Food Plots Hairy Indigo?

[bjohnson]

Saw the vetch thread and thought I'd ask about a plant I've never seen in a food plot or anywhere now that I think about it. Hairy Indigo...anyone ever planted it? How did it do and did the deer eat it?

Hairy Indigo Seed

We specialize in Wildlife Food Plots Seeds, Lawn Turf Grass Seeds, Herbicides, Fungicides, Fertilizers, Insecticides, Termite Control, Pesticides and other agriculture related products.

www.seedranch.com

Above is a link to the seed.

 

[BSK]

Tried it. Grew amazingly tall in poor soil. Saw no evidence of browsing.

 

[Popcorn]

Never grown it
Not sure it's all that different from sun hemp

 

[bjohnson]

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking about putting in the mix with lab lab, IC peas, and wgf sorghum.

 

[BSK]

Never grown it
Not sure it's all that different from sun hemp

Sunn Hemp grows much, much taller in even poorer soils than Hairy Indigo. Plus, deer actually browsed the Sunn Hemp a little. I think both would be good soil builders, but if soil building was my primary concern, I would lean towards Sunn Hemp (IF you don't plan on tilling the ground).

 

[bjohnson]

Sunn Hemp grows much, much taller in even poorer soils than Hairy Indigo. Plus, deer actually browsed the Sunn Hemp a little. I think both would be good soil builders, but if soil building was my primary concern, I would lean towards Sunn Hemp (IF you don't plan on tilling the ground).

I remember your thread on the Sunn Hemp, we don't have a drill so we're still tilling.

 

[BSK]

I remember your thread on the Sunn Hemp, we don't have a drill so we're still tilling.

Never, never, never grow Sunn Hemp if you plan on tilling the ground! Once cut, the stuff is like steel cable. You will spend hours (at least I did) cutting it out of the tiller.

 

[bjohnson]

Never, never, never grow Sunn Hemp if you plan on tilling the ground! Once cut, the stuff is like steel cable. You will spend hours (at least I did) cutting it out of the tiller.

I know we're getting away from the original topic but its my thread lol. We don't use a tiller either, too many roots in our plots right now. We run a bog disk through the plot followed up with a tandem. I wonder if the bog disk would cut the sunn hemp?

 

[BSK]

I know we're getting away from the original topic but its my thread lol. We don't use a tiller either, too many roots in our plots right now. We run a bog disk through the plot followed up with a tandem. I wonder if the bog disk would cut the sunn hemp?

I have no doubt it would.

When it comes to Sunn Hemp being a great soil builder, this is Sunn Hemp grown in a newly bulldozed plot, with a pH of about 4.5. In the video, I'm bushhogging it and some of it is over 12 feet tall. This grew during the drought year of 2022. It got maybe 2 inches of rain all summer. In the picture, it's what the ground looked like after bushhogging. A TON of green manure!

 

[Popcorn]

I have no doubt it would.

When it comes to Sunn Hemp being a great soil builder, this is Sunn Hemp grown in a newly bulldozed plot, with a pH of about 4.5. In the video, I'm bushhogging it and some of it is over 12 feet tall. This grew during the drought year of 2022. It got maybe 2 inches of rain all summer. In the picture, it's what the ground looked like after bushhogging. A TON of green manure!

Beautiful plus the amount of biomass in the root systems AND its a legume!!!

 

[bjohnson]

I have no doubt it would.

When it comes to Sunn Hemp being a great soil builder, this is Sunn Hemp grown in a newly bulldozed plot, with a pH of about 4.5. In the video, I'm bushhogging it and some of it is over 12 feet tall. This grew during the drought year of 2022. It got maybe 2 inches of rain all summer. In the picture, it's what the ground looked like after bushhogging. A TON of green manure!

I'll definitely give it a shot in a couple of plots with poor soil.

 

[348Winchester]

Never, never, never grow Sunn Hemp if you plan on tilling the ground! Once cut, the stuff is like steel cable. You will spend hours (at least I did) cutting it out of the tiller.

I have a new plot that was wooded before it was mulched. I used a landscape rake behing the tractor to remove the debris left after mulching. It worked well. Do you think it would work to remove the sunn hemp after bushhogging?

 

[BSK]

I have a new plot that was wooded before it was mulched. I used a landscape rake behing the tractor to remove the debris left after mulching. It worked well. Do you think it would work to remove the sunn hemp after bushhogging?

Yes, but then you've lost all the green manure Sunn Hemp provides. And it provides a TON!

 

[rifle02]

Ok, back to Indigo. Not sure if it's the same thing but I have what's called false indigo. And it spreads everywhere that it can. All the open properties around mine are covered with it as well. Grows Woody pencil size stems up to 8 ft tall and they come back again in the spring. If it's anything similar I would consider it invasive. I'm also thinking about having a burning crew come in to see what they could do to maybe cut back on some of it. Just my two cents worth and maybe not the same plant anyway.

 

[bjohnson]

Ok, back to Indigo. Not sure if it's the same thing but I have what's called false indigo. And it spreads everywhere that it can. All the open properties around mine are covered with it as well. Grows Woody pencil size stems up to 8 ft tall and they come back again in the spring. If it's anything similar I would consider it invasive. I'm also thinking about having a burning crew come in to see what they could do to maybe cut back on some of it. Just my two cents worth and maybe not the same plant anyway.

2 different species but both develop a woody stem. Fire should help control your issue and you could spot spray going foward.