ribboning

An alternative method of retting whole stems which rets the outer part of the plant stem. Known as ribboning, it produces strips of fibre containing bast. A simple ribboner is the bicycle ribboner.  The Alvan Blanch ribboner is based on an existing small-scale rice thresher.

Advantages of ribboning:

• Less water required for retting
• Valuable plant nutrients are returned to the soil
• Less weight of material to transport

Disadvantages of ribboning:

• Additional labour required for green stem stripping by hand
• Mechanical ribboning requires high capital outlay for ribboners
• Retting fibre from ribbons tends to be inferior to fibre from retted whole stems