Hemp stalks, retting

Hemp is retted in water tanks in a manner similar to flax, after which the stalks are laid out to dry. The fibres are then separated either manually or mechanically by passing through fluted rollers which crush the woody tissues. At this state the hemp is softened by beating with a softwood mallet on a flat stone or a hard floor. The same effect can also be achieved when a heavy millstone, usually operated by water power, rolls over the fibres for 3 or 4 hours. Finally the fibres, which tend to stick together, are separated by combing. 

They began working with people around the world Romanian farmers who dew- or field-ret hemp stalks a Japanese mill owner committed to green processes, even new methods such as using ozone to bleach fabric a 100-year-old Italian mill that produces no wastewater a Chilean mill shifting to entirely green processes an Italian dye house that produces biodegradable, heavy metal free textiles. 

In contrast to the Russian method of production, Kentucky growers left the chopped cannabis stalks on the ground to become dew retted. Water retting was discouraged because Kentucky farmers believed that fish and livestock that drank from a pond in which hemp had been placed would be poisoned. Then, too, the water smelled like rotten eggs after hemp had been soaking in it, "which was considered unhealthy for slaves and twice as bad for whites."... 

Bacci et al. [39] treated nettle stalks with boiling soda solution xmtil the bark, the source of fiber, was easily removed from the core of the stalk than performed alkalization treatment on the bark. Enzymatical fiber retting maybe faster and more reproducible than the traditional biological fiber retting methods and is extensively studied for flax and hemp extraction enhancement [39]. 

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