Escondido-based Marijuana Company of America (MCOA) has announced the commencement of commercial planting at its farm in Scio, Oregon along with joint venture partner Global Hemp Group.
MCOA began the partnership with Global Hemp Group in 2018 which aims to produce high-quality, smokeable hemp flower containing less than 0.3 percent THC.
According to the company, trimmed, high-end hemp flower currently wholesales for ten times as much as CBD biomass used for extraction.
The Oregon farm, which operates under the name Covered Bridge Acres, has just finished preparing 35 acres for planting and is in the final stages of mulching and installing irrigation drip lines.
The farm uses an environmentally-friendly biodegradable plastic mulch imported from Canada to help eliminate waste at the end of the season, reducing costs and time needed to remove it from the field.
Covered Bridge Acres is currently going through the steps to obtain organic certification.
This year’s hemp plants were sprouted from seed or produced through the farm’s onsite greenhouse cloning operation which has eliminated their need to purchase clones from third parties.
During the 2019 season, the team expects to plant and grow 40,000 to 50,000 hemp plants with a CBD content between 12 and 15 percent.
MCOA says that any excess clones that are not used in the field will be sold or used for expansion.
In May, MCOA signed a letter of intent with Essence Farms LLC to form the Riverside Hemp Project and produce hemp on 500 acres of farmland in Southern California.
