When to Harvest Cannabis for CBD

As any grower knows, there are optimal times to harvest cannabis, especially if you are looking for a high yield of CBD. A new study by the Royal Society gives us insight into the best cannabis harvest times for CBD. The study discusses how researchers solved the debate on when the best time is to harvest cannabis to maximize the yield for CBD. The researchers also figured out the best ways to grow cannabis for CBD yield, too.

Timing is Everything

If you’re a cannabis grower, you are likely aware you need to harvest your cannabis plant differently if the goal is to maximize the yield for CBD. There is a direct effect of harvest time on the compositional changes in essential oils, cannabinoids, and waxes of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.). These important compositional changes occur from inflorescences (tops), leaves, and stems of hemp. The recent study by the Royal Society found that over 85% of the total extracts from the tops were cannabinoids, while the leaves demonstrated the greatest numbers of wax ester and sterols. Interestingly, essential oil and cannabinoid continued to increase in tops until full flowering, or the third harvest. Cannabinoids, however, decreased at seed maturity. This important finding highlights the necessity of early harvesting to maximize CBD output. Additionally, harvesting the tops after budding is preferred due to the high CBD content and low THC.

High Demand for CBD

While cannabis legalization sweeps the nation, the demand for cannabinoids is growing. The global market for CBD is expected to reach $9.69 billion by 2025, according to the study. In a recent SingleCare survey, it was found that over one-third of Americans have used CBD. That’s over 33% of Americans who have used CBD products at least once. Also, the survey found that of those who tried CBD products, 68% of people found it to be effective for pain relief or inflammation. Although the study only surveyed 2,000 people, the numbers get interesting if we apply them to the entire population of our country. In 2020, the U.S. population hit 329.5 million people. This means that about 109 million Americans have tried CBD, and 74 million of those people found it to be effective!

Cannabidol, also known as CBD, is an active chemical compound that is naturally found in a grower’s cannabis plants. Hailed as a popular alternative medicine treatment for various ailments, CBD without THC can be found in topicals, gummies, edibles, oils, tinctures, bud flower, and vapes. Users prefer CBD to THC for a variety of ailments, such as joint pain, inflammation, eczema, depression, and epilepsy. Other uses for CBD include anxiety, pain, a muscle disorder called dystonia, Parkinson disease, and insomnia. Mother nature got it right with cannabis- it is truly versatile and offers a variety of uses to help people with an assortment of ailments.

While there are a great number of uses for cannabis, specifically CBD, it’s clearly important to remember timing is everything when harvesting your bud for CBD. If you haven’t checked it out yet, our cannabis bud sorter machine- the VibraSort- is the perfect addition to your cannabis harvesting protocol. Through our research and development, we’ve designed the perfect bud sorter to help you maximize your cannabis yield, whatever your growing goals may be.