Cowpeas and ??

Hey guys I have a lease in South Georgia and I plan on planting cowpeas soon and I feel like I need to add something else with it. I will be planting about 10 acres in total. The food plots range from 1 acre plots to the largest is about 3 acres. I planted just soybeans last year and I don’t know if the deer mowed them down before they grew up but the food plots didn’t look very good. Our PH levels in the fall ranged from 5.3 (our lowest) and 6.0 (our highest). I limed again in the fall so our lowest PH should jump up a little.

I see a lot of people planting clover and I was wondering if that would be a good secondary crop to grow with cowpeas. I need some advice from you experts thank you in advance.

I plant cowpeas and sunflowers small plots everything gets eaten, larger you will get the peas to a point that they will regrow.

Thank you! How many lbs of sunflowers per acre?

I would recommend Sunn Hemp. It jumps up quick and will give some protection to your peas while they try to grow and they will grow up the stalks of the Sunn Hemp as well. Word of warning though, don't let the Sunn Hemp get beyond 4 feet tall, when it gets higher than that mow it and keep it at 4 feet or less, otherwise it can get very tall and become very stalky and hard to incorporate back into the soil. Your food plots are small enough that depending on your deer herd they may keep it mowed down enough you don't have to worry about it. I can tell you that clover won't help your cow peas and that the chances are the deer are not going to let your peas grow to maturity due to the size of your plots and the number of deer you are probably feeding. I have this issue with my plots and can't even get the hemp to last long enough on them to mature. Sorghum will work as well to protect the peas as the deer won't eat it until it heads out and that will give your peas some protection but if the peas jump up before the Sorghum gets up the deer will mow them down and you will not have anything for them to eat in that plot until the Sorghum matures. This year I am planting millet and letting it get up some before I broadcast the hemp in an attempt to give the hemp some protection before the deer try to mow it down again, if that doesn't work I will not put in another spring/summer plot and will just plant some clovers in the fall that will last through the springtime of the following year. Good luck

Plant the clover in the fall ......

I know people have had success with sunn hemp and cowpeas and definitely worth a try.

You could also try a mix of cowpeas and buckwheat. The theory (I have not done it), is that the buckwheat is going to grow quick and possibly let the cowpeas establish. The buckwheat will die off quick, leaving a reasonably established plot of cowpeas. Worth a try? If you do it, post some pics!

It's one of those things that you have to try out on your own, to figure out for your property.

I think that was the problem with the soybeans last year. The deer ate them faster than they were growing. I don’t have have time nor the money for a electrical fence.

That has always been the issue with me and legumes in the south Georgia, they won't leave them alone long enough to establish themselves. You might be better off with the Sunn Hemp and I know that there is a dwarf Sunn Hemp out there that won't grow above 4 feet high but it's kind of expensive. Still you might consider the Buckwheat/Hemp combination to try and get them established enough to be a long term benefit to your deer....plus they are great green manure for your fall plots and Sunn Hemp is a great source of protein as well. Once you are into your fall plots consider longer term plantings like clovers, chicory and such that will give you spring/summer growth without having to plant each season. Canuck5 does it about as good as anyone on this board from what I have seen and read from him.

With Sunn Hemp is it easy to kill so I can replant in the fall? I like what I have seen when I researched it. So I’m probably going to give it a try this spring. I will post pictures when it’s done.

I got a spring mix last year.
Cow peas
Sunflower
Buckwheat
Sorghum
It did good.

sun hemp

Living The Dream said:

With Sunn Hemp is it easy to kill so I can replant in the fall? I like what I have seen when I researched it. So I’m probably going to give it a try this spring. I will post pictures when it’s done.

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no need to kill it. we simply mowed it and disced it under once fall came. then planted our fall plot. as one poster said, keep the hemp mowed. I like 2'. We let one plot go and it got to 10' tall......crazy how fast it grows

catch22 said:

We let one plot go and it got to 10' tall......crazy how fast it grows

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REAL HARD to get it disc back into the ground when it gets that tall!!!

How do you mow it when it’s 4 foot tall?? I think we are going to try the dwarf Sunn Hemp so it doesn’t get that outrageous. Haha

discs

shdw633 said:

REAL HARD to get it disc back into the ground when it gets that tall!!!

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actually it wasnt. we have a 65hp tractor and 6' Brown discs, so that may have helped but it was no different than usual.