke, and its not grain LOL !
Its an interesting scenario, fun discussion given the uses of the plant, but too darned complicated unless it was legal somehow, no doubt the products from it would sell. Seems it may get sorted out eventually, be cool to have hemp rope, that nylon stuff has its benefits, but the sun ruins it, and it eventually gets chalky, nasty strands and even splinters, nothing worse than old sun beaten nylon rope. Hemp probably not good if left outside or does it tolerate rain and such ?
Thinking of alternate crops, I've seen quite a few trellis's up lately, for hops. A local brew master stated to me, he'd buy all I could produce if I grew it. These are related somehow, distant cousins or something. I like seeing different crops, the farmer I used to help was always into a variety of things for many years. It'd be really cool to see barley and hops come back, barring that darned blight years ago, nothing like a good quality craft beer made from fresh local ingredients.
Lately I have seen sunflower, soybeans and quite a bit of vegetable crops in this town, never saw a field of sunflower before, nor soybeans how in heck they keep the birds or rodents off that sunflower is beyond me, but it looked really nice when it was in bloom. Beyond the debate or discussion of the above, diversity in agriculture is an interesting subject.
