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Growing flax
gfugal:
I wish I could grow hemp, but dumb government mistakes it for ol Mary Jane. Other fiber options are Jute, Sisal, Nettle, Yucca, ect. Does anybody grow any of these for the purpose of harvesting fiber?
Flax is probably best for string because of how stiff it is, but it may be too stiff for a backing if used too much, and some of these other options might be better.
Hawkdancer:
There are a number of legal hemp producers that would probably have fiber available to sell, or advise you on growing your own. Sent pm.
Hawkdancer
gfugal:
Yeah, I would have to buy hemp. You can only grow hemp commercially but only after jumping through regulations and inspections. Even then there's no guarantee, and it depends a lot on the state. This is because it's like a close cousin to marijuana or something, and the government thinks you might claim you're growing hemp when you're actually growing weed, or maybe at least hiding it in with your hemp.
It looks like Jute and Sisal are tropical plants. So I don't think it's an option to grow them here either unless I made a greenhouse or something. Looks like flax, nettle, and yucca are my only growing options.
willie:
has anyone tried to harvest nettle during the bloom, like with flax?
gfugal:
So if you do a google search for the stiffness (MOE) of nettle you get a value of 87 GPa which is higher than any value I've seen for flax! Maybe nettle could be a contender against flax for a natural bow string material? I also see a topic on the cooking form that you can eat it, and is tasty? Maybe there's more merit to growing nettle than originally thought.
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