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Hemp retting is the physico-chemical process by which fibres of interest contained in the stems of the hemp (or other crops of interest) separates from other constituents and become available for industrial use. Several processes (natural or industrial ) are available for retting. Retting in the field is commonly used but a difficulty is to stop the process at the right moment. Retting is in fact the initial stage of a more general process of crop material decomposition left on soil surface. VSoil will be used to model the process using as a starting point the models and modules already available for simulating the fate of crop residues left on the soil. The modules will be improved and enriched to predict the variables of interest. The model predictions will be compared with experiments carried out in the laboratory on soil columns covered by hemp stems and monitored for climate and soil state variables. The model could later be a tool to help harvesting the stems at an optimal time.

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