Any advice on plating sun hemp?
If you plant sun hemp for a summer plot and then bush hog it. And then wait two weeks or so and then say disk and plant for fall greenfields .....I heard but haven't tried but was told that it will be very hard and time consuming to disk. ???? Does anybody have experience in planting fall grass or clover on a summer plot of sun hemp previous spot?

I will this year along with quite a few other people. Seems like Sunn Hemp has taken off around here. We planted 60 of it and mixed it with peas. We also limed and fertilized when we planted it. It got a good rain today so hopefully it will do well.

sunn hemp is good stuff and the deer love it. However, if you let it grow all summer, it is hard to deal with. Last year I let some grow from May until late Sept. It was 10' tall, the stalks were big around as my thumb. I bush hogged it without much problem, but couldn't get it disced into the ground. Wound up having to take a box blade with the teeth dropped all the way down to rake it off of the plot.
I had some in another plot that grew for about 2 months and then was mowed. It was no problem to cut in.
If you're going to let it go all summer, plant it somewhere you don't plan to plant a fall plot. If you let it stand all winter, it's no problem to mow and cut in in the spring.

I have tried many different approaches with Sunn Hemp. I have been told deer will eat it readily - I personally have not seen anything that could be considered more than moderate deer use.

With that said, I use it primarily as a soil builder. The textbook use is to plant 15 lbs per acre and grow out for 60 days then bush-hog and disk in. This is reported to provide about 100 units of N and 80 units of K per acre in addition to several tons of organic matter. Mine averages around 6 feet tall at 60 days. I have a 6 foot brown bush-hog and a 6 foot Brown disk - I have no trouble mowing or disking in with these implements.

This species is reported to be a pig weed suppressant and have some nematocidal properties. Have "observed" reduced pig weed reoccurrence but never had soil checked for affect on nematodes.

UGA research indicates that Sunn Hemp planted in the early summer and left to grow until frost produced around 200 lbs of N. We grew some out in this manner and then planted corn behind it the following March. We planted behind the Sunn Hemp next to a test patch planted in the traditional manner using granular ag fertilizer and follow up N. We did not assess the yield of each corn plot in any scientific manner but to the naked eye, the corn planted behind the Sunn Hemp performed as well as the corn planted using traditional ag practices. Made as many ears per stalk, etc. We used absolutely NO fertilizer on the corn planted behind the Sunn Hemp.

Speaking of NO fertilizer - you DO NOT need to lime or fertilize when you plant Sunn Hemp nor is any inoculant necessary. This is per Richard Petcher - retired agronomist and Sunn Hemp importer in SW AL. I have followed these recommendations to good affect.

We also got Sunn Hemp to grow on some very deep sands where we had had no luck getting anything else to grow. We planted fall wheat behind the Sunn Hemp on those spots and made a good stand. Previously we couldn't even get ryegrass to grow there. BTW - we planted wheat with no fertilizer.

If you intend to utilize it as a deer forage, I would plant it at 5-7 lbs per acre as part of a summer blend that could include grain sorghum or corn and maybe even another legume like Cowpea.

Given the current price of the seed, you are investing about $45 per acre in the Sun Hemp but if you time the planting right you can cut it, disk it in, and plant your fall crop (food plots)behind it with no fertilizer. If that seems too risky to you, I would urge you to at least try a few plots in that manner or break up a larger plot and plant half behind the Sunn Hemp with no fert and half in the traditional manner and observe the results.

I don't sell the stuff and have no financial interest in it's use on other folks property. I am only sharing my experience with this species. I have been impressed with it and I am generally very skeptical about such products and associated claims.

Thanks a lot for all the info

Seems like I need to get in touch with Richard Petcher again. He called me and asked me to try the sun hemp but I never seriously considered it. Thanks for the info. Good read.

Where the heII you been??

Good info. My experience exactly, therefore, I can use other plants more effectively. When the deer did this to our bean fields:



We planted sunn Hemp:



You can still see some beans in it, but they allowed the hemp to grow with moderate browse pressure at best. Good that they let it grow, bad that they didn't use it much, therefore got very little out of it. I don't grow stuff for it to look good, I want to maximize forage in a deer's belly. They browsed it a little when it was small:



Mostly left it alone when it got 2 - 3' tall:

I planted some last year, had some usage. I have low deer desity where i live, so it grew to 6', i mowed it down to 18", and let it grow again. It really regrows well after mowing and therefore your stalks wont get as big and wont be as hard to disk in. I have a lot more problem with disking in my Egyptian wheat screens.

I planted several fields this spring with sunn hemp to build soil. Also want to conduct deer utilization comparisons and weed control experiments with sunn hemp-only, sunn hemp and cowpea mix, and cowpea only. Each field is approx two acres. One planted with 100% sunn hemp at 70# per acre. One planted with 70# sunn hemp and 20# cowpea per acre. One planted 35# hemp and 35# cowpea per acre. And three fields planted in 100% cowpea at 25, 50 and 75 # per acre.

My primary objectives are to build soil and to better control weeds. Secondary goal is to reduce tractor time and expense to plant fall food plots.

Love to hear the results - post pics through the summer!!

Will do. A mishap last summer with the grain drill turned out to be a blessing. Was using a Great Plains drill loaded with cowpea. Set seed rate at 25lbs/ac. Checked the seed hopper after finishing two fields and my heart sunk. The seed rate controller was broken and I had actually put out closer to 70/ac. Fixed the knob and planted more fields at the usual rate.

The over-seeded fields were by far the best. Best stand density. Best deer utilization. Best weed control.

On our club in Baldwin County, we planted a mix of Sunn hemp, top pick peas and a little left over oats from last fall. The deer ain't touching the sunn hemp except for the small patch in the last pic, but they are hammering the oats and peas.
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The deer won't even let this little landing come up.
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Sunn hemp experiment was almost washed out thanks to constant rains. Fields were prepped in late May but heavy rains kept the planter out for two weeks. Weed regrowth was underway by the time fields were finally drilled. Due to time limitations, we gambled and drilled the seed rather than run the harrow again. We felt the hemp would quickly overtake the grass. Hemp germination was near 100% and the stand reached 8" tall by Day 7. Probably would have outpaced the grass were it not for six weeks of rain. Fields are not a total loss but close to it. What remains is stunted hemp that surprisingly survived and is being browsed. I'm convinced it has more to do with saturated soil than with the presence of grass regrowth at the time of planting.

Sunn hemp stand around June 14:


Daylight view of field planted in sunn hemp:


Night view of the same field. Sunn hemp stalks reflect well in infrared:

Our cowpea fields are another story. Fields were prepared and planted under better conditions, and on higher and well drained soils. Here is one of those fields.

June 16:


June 27:


July 7:


July 13:


July 17:


July 23: Field is being heavily browsed but still producing new growth.