Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post

GoDawgs · August 31, 2018

I’m not sure Sunn Hemp is the industrial hemp but I think maybe it is. Sunn Hemp is Crotalaria juncea. Marijuana is Cannabis sativa, a totally different genus. In no way does Sunn Hemp resemble Cannabis. Leaf margins are entire; no serration.

It's a fast-growing, nitrogen fixing, soil building legume. It also creates a ton of biomass to incorporate into the soil when cut at the recommended 5-6' height while it is still very tender. Any taller and it gets very fibrous and hard to deal with tilling it into the soil when growing it as an amendment.

It also has the ability to suppress nematodes in the soil and that's why I tried some in one bed last summer in my vegetable garden. I got my seed at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. There was a lot of seed in that pack. They germinated almost 100% and came up in about three days.

I cut down the Sunn hemp at 53 days of the listed 60 days to maturity and the tallest plants in the center of the bed were 6' tall. I took the hedge shears and working down the stems, chopped the hemp into 4" pieces so the stems wouldn't wrap around the tiller tines. They tilled in just fine. As it turned out, some of the thicker stem pieces took a long time to break down, many laying on top of the soil and needing several subsequent tillings for incorporation.

In my online research last year, the only drawback I discovered is that it can be a deer magnet and so is useful in wildlife feed plots. Fortunately the local population either never discovered my bed of it or ignored it. I think I will try it again this fall in one particularly 'todie' bed but cut it down sooner this time.

For more information:
https://petcherseeds.com/pages/sunn-...oduction-guide
https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proc...96/V3-389.html
http://jute.org/Sunnhemp.htm
https://votehemp.com/PDF/hemp97.pdf (a 1997 piece but a lot of information)
https://mosesorganic.org/sunn-hemp/

August 31, 2018	#29
GoDawgs Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Augusta area, Georgia, 8a/7b Posts: 1,685	I’m not sure Sunn Hemp is the industrial hemp but I think maybe it is. Sunn Hemp is Crotalaria juncea. Marijuana is Cannabis sativa, a totally different genus. In no way does Sunn Hemp resemble Cannabis. Leaf margins are entire; no serration. It's a fast-growing, nitrogen fixing, soil building legume. It also creates a ton of biomass to incorporate into the soil when cut at the recommended 5-6' height while it is still very tender. Any taller and it gets very fibrous and hard to deal with tilling it into the soil when growing it as an amendment. It also has the ability to suppress nematodes in the soil and that's why I tried some in one bed last summer in my vegetable garden. I got my seed at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. There was a lot of seed in that pack. They germinated almost 100% and came up in about three days. I cut down the Sunn hemp at 53 days of the listed 60 days to maturity and the tallest plants in the center of the bed were 6' tall. I took the hedge shears and working down the stems, chopped the hemp into 4" pieces so the stems wouldn't wrap around the tiller tines. They tilled in just fine. As it turned out, some of the thicker stem pieces took a long time to break down, many laying on top of the soil and needing several subsequent tillings for incorporation. In my online research last year, the only drawback I discovered is that it can be a deer magnet and so is useful in wildlife feed plots. Fortunately the local population either never discovered my bed of it or ignored it. I think I will try it again this fall in one particularly 'todie' bed but cut it down sooner this time. For more information: https://petcherseeds.com/pages/sunn-...oduction-guide https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proc...96/V3-389.html http://jute.org/Sunnhemp.htm https://votehemp.com/PDF/hemp97.pdf (a 1997 piece but a lot of information) https://mosesorganic.org/sunn-hemp/ Last edited by GoDawgs; August 31, 2018 at 07:52 AM.