Summer Plot mix

[BrushyPines]

Been going with a milo, I&C cowpea and BW mix. I have sandy soils and our summers are HOT and can be droughty. The milo and cowpeas have done excellent, the BW not so much. I dont think BW can withstand MS heat. I have been looking into replacing BW with sunnhemp for the future, but I cannot find it anywhere locally and I dont want to pay shipping for 50# bags of it. Looking for another alternative to replace BW with if I can't find sunnhemp locally. Ultimate goals for summer plots are to build the soil and produce enough thatch for my fall planting. If the wildlife browse it, that is a plus, but not a deal breaker. My thinned pines and RX burned areas are producing a lot browse for the critters to eat! Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[omicron1792]

I bought some off of midway.com that is the Whitetail Institute sunhemp. They’re 7 pound bags are on sale. They are preinoculated. It is by far the best growing sun hemp that I have found. My plots with 10lbs of this look better than plots with 25 pounds of the bulk I bought.

Whitetail Institute Sunn Hemp Food Plot Mix 7 lbs

Whitetail Institute Sunn Hemp Food Plot Mix is a rapid establishing legume that when grown as a summer annual can produce over 5,000 pounds of biomass...

www.midwayusa.com

 

[yoderjac]

I mix sunn hemp and buckwheat because they complement each other. Sunn hemp is a legume. I bought my first sunn hemp a number of years ago from Hancock Seed because they had free shipping on 50 lb bags. They quickly realized they were losing money on it and now only offer free shipping on 25 lb bags and you are paying more per pound as well. Since then, I've purchased sunn hemp from the local coop. Keep in mind, we always pay shipping in some form or another. They don't carry it and have to order it, but they are constantly buying seed from suppliers and have trucks already gong from sit to site, so their shipping cost is less than if we buy from some internet supplier who is shipping one or two bags of seed from their location to our address. With the coop, they are shipping an entire truckload from some supplier to the coop and my bags are on the truck.

I don't know what you objective for the plot is but there are some things to consider. Some warm season annuals like beans, corn, milo, etc are planted in the spring. Some of them like beans provide good deer forage during the summer like beans and then pods for fall/winter. Others, like milo, provide only fall food. Corn provide food through the cold months. Other warm season annuals are focused on providing only summer food.

I'm far enough south that summer is a stress period for me and that is the purpose of mixing buckwheat and sunn hemp. They both provide summer food and are fast enough to compete well with my summer weeds. However, come fall, they provide nothing. I replant for fall. One year I tried adding milo. That did not work out for me. While the milo grew well, deer use it in the fall when the seed heads ripen and by then it is too late for me to do a fall plant, so I ended up mowing the milo before the deer could benefit.

So, depending on your objectives, these are things to consider.

I think buckwheat does well with heat. It germinates best with a soil temp of 80 degrees. Keep in mind it is only a 60 to 90 day crop as far as deer food goes. Moving to no-till/min-till can help conserve soil moisture in droughty areas.

Thakns,

Jack

 

[BrushyPines]

I mix sunn hemp and buckwheat because they complement each other. Sunn hemp is a legume. I bought my first sunn hemp a number of years ago from Hancock Seed because they had free shipping on 50 lb bags. They quickly realized they were losing money on it and now only offer free shipping on 25 lb bags and you are paying more per pound as well. Since then, I've purchased sunn hemp from the local coop. Keep in mind, we always pay shipping in some form or another. They don't carry it and have to order it, but they are constantly buying seed from suppliers and have trucks already gong from sit to site, so their shipping cost is less than if we buy from some internet supplier who is shipping one or two bags of seed from their location to our address. With the coop, they are shipping an entire truckload from some supplier to the coop and my bags are on the truck.

I don't know what you objective for the plot is but there are some things to consider. Some warm season annuals like beans, corn, milo, etc are planted in the spring. Some of them like beans provide good deer forage during the summer like beans and then pods for fall/winter. Others, like milo, provide only fall food. Corn provide food through the cold months. Other warm season annuals are focused on providing only summer food.

I'm far enough south that summer is a stress period for me and that is the purpose of mixing buckwheat and sunn hemp. They both provide summer food and are fast enough to compete well with my summer weeds. However, come fall, they provide nothing. I replant for fall. One year I tried adding milo. That did not work out for me. While the milo grew well, deer use it in the fall when the seed heads ripen and by then it is too late for me to do a fall plant, so I ended up mowing the milo before the deer could benefit.

So, depending on your objectives, these are things to consider.

I think buckwheat does well with heat. It germinates best with a soil temp of 80 degrees. Keep in mind it is only a 60 to 90 day crop as far as deer food goes. Moving to no-till/min-till can help conserve soil moisture in droughty areas.

Thakns,

Jack

These plots are strictly TnM and my goals for summer plots are to build the soil & provide enough thatch for my fall planting. I do have BW growing right now, but it is well under a foot with very small leaves (Planted at the end of May). That's not gonna cut it for thatch. With how much BW is per bag (expensive), I feel like I can get more bang for my buck with another plant species for my above goals. Just trying to get my ducks in a row before next spring comes around to start buying seed for summer plots, if by chance I cant find sunn hemp locally or for a reasonable price including shipping online.

 

[yoderjac]

These plots are strictly TnM and my goals for summer plots are to build the soil & provide enough thatch for my fall planting. I do have BW growing right now, but it is well under a foot with very small leaves (Planted at the end of May). That's not gonna cut it for thatch. With how much BW is per bag (expensive), I feel like I can get more bang for my buck with another plant species for my above goals. Just trying to get my ducks in a row before next spring comes around to start buying seed for summer plots, if by chance I cant find sunn hemp locally or for a reasonable price including shipping online.

Well here are some thoughts. Buckwheat uses N and Milo uses a lot of N. I don't know if you are fertilizing or not, but I try to make sure I rotate legumes to keep the N level up. I will say that I don't use buckwheat alone for thatch production. It scavenges minerals and decomposes quickly to leave them for the next crop. I'm not as far south as you, so buckwheat doesn't get the heat hear that it does in your area. Baker might chime in on buckwheat and heat since is is pretty far south.

I will say that sunn hemp can fix a lot of N into the soil for other crops. I don't know what shipping cost are but Petcher sells a lot of it down south. I find sunn hemp a bit more expensive than buckwheat but because it is a legume, it fills a different niche.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Winfred Brassica or other full season brassica? squash or pumpkins?

 

[Bassattackr]

Sunflowers instead of buckwheat for a broadleaf option.

If your goals are soil building - Egyptian Wheat / sorghum sudan, cowpeas and sunflowers would make a nice ball of biomass come fall.