Hemp cultivators will know that only female plants can grow flowers, the component from which cannabinoids are extracted to make CBD products.
Male plants on the other hand only produce pollen sacs, a useful tool for breeding but detrimental for farmers seeking to produce a high yield of usable hemp.
In the 1970s, cannabis and hemp growers discovered that growing only female plants or removing male plants before they matured boosted both the yield and potency of their end product.
They found that the longer a female plant is left unpollinated, the larger it will grow, meaning farmers can produce a greater number of flowers with a higher yield of cannabinoids.
A 1998 study confirmed this, revealing that pollination of female plants resulted in a yield 56 percent lower than an unpollinated crop.
To maximise their profits, some farmers inject a huge amount of time and resources into identifying and removing male plants before they release their pollen.
However, distinguishing between the two sexes is a near impossible task. Male and female plants look almost identical until the flowering stage, at which point it is too late to prevent pollination.
Farmers can buy feminised seed to sidestep this issue, however very few can justify the significantly higher costs compared to scattered seeds which contain both genders.
But Irish company Greenheart CBD has partnered with Canadian technology firm, Zenadrone, to develop an artificial intelligence drone that can solve the problem.
The six-foot drone features a robotic arm that can pinpoint and remove the male plants before pollination. The result is a crop consisting only of unpollinated female plants with space to grow to their maximum size.
According to Greenheart co-founder, Paul Walsh, an average farmer in Ireland would expect to produce around 200kg of dried flower per acre. Using its drone technology, Greenheart is able to yield 1,000kg per acre.
Walsh claimed: “There’s nothing else like it in the world, it’s completely groundbreaking. It’s like when the tractor first came to the farm – well this is the new tractor.”
The drone also serves as a security tool, with camera systems which are connected to a mobile app meaning farmers can monitor their crop 24 hours a day. And as well as boosting profitability by allowing for a higher yield, it also collects data throughout the process, ensuring full traceability of the hemp plants from the farm, through its production facility, where cold press technology is used to extract cannabinoids and terpenes from crops.
As opposed to the more popular methods of extraction using CO2 or ethanol, cold-press technology subjects hemp flower to high pressures at relatively low temperatures to produce an extract that contains the entire spectrum of cannabinoids and terpenes.
Greenheart has now developed several cosmetic products along with three flavours of CBD-infused popcorn, with a new range of protein-based CBD products under development.
Before venturing into the cannabis and CBD sector, Walsh built a career in blockchain technology, working for a number of multinational tech companies, including PayPal.
After several years in the sector, he decided to return to his home country of Ireland to integrate the cryptocurrency system into the Irish hemp sector.
In 2019, he teamed up with fellow entrepreneur, Mark Canavan, and the duo set out to address some of the key challenges faced by the sector.
Walsh said: “While doing market research for a previous company, I noticed that a lot of farmers were in a bad state of affairs.
“A couple of farmers were taking the risk and trying to grow hemp. When I got to them and asked them what the problems were, they had no infrastructure, they had no sales channels, they really didn’t know what they were doing or how to get this crop to market.
“They could grow an absolutely fabulous crop, but when it came to the processing of the crop, and getting it to the market it was something that they were lacking [expertise] in.”
The strict laws and regulations surrounding cannabis has led to CBD companies facing various issues with banking and payment processes.
Many struggle to build relationships with mainstream payment providers and instead have to rely on high-risk payment processors with high fees to sell their products.
In an effort to tackle these issues, Greenheart CBD made the bold decision to launch its own cryptocurrency called Punt, named after the old Irish currency.
Through Greenheart’s mobile application, customers can buy its products and earn rewards and exclusive discounts for using the new Punt.
Walsh said: “It solves a lot of issues. There are lower transaction fees and it is very adaptable for our customers.
“The benefits of this cryptocurrency is that as the project grows, the price grows.”
With the data gathered from the AI drone, coupled with the financial data collected through its mobile app, Greenheart is able to trace all of its products back to the original source and make the information available to the end-consumer.
Walsh said: “We have a completely transparent chain, literally from the farm itself to the currency.
“In our mobile app we have a QR code scanner so on every product that you get, you can scan the QR code and get access to all the information about the plants, the farm where it was grown, the processes it went through, the blend that it went through, what it was mixed with and the travel lifecycle of the product.
“All the information needed for you to make a sound decision on whether this product is high quality, and whether it’s worth the money.”
Greenheart’s efforts to bring cutting edge tech into the hemp sector hasn’t gone unnoticed. This year, the company received an All-Star Award from the All-Ireland Business Foundation and Walsh was accredited as a thought-leader in innovation, technology and sustainability.
Greenheart has experienced impressive growth since its launch and is now shipping its products to 49 countries. In its first year, the company grew by 500 percent and is expected to grow by a further 1,000 percent in 2021.
The company is now developing a “plug and play system” so other farmers can use the innovative technology. The 40ft container can be installed on any farm and allows cultivators to immediately start growing their own hemp crops, manufacture products and get their products out to market.
Walsh said: “This technology is very low cost and efficient. We’re taking all this technology and combining it together, making a plug and play system that you can drop onto any farm or any location in the world.”
The young company now has its sights set on international expansion with a new production facility under construction in New Jersey, USA and plans to build another facility in Queensland, Australia.
Walsh said: “We’ve grown exponentially and now we’re looking to expand globally to any farm or location in the world.
“This will enable farmers to start growing the hemp crop and producing a high quality product and with the drone recording the data we can relay that back to any government or government agency which requires full transparency.”
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