Sunn Hemp

Creek chub

Active Member
Good morning,

First time poster here and apologies if this question has been asked before. Does anyone have any experience planting Sunn Hemp? If so, what was their thoughts on it as a soil builder and food source for deer?

Thanks
 
Good morning,

First time poster here and apologies if this question has been asked before. Does anyone have any experience planting Sunn Hemp? If so, what was their thoughts on it as a soil builder and food source for deer?

Thanks
My deer love it. It might take a little time for your deer to start eating it so you will probably have to cut it when it gets a couple feet tall. After you cut it or if it is browsed it will continue to branch out from those points. Just be mindful if it is let go it will get tall and then you will have stalks to deal with. I did that the first year and I had some get 8-10 feet tall because I didn't have a tractor to help manage it. I am planting it again this year. It grows good for me and can handle my deer pressure.
 
My deer love it. It might take a little time for your deer to start eating it so you will probably have to cut it when it gets a couple feet tall. After you cut it or if it is browsed it will continue to branch out from those points. Just be mindful if it is let go it will get tall and then you will have stalks to deal with. I did that the first year and I had some get 8-10 feet tall because I didn't have a tractor to help manage it. I am planting it again this year. It grows good for me and can handle my deer pressure.

Thanks for the reply. Did you plant it in a mix or Sunn Hemp only? I’m leaning to mixing in a small amount of buckwheat but haven’t fully decided yet. I am going to try Sunn Hemp in 3 plots for sure. May add iron clay peas to one plot too
 
My partner and I were some of the first to do test plots of this stuff. It's alright I guess. I prefer other forages for the space it takes up. I prefer buckwheat for soil building.
 
My partner and I were some of the first to do test plots of this stuff. It's alright I guess. I prefer other forages for the space it takes up. I prefer buckwheat for soil building.

My main intention for Sunn Hemp is the reported soil building benefits. I have 3 newly opened forested sections that I plan to test the Sunn Hemp in. I may try one in all buckwheat and one in all Sunn Hemp and compare the results afterwards
 
Sunn hemp looks like a weed, grows like a weed, and my deer treat it like an undesirable weed, I never did see any deer nibbling on it. If you can't get better stuff growing it's a good option to get at least something growing. As for soil building, clover is one of the top choices. It grows like a weed once established, deer love it, and it puts nitrogen in the soil. Just made sure that you use a nurse crop to start clover, your nurse crop could be the sunn hemp, which you would mow to release the clover after it's established.
 
I love sunn hemp and use it in a mixture every year. I typically plant 5-8 lb an acre mixed with cowpeas, sunflowers, buckwheat, and millet. My deer definitely eat it, and the one year I planted it by itself the deer destroyed it.

It’s definitely a good soil builder, especially mixed with buckwheat. Unlike buckwheat, it’s a legume. Make sure you inoculate it the first time you plant it in a field.
 
I guess planting crimson clover with it that it would shade out the clover. I plan to cut it back to resprout and minimize dealing with large stalks after the growing season
 
You wouldn’t plant it with crimson clover anyway. Crimson clover is a cool season (fall) crop, sunn hemp is a warm season crop.

Plant buckwheat/sunn hemp when soil temps have warmed up. Let the buckwheat go to seed then mow it all down. You’ll get a second buckwheat crop and the sunn hemp will keep growing. The following fall plant winter rye and crimson clover. Tough to beat that rotation for soil building.
 
You wouldn’t plant it with crimson clover anyway. Crimson clover is a cool season (fall) crop, sunn hemp is a warm season crop.

Plant buckwheat/sunn hemp when soil temps have warmed up. Let the buckwheat go to seed then mow it all down. You’ll get a second buckwheat crop and the sunn hemp will keep growing. The following fall plant winter rye and crimson clover. Tough to beat that rotation for soil building.
Thanks for the information.
 
You wouldn’t plant it with crimson clover anyway. Crimson clover is a cool season (fall) crop, sunn hemp is a warm season crop.

Plant buckwheat/sunn hemp when soil temps have warmed up. Let the buckwheat go to seed then mow it all down. You’ll get a second buckwheat crop and the sunn hemp will keep growing. The following fall plant winter rye and crimson clover. Tough to beat that rotation for soil building.[/


How many pounds of sunn hemp and buckwheat do you plant per acre? Sounds interesting.
 
