sun hemp

I am thinking about planting around 7 acres of the sun hemp. The tall variety. Anyway, One field will be about 3 acres and in this field I was going to blend in about a 50# bag of perodivik sunflower and maybe even a 50# bag of Milo with it as well. Is there a pr-emergent herbicide I can use that will help keep the field clean and not hurt the sun hemp, perodivik sunflower or milo. Prowl, Treflan? Or is even necessary? Also, with having high deer densities and regular soybeans not standing a chance, will this sun hemp be a better option than say, lab lab or possibly a heavily seeded forage soybean.

From my limited experience, I would rather have Lablab than hemp any day.

If your goal is to feed deer I am not sure that is the best way to go. The deer will eat the Sunn Hemp but it grows fast and will quickly become too tall for them to use and they will eat every Sunflower as soon as they pop up. I will be planting about the same acreage and will be using RR forage beans and 7 lbs/ac of rr corn.I This is the third year I have done this and it works great. The first two years I planted 3 and then about 5 acres and e-fenced it but with the larger acreage this year hope I do not need too.Only drawback is the cost, which sux. But I have seen very positive things happen in my deer numbers and size, so its worth it.

If your goal is to feed deer.....don’t you want them to eat it???

They will eat it until its over their head which will occur in less than a month.Then it is useless except for cover and soil improvement.My goal is too feed them all summer and well into the winter, which that mix will not do. I do use Sunn Hemp, climbing peas or soybeans, Buckwheat and Teosinate in a 40-50 foot perimeter around my field for screening and because the Quail love it, but feeding deer is secondary.

I'm actually planting the sun hemp to help rotate the crop, build the soil and give the deer something to eat in the process. I'll bushhog it down mid summer or so in one field. I can then plant a little milo for the doves in that field. I have had rr corn planted in it for 2 years in a row. The other fields I'll let it grow until time for fall planting.

The Sunn Hemp needs to be mowed periodically to continue 'feeding deer'.

But, it will.

It is not a plant it and forget it food source, though.

Dual is a preemerge that will do what you ask. Plant and immediately spray gly, dual, AMS, surfactant. Will give some residual weed control

If you like Dual try Warrant. 4x better pre lot less water to activate.

Sunn hemp and ICP work great.

Even better are a climbing pea. I use Red Ripper but I am sure there are others. They climb the sun hemp and produce a pile of pods. Since I don’t mow my Sunn Hemp when it gets too tall the deer have the peas that are growing up it