What Are Hemp Stems Good For?

You might think we are crazy for suggesting that hemp stems have any use at all after the trimming process. But if you know more about hemp plants than the average consumer, you will know that you shouldn’t let any part of this precious plant go to waste. You can transform hemp stems into a variety of CBD-infused products at home. And with specialized machinery, manufacturers can turn hemp stems into even more useful products. Read on to learn why you should never let a good hemp stem go to waste.

Does Good Dry Herb Have Stems?

All dry herb that you purchase in a dispensary will come attached to a stem, no matter how dense the bud is. The stem is what the flower grows on, and it is needed to support these resinous buds. Typically, the stems in dry herb are a bit smaller than the main stem, or trunk, of the hemp plant. But depending on the strain of the hemp plant, the stem size and shape will vary. However, stems are often looked down upon because they do not contain any trichomes. And it is not recommended to smoke the stems of a hemp plant. So, what can you do with them?

What Can You Do with Leftover Hemp Stems?

Smoking hemp stems will not provide any beneficial effects. If you smoke a stem, it is like smoking common plant matter and can potentially cause damage to the lungs. There is just not enough cannabinoids present in stems to make smoking them worthwhile.

However, hemp stems can still have other uses. Since stems are difficult to separate from trim, and they are often dusted with trichomes from trimming, they can still be used to make other infused products. Stems can be processed with trim to make edibles, tea, tinctures, topicals, and many other products.

Make CBD Edibles or Tea

When you make CBD-infused butter or cooking oil, you can use a mixture of trim and stems to infuse the base with cannabinoids. Although trim and stems are not pleasant to smoke, they contain enough cannabinoids to infuse butter or oil. You can also add them to boil water to steep into a CBD-infused tea. Stems are easy to strain out of a butter, oil, or tea mixture too so that you are not left with any residual plant matter in your final product. With CBD-infused butter or cooking oil in your kitchen, the possibilities for edibles are possibly endless. And a homemade CBD tea made from leftover dry herb stems can make the perfect nightcap before bed.

Make A CBD Tincture or Topical

You can use a variety of steeping and extraction methods to make CBD tinctures or topicals from hemp stems too. The simplest method is to decarboxylate the stems along with some hemp trim. Then add this decarboxylated hemp plant matter to an alcohol or oil base to steep. This infused oil or alcohol can then be mixed with other natural ingredients to make your own tincture at home or added to a moisturizing base to create a topical. If you prefer to micro dose your CBD, then you can even use stems to make a very low-dose CBD tincture or topical at home.

Manufacturers of CBD tinctures and topicals have methods and machinery that can speed this process up. But they are working with the same type of hemp plant matter. They do not let any good part of the plant go to waste, including the stems. The resulting products are tested too, to make sure they have a certain range of cannabinoids present before it hits the shelves of a licensed dispensary.

How Do Commercial Manufacturers Use Hemp Stems?

Some of the most common uses for hemp stems though are reserved for commercial manufacturers with industrial machinery. That is because they take the sturdy stalks of a hemp plant, break them down, and process them into durable materials and textiles. Hemp clothing, bags, paper products, and rope are becoming increasingly popular because of how easy hemp products are to manufacture on an industrial scale. Hemp plants grow fast, faster than trees, and can be a sustainable alternative material for manufacturing common household products.

The uses for hemp stems are only growing every day. Some industrial manufacturers are turning hemp stems into rope, paper, wood chips, plant-based concrete, fabric, and so much more. You can turn hemp stems into micro-dose level CBD tinctures, topicals, edibles, or tea. There is no need to waste any part of the hemp plant, not even the trichome lacking stem. So next time you have a handful of leftover stems lying around, toss them into a bit of high-proof, food-grade alcohol and see what happens!]

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