Food Plots Green manure for poor-soil food plots

[BSK]

For those trying to condition poor soil, especially for newly bulldozed food plots or thin-soiled ridge-top plots, I can't recommend a summer crop of Sunn Hemp enough. Below are some pictures/videos of my experiences with it. The plot in question started as a newly bulldozed plot with such poor clay soils it wouldn't grow a decent crop of Buckwheat (and Buckwheat will grow virtually anywhere). The first two pictures show the final stages of bulldozer clearing and first ground prep. Notice in the picture with the tractor how rocky the soil is, and the big patches of heavy clay. The third image is a video I took while bushhogging the Sunn Hemp at the at the end of August. Most had grown 8-10 feet tall with some reaching 12 feet, and very thick. And that was through one of the worst droughts in decades, and extreme heat. The last image is the green manure produced by the Sunn Hemp on the ground. That's a lot of green manure to incorporate into the soil.

 

[Shooter77]

wow that's crazy how well it grown. Do you think it would have even been bigger had the conditions been better?

 

[JCDEERMAN]

That is awesome. Our sunn hemp got about 4 feet tall. Bone dry. Spraying today

 

[BSK]

wow that's crazy how well it grown. Do you think it would have even been bigger had the conditions been better?

Yes, when we hit August and started to get rain, the Sunn Hemp grew about a foot per week.

 

[tellico4x4]

So it mowed okay? Was concerned about it being so fiberous. Let us know results of running tiller thru it.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Wow!..very impressive!...appears to have been effective at weed suppression as well?

 

[BSK]

So it mowed okay? Was concerned about it being so fiberous. Let us know results of running tiller thru it.

That's going to be the key. Honestly, after I finished bushhogging it, the field look like a rope factory had exploded! Piles of hemp fiber everywhere. I have no idea how well this will till into the ground once it's dry.

But it bushhogged fine.

 

[BSK]

Wow!..very impressive!...appears to have been effective at weed suppression as well?

Very much so. NOTHING under that canopy.

 

[megalomaniac]

That's going to be the key. Honestly, after I finished bushhogging it, the field look like a rope factory had exploded! Piles of hemp fiber everywhere. I have no idea how well this will till into the ground once it's dry.

But it bushhogged fine.

If it bushhoggs fine and residual stems are easily killed with glyphosate, I may give it a try next year in one of my plots as I don't need to disc... just drill.

Right now I'm experimenting with sorgham and millet, but deer don't utilize them (except for the heads) and the sunn hemp can also fix nitrogen. But it does need to break down on top of the soil in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[BSK]

If it bushhoggs fine and residual stems are easily killed with glyphosate, I may give it a try next year in one of my plots as I don't need to disc... just drill.

I conducted an experiment to see if the cut hemp even needs to be sprayed. I sprayed strips through the cut plots. In a week, I'll be able to tell you if the cut stalks are trying to regrow and whether spraying is necessary.

 

[Terrier]

I'd guess it would make a mess out of your tiller in about 30 seconds and take 30 minutes to clean out that mess. I'll be interested to see how you get it worked in.

 

[smyrnagc]

How do the deer like it?

 

[Popcorn]

This is awesome BSK! Glad to see this, I am a big fan of green manure! I have had sun hemp in my blends for several years now and it breaks down a little slow if on top but is not a problem. I don't till so I cannot speak to how it will act with a tiller but once dry it's fragile and brittle. I find that if it has entered bloom stage before you mow it you will see very little regeneration. I drill thru my standing summer crops and the sun hemp usually breaks over and is done. Some will remain but first frost gets it. My late planted sun hemp down in Stewart county is getting hammered right now along with the buckwheat, sunflowers and beans.

 

[BSK]

How do the deer like it?

I didn't expect them to eat it, but they were browsing on it. However, it grows so fast I couldn't see the browse pressure on the plants. Just caught the deer eating out the tops on trail-cam video.

 

[BSK]

This is awesome BSK! Glad to see this, I am a big fan of green manure! I have had sun hemp in my blends for several years now and it breaks down a little slow if on top but is not a problem. I don't till so I cannot speak to how it will act with a tiller but once dry it's fragile and brittle.

Bushhogged it Thursday morning and by Saturday mid-day it was already brown. I'm hoping to will be very brittle by mid-week.

 

[TRIGGER]

So you planted sun hemp in the spring to help your soil out for a fall plot? I am dealing with the same ridge top conditions so I will be following this closely.

 

[megalomaniac]

So you planted sun hemp in the spring to help your soil out for a fall plot? I am dealing with the same ridge top conditions so I will be following this closely.

Absolutely!!! You want to plant a summer crop in poor soils for 3 main reasons... #1 to produce as much biomass as possible. All that biomass sequesters nutrients ( often from deep in the soil through roots). Those sequestered nutrients then get put right back into the top layer after you bushhog or it decays naturally.

#2- a dense summer crop of something fast growing chokes out and suppresses weed growth, leading to a better stand for fall.

#3- the dense summer crop when laid down on top of the soil helps the soil retain moisture and reduce soil erosion... same reason you see landscapers put down straw over the top of newly sewn grass seed.

You arent feeding the deer with the summer crop... they usually have plenty of natural browse that time of the year. The summer crop is for the 3 reasons above.

I've got a half inch layer of humus on top of several if my plots at this point, despite this only being my 3rd years of planting these new areas. And the fall plots are just getting better and better every year (when I get normal rainfall amounts)

I posted a couple weeks before, but here's one of my summer plots in sorgham and millet.... deer eat neither (except for the mature seed heads), but this is giving me a ton of biomass, root systems aerating the soils, and the plot is virtually weed free

 

[poorhunter]

Bushhogged it Thursday morning and by Saturday mid-day it was already brown. I'm hoping to will be very brittle by mid-week.

Without tillage, is it a good idea to use the sun hemp? I could borrow a disc from a friend, but I'd rather not do any tillage. It would seem to me that the hemp stems would have to be broken up pretty good or germination would be spotty at best.

 

[BSK]

So you planted sun hemp in the spring to help your soil out for a fall plot? I am dealing with the same ridge top conditions so I will be following this closely.

Exactly.

 

[BSK]

I posted a couple weeks before, but here's one of my summer plots in sorgham and millet.... deer eat neither (except for the mature seed heads), but this is giving me a ton of biomass, root systems aerating the soils, and the plot is virtually weed free

Mega, do you mow that down or just let it stand? And I assume your drilling fall crop into it?