Spring has sprung !

[Drycreek3189]

Checked on my plots at my Mt. Enterprise property today. Please excuse the poor pics, my phone camera lens was dirty Peas are coming on now, well past the stage where the deer can demolish them. Poured out two inches of rain from my gauge.







Creek bottom plot.

[Drycreek3189]

NE corner plot

[Tshelly]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Radar]

Tshelly have you planted Sunnhemp before? I have heard good and bad about it.

[elgato]

Tshelly have you planted Sunnhemp before? I have heard good and bad about it.

What have you heard bad about it? Ive nothing but good results from it.

Great thread.

[Radar]

QDMA has an article on it.

https://www.qdma.com/sunn-hemp-deer/

[elgato]

I've been growing it the last 3 yrs. I love what it does for the soil. I can show you significant browsing both on young plants and on leaves when plants are 10' tall. It will continue to be part of my annual program.

[Drycreek3189]

What have you heard bad about it? Ive nothing but good results from it.

Great thread.

I've wanted to try it also, but I have limited acreage for plots and I just can't make myself experiment too much. Iron clay peas are so easy to grow and nutritional that I can't seem to shake them. I've planted beans in the past and had good luck, but they are a little more expensive to plant. The RR beans are MUCH more expensive, but they did yield a good crop of beans to hunt over in the fall.

[Radar]

I've been growing it the last 3 yrs. I love what it does for the soil. I can show you significant browsing both on young plants and on leaves when plants are 10' tall. It will continue to be part of my annual program.

Do you plant it by itself or in a blend? I thought that once it got tall it would get too tough for them to eat. Also what do you rotate it with?

[elgato]

I have planted it both in mixes as well as in pure stands.AS stated Ive seen deer eating the leaves off a 10' plant and I have deer eating the tops out of 3 ' plants now.I have 3 acres planted in pure hemp now to improve very sandy soil. I use the blends with cow peas and the hemp acting as the trellis . Here is a pic from last year with hemp, sunflowers, cow peas and soy beans.

I don't use any RR products and will focus more on peas or beans depending on which is cheaper at the time. Both yield the results I am after though I usually include some ratio of both in a mix. Weeds are a forever issue in summer plots but I don't worry about them too much.

[elgato]

Couple more comments on hemp. Like a lot of things it may take deer a bit to start including in diet. As mentioned I'm in my 3rd year. Here is a pic of grazing on a pure stand of hemp that is about 2-3' tall.

[elgato]

Another great thing about hemp is how easy it is to grow. Quite drought tolerant , grows very fast, outcompetes most weeds and germinates quickly. Here is a pic I took this morning[ Monday ] of hemp that was planted Friday morning.

This is in an old vetch field that had become choked with too many of the bad weeds I hate so I nuked it last Wednesday then planted Friday. My goal is to clean the field up, let the hemp fix a bunch of nitrogen and add substantial OM , rye this fall then back to vetch next spring.

[Drycreek3189]

elgato, thanks for your input on this thread. Your knowledge is obvious ! When you mix cowpeas or beans with sunn hemp, what are your ratios ? Remember, this is a po' boy operation, no drill. I have to broadcast until I find $8/10k laying on the ground !

[elgato]

I'm going from memory but I think the ratios are 10 lbs/acre sunn hemp, 25 lbs/acre beans, 25 lbs/acre peas and 5 lbs acre sunflower. I do drill this so up a bit if broadcast.

[Drycreek3189]

I'm going from memory but I think the ratios are 10 lbs/acre sunn hemp, 25 lbs/acre beans, 25 lbs/acre peas and 5 lbs acre sunflower. I do drill this so up a bit if broadcast.

I may try some in my peas next year in Trinity Co. That soil could use a little more organic matter.

Well, I had a sack of peas and 100 lb. of fertilizer left from my spring planting, so not wanting to hold it over, I planted it today behind the house. My son always plants wheat back here in the fall, but I thought peas would be a nice treat for my home grown deer. I very seldom hunt here, but I do bowhunt from time to time. First I had to dig some stumps out that were left from last years timber sale.