Thanks for the reply. Did you plant it in a mix or Sunn Hemp only? I’m leaning to mixing in a small amount of buckwheat but haven’t fully decided yet. I am going to try Sunn Hemp in 3 plots for sure. May add iron clay peas to one plot too
Iron and clay peas are a good crop to plant with it because they can use the sunn hemp to climb. It will thrive in drier climates too which is a reason I use it and it will put a lot of nitrogen back in the ground for you but remember to inoculate it. Don't try to use it with clover it isn't a nurse crop. I have planted it by itself and it does good. I am using it mixed in with alyce clover some and with iron and clay peas some.
 
Iron and clay peas are a good crop to plant with it because they can use the sunn hemp to climb. It will thrive in drier climates too which is a reason I use it and it will put a lot of nitrogen back in the ground for you but remember to inoculate it. Don't try to use it with clover it isn't a nurse crop. I have planted it by itself and it does good. I am using it mixed in with alyce clover some and with iron and clay peas some.
My local southern states was out of iron clay peas. I got a couple months more until planting time and hope to pick some up. I may add sunflowers too.
 
I've been planting sunn hemp the last 4 years.I've done both straight hemp as well as in mixtures. Last year on a sandy hill I went with straight hemp to add organic matter. I let it grow un mowed and it got about 8-10' tall and very thick.It did everything I wanted. I usually plant it in a mix though. This year I'm planting sunn hemp, cow peas, soybeans and sunflower in a mix. That will be followed in the fall with a rye, radish, turnip mix. All no tilled.

Deer graze both the growing tips as well as the leaves once it gets tall. Took them about a year to figure it out but now graze it readily.
 
I've been planting sunn hemp the last 4 years.I've done both straight hemp as well as in mixtures. Last year on a sandy hill I went with straight hemp to add organic matter. I let it grow un mowed and it got about 8-10' tall and very thick.It did everything I wanted. I usually plant it in a mix though. This year I'm planting sunn hemp, cow peas, soybeans and sunflower in a mix. That will be followed in the fall with a rye, radish, turnip mix. All no tilled.

Deer graze both the growing tips as well as the leaves once it gets tall. Took them about a year to figure it out but now graze it readily.
yes first time I planted it I had a bunch of it get up to 10' tall. But the deer figured out it was food and keep it grazed good now.
 
I've been planting sunn hemp the last 4 years.I've done both straight hemp as well as in mixtures. Last year on a sandy hill I went with straight hemp to add organic matter. I let it grow un mowed and it got about 8-10' tall and very thick.It did everything I wanted. I usually plant it in a mix though. This year I'm planting sunn hemp, cow peas, soybeans and sunflower in a mix. That will be followed in the fall with a rye, radish, turnip mix. All no tilled.

Deer graze both the growing tips as well as the leaves once it gets tall. Took them about a year to figure it out but now graze it readily.
Did you notice any soil improvements when you planted it on your sand soil?
 
My herd found our Sunn Hemp early and wore it out so it's a fail for us. The only thing we have found to withstand high browsing is Eagle soybeans. Or large fields (which we don't have).

As far as soil builder..sand is sand....the best you can hope for is increased OM. My house is 30 years old and had a great lawn for that whole time. Mole crickets got in it last year and wiped out all the grass, now it's bare and looks like sand. That's 30 years of decomposed clippings and thatch and you can't tell it from the sand it was 30 years ago.
 
You wouldn’t plant it with crimson clover anyway. Crimson clover is a cool season (fall) crop, sunn hemp is a warm season crop.

Plant buckwheat/sunn hemp when soil temps have warmed up. Let the buckwheat go to seed then mow it all down. You’ll get a second buckwheat crop and the sunn hemp will keep growing. The following fall plant winter rye and crimson clover. Tough to beat that rotation for soil building.



What rate do you seed the buckwheat and sunn hemp mix?
 
I can’t remember exactly because I usually mix in other stuff as well. If I were to drill a mix of just buckwheat and sunn hemp I would probably start somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 lb buckwheat and 8 lb of sunn hemp per acre.
 
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