From a starting standpoint, can plantings, such as, sun hemp produce too much biomass?
Maybe …. but in the beginning I would much rather have too much thatch than not enough. From a germination standpoint the clover seems to be the only thing that is really finicky to being covered over too much. The rye and peas just pushed right on through it. It may be better to broadcast the clover after mowing and just let it work its own way down to the soil…. or maybe mow the thatch at a taller height and only put a portion of it on the ground. The Japanese farmer from the book actually sowed his seed into the standing crop that was already in the field. He waited two weeks and allowed the seed to sprout first... then he removed the overstory of the mature crop…..spreading the hay back out over the field. This is why I think once you get the soil surface turned into mulch….you may just be able to make the process super simple and only broadcast your fall mix into whatever you grew in the summer. Part of being able to do that will depend on how much sunlight is able to penetrate through whatever is standing in the field. It maybe that mowing about knee high or waist high is just right to remove the overstory and only lightly cover the seed. Still some playing around to do to figure out what’s “just right”.
If you felt like you had too much biomass on the surface you could always make an additional pass over the field with a disk after mowing to further chop it up but then again there we go having to add additional steps. I really like the soil health benefits and the use of less fert, etc…..but one of the biggest benefits to me (and many others) is the time savings. Every hunting club I’ve ever been a part of….its always been a major undertaking to try and do all of our fall plots in one work weekend. Not having to make numerous passes over every field really speeds things up. We even made a mixing barrel and combined our seed and fert together so that it was all broadcast on one pass.
I'm thinking that it would be too much biomass for a disc to cut into our soil. Of course, this all depends on how well the deer eat it. I wonder if bushhogging it everytime it gets head high would help keep it from getting too stemy?
IMO, you need to cut the sunn hemp down when it reaches head high, to around 18" and let it regrow from there. This way it doesn't get as stemy. IMO, the hemp wont get too thick to eliminate germination, because it stalk is so much large than grass specie's. Cereal rye on the other hand can certainly get too thick. It can be like a mat, so you have to be careful not to go too thick with it, along with your oats and wheat. Last year, i noticed a couple spots where my atv tracks pressed the thatch down when spraying, eliminated the seed from reaching the soil surface, and there wasn't any germination there, but i didn't care. The plot looked good and my soil was covered.
