Ramie

Jute and kenaf are freed from their stems by retting, a cheap microbial process. Ramie resists it, and the gum that remains after decortication — reported around a quarter of the fibre weight — has to be removed chemically or enzymatically. That extra step, with its cost and its effluent, is the single clearest reason a fibre this good has never displaced cheaper ones.

Fertilizer rates, timing, and forms should follow local soil tests and regional guidance. AgricultureID does not publish universal fertilizer recommendations.

Ramie is perennial and is cut two or three times a year, sometimes more, for many years from one establishment. That spreads establishment cost over a long run and makes the crop attractive where labour for cutting is available, and it means the field is committed for years rather than a season.

The individual fibre cells are exceptionally long and the fibre is strong, lustrous, absorbent and resistant to bacteria and mildew. It also stiffens and breaks under repeated bending, which limits its use in clothing to blends, and blending with other bast fibres is a standard route to usable yarn.

Management combines resistant varieties, rotation, monitoring, and — where justified — locally authorized control products applied according to their labels.

Harvest, decortication and degumming are all labour-intensive at the scales ramie is grown at, and mechanised decortication has never fully displaced hand and small-machine processing. As with sisal, the crop's history follows wage levels more closely than it follows agronomy.

Boehmeria nivea belongs to the nettle family but is not a stinging nettle, and it should not be confused with the fibre taken from stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, which is a different plant and a different, much smaller trade.

China produces the large majority of world ramie and holds most of the germplasm and the research, so the published agronomy for the crop is heavily Chinese. Records and figures for ramie outside that literature are correspondingly sparse.

Commercial plantings are established from rhizome divisions or stem cuttings rather than from seed, which fixes the clone and carries forward whatever the parent stand had. Clean planting material is therefore a disease question as much as a quality one.

Ramie needs deep fertile soil and consistent moisture to sustain several cuts a year, and it does poorly on shallow or waterlogged ground. It is a demanding perennial rather than a marginal-land crop, which distinguishes it sharply from sisal and from kenaf.

Soil suitability should be assessed with local soil survey information and, where available, field testing.

Ramie is used in blended fabrics, sewing thread, industrial textiles and increasingly in natural-fibre composites, where its strength and low density are the attraction. Composite use is the most active area of demand and is judged on different properties from apparel.