Our Trial: Sunn Hemp as a Cover Crop

sunn hemp cover crop

Finally, a real farm post!

We planted sun hemp on our farm as a late summer/early fall cover crop.  Like everything else in life and farming, Sunn Hemp has some pros and cons but was overall quite impressive and we will probably plant it again.  We planted it as part of a federal study to help people solve problems on farms.  We were looking for a midsummer cover crop that would fix nitrogen, prevent erosion and not be a draw for deer. We received a small grant and free seeds to participate in the study.

On the sunny side, sunn hemp is one of the few cover crops that grows well in summer, the deer are not interested in it and it can withstand heat and drought.  We planted it in poor sandy soil and did not irrigate.  It produces a very impressive amount of biomass which can be knocked down for a green manure or moved around as mulch.  Our stand reached six feet tall and had woody stems and lovely yellow spike flowers.

On the down side, some sunn hemp varieties are toxic to livestock and fowl so use caution and do your research when selecting a variety for your farm.  Also, the plant has the potential to become invasive in the south.   According to the USDA, “since sunn hemp will not set seed consistently north of 28N latitude (slightly north of Corpus Christi, TX), it has little potential for becoming a weed.”  So it sounds like we are safe to plant it in Maryland. (Source: USDA: Sunn Hemp: A Cover Crop for Southern and Tropical Farming Systems)

Sunn Hemp has an interesting history and is widely grown in India where it originated and is used for all kinds of things including forage and fiber. It is also widely grown in Hawaii year round.    According to the Handbook of Energy Crops by James Duke, “Sunnhemp is cultivated for the strong bast fiber extracted from the bark, which is more durable than jute. Fiber is used in twine, rug yarn, cigarette and tissue papers, fish-nets, sacking, canvas and cordage. Sunn fiber is stronger when wet, and is fairly resistant to mildew, moisture and microorganisms in salt water. It is one of the oldest known fibers in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, as mentioned in ancient Sanskrit literature.”  (Source: James A. Duke. 1983. Handbook of Energy Crops. unpublished.). 

While we don’t plan to weave any rugs out of our crop, it certainly seems like a plant with lots of potential to control erosion and add nitrogen add organic matter to the soil.  As an added bonus, I cut a bouquet in the fall and it lasted a week in a vase and may have potential as a cut flower  or filler for late season bouquets.

This article appeared in the Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association (MOFFA) Winter Newsletter.  You can learn more about Moffa here.

Potato Planting

antique potato planter in action

It is always an event when my husband teams up with a neighboring farmer to break out this restored antique potato planter that actually works amazingly well.  They are pulling it with a small tractor. The machine digs a trench, drops the potatoes in and covers them up all in one pass.  They are planting fingerlings and purple potatoes today.

It is great fun to watch this machine in action, and the children found it especially fascinating. Since we used to plant potatoes by hand and know what a slow process that can be, it is a bit miraculous to watch it happen so easily.  It might be equivalent to the magic of using  a sewing machine for the first time after hand stitching.

Here is one more shot of the machine being loaded up with yet another batch of potatoes.

May they grow as easily as they were planted!

First Green

If you look closely at this picture you can see thin, green lines of sugar snap peas coming up in the beds.  Even though the germination looks pretty good, we are a long way from harvest.  These tiny shoots are very attractive to deer and groundhogs and now that they have emerged from the soil, we need to scramble to protect them.

It’s hard to imagine that if all goes well, in just a couple of months these plants will be tall enough to require six feet of trellis which we will piece together from old tomato stakes and flower netting.  Once the trellis is in place, the whole area looks far too inhabited and maze like to attract deer and groundhogs.  But in the mean time, these little plants are vulnerable. Our best defense is this thin

deer fence

strand of deer fence which we will power up with a little solar panel.  Hopefully, that will be enough to give these little plants the head start the need.

Beyond the pea bed, you can see a nice stand of winter rye which we use as a cover crop to add nutrients to the soil and protect against erosion.  And beyond the rye, the camera caught a few trees in their “nature’s first green is gold” phase.  If you are so inspired, you can refresh your memory and read the rest of Robert Frost’s poem here.