A revolutionary German-built technology that strips cannabis flowers quicker than current technology will be on display at the Southern Hemp Expo in North Carolina.
A new machine will be on display at this year’s Southern Hemp Expo in Raleigh, North Carolina, taking place 2 September to 4 September, that can strip cannabis flowers up to 12 times faster than current machinery.
The company, HHH Hemp Harvesting Technology, Burgdorf, Germany, has said that cost analysis of fieldwork in Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg showed the HHH 700 model can reduce labour costs by 73%, and brought down the number of staff from 15 to only four workers required to run the harvester in “semi-stationary” operation.
Improving cannabis harvesting
The machine works by workers collecting and then hand feeding bushy cannabis stalks into the harvester’s stripper mechanism as a tractor moves the unit from one spot to the next in the field, and can also operate whilst stationary in farm buildings for indoor and greenhouse growers. It can also collect flowers from conventionally planted, straight-stem industrial hemp varieties while running through the field continuously.
Developer Heinrich Wieker, who worked with manufacturing partner, a German specialised machine maker, Eilhauer, to develop the machine, said that with industrial hemp the machine was up to 20 times faster than hand harvesting.
“With the bushy plants, it’s 12 times faster” than picking the plants by hand, Wieker added, who estimates the HHH reduces the time required for harvesting one bushy cannabis plant from three to five minutes to roughly 30 to 50 seconds.
Using a patented stripping mechanism, the machine detaches cannabis flowers from the stalk and stems, and the flowers can be collected in a bag or container.
In field operation mode for harvesting traditional hemp plants, the hemp stalks are left in the field for retting, and, depending on plant maturity at the time of harvesting, the machine can also shake out the seeds.
European cannabis market
Wieker said that, the company is ready for US market after starting manufacturing and construction of the HHH-700, with a focus on the European market in the first year, and is now addressing demand that has developed in the US in 2021.
Designed to be efficient for conventionally planted hemp and marijuana grows as small as five hectares, the standard single-unit HHH can harvest up to two hectares per day in industrial hemp and 0.5 to one hectares in bushy crops.
Wieker said: “Existing flower harvesters weigh 18 tonnes, cost more than €600,000, consume enormous amounts of fuel and are difficult to transport over longer distances.”
The machine has been in development and production for four years and has an aluminum frame and rollers for weight reduction, as well as stainless steel components such as chains and other flower-contacting parts for pharmacy- and food-grade yields.
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