Hemp For Cover???

[Bob2010]

Sorry for too many threads. I literally could not sleep last night thinking about what I should plant. I need cover for deer near a road way. I read somewhere that hemp is now being grown as pulp and paper production. There is an acreage cap and permits required. It produces 2x to 3x the pulp of pine trees. You can harvest it 2 x a year. Deer eat it it too. Anyone ever planted hemp just for deer cover? The permit is cheap. Does hemp have a place in deer management???

 

[Canuck5]

I think several people have planted sunn hemp with no permit required and the deer have eaten it. Looking at your picture of the power line, I assume you just want to block the ends? You have lots of shade, no matter which direction the sun comes up, which limits what will grow well. That adds another layer of difficulty to your situation, and I would go with something cheap, to try, first.

 

[doomtrpr_z71]

A bag of hemp seed costs more than cotton seed and plants 1/7th the area, no one is going to plant hemp for deer.

 

[Bob2010]

The sun hemp is probably my solution. Pretty sure no permit is needed there. The real hemp apparently deer love to eat. The person I spoke too had 14 acres of hemp for pulp production. Research says hemp could give pine a run for its money in paper production. Its so heavily regulated that it will probably never take off outside of cbd production. If you follow the stock markets hemp and cbd was to risky for the larger investors to buy into. However today they are buying in at every level. Hemp has become a commodity worthy of investment. The grower I spoke with said deer are the number 1 problem. They can hurt a field of hemp. CBD grade hemp seed I know is super expensive. Not sure how much pulp production hemp seed would cost. Honestly I wish I could buy polkweed seed. Deer and dove love it! It would grow so easily. Probably stuck with sun hemp. I may consider one of the upland game mixes with sunflowers and sorghum in it for height. We lack bedding areas as well on my land. The sun hemp would probably give some bedding space.

 

[doomtrpr_z71]

Fiber hemp is 900-1000 a bag

 

[SlipperyHill Mo]

How much is sun hemp a bag

 

[doomtrpr_z71]

60-70 depending when it was bought

 

[Bob2010]

Fiber hemp is 900-1000 a bag

DANG! So the reality is how many harvest can be done before replanting is required. Too expensive unless it keeps paying. Is this because the modification required to certify no THC is present in the seed in illegal quantities?

 

[doomtrpr_z71]

DANG! So the reality is how many harvest can be done before replanting is required. Too expensive unless it keeps paying. Is this because the modification required to certify no THC is present in the seed in illegal quantities?

One harvest per planting, no you still have to test for THC, its because hemp seed viability is horrible and it's a pain to deal with. Seed for cbd hemp is 1500+ a bag. The low THC varieties are selected through conventional breeding.

 

[Bob2010]

One harvest per planting, no you still have to test for THC, its because hemp seed viability is horrible and it's a pain to deal with. Seed for cbd hemp is 1500+ a bag. The low THC varieties are selected through conventional breeding.

You know about this. I read that for paper pulp production they get 2 harvest a year? That hemp would grow back. But you never know what the truth is. Do you think hemp could give the pine industry a run for its money in pulp production if it wasn't so restricted? Or is it all just hype? I think the Alabama Cap is 15 acres and Georgia is less. The Cbd grade hemp is all greenhouse production from what I understand. The liscence to grow it is cheap. However the liscence to process it for cbd etc is expensive! Then if you get bad seed and it test too high they destroy the entire crop.

 

[doomtrpr_z71]

You know about this. I read that for paper pulp production they get 2 harvest a year? That hemp would grow back. But you never know what the truth is. Do you think hemp could give the pine industry a run for its money in pulp production if it wasn't so restricted? Or is it all just hype? I think the Alabama Cap is 15 acres and Georgia is less. The Cbd grade hemp is all greenhouse production from what I understand. The liscence to grow it is cheap. However the liscence to process it for cbd etc is expensive! Then if you get bad seed and it test too high they destroy the entire crop.

I don't see how there's anyway to get 2 harvests a year unless you cut it green, cutting it mature requires 120 days to mature and 3-5weeks drying time in the field. It won't mature if the day length is off and there's cbd production on plastic in ga now like vegetables are produced. Trying to get a second harvest from regrowth would most likely be an exercise in growing a field of pigweed, because regardless of what the internet says, pigweed doesn't get smothered out by hemp.

 

[SakoL61R]

Have no clue about fiber hemp. On the sunn hemp, I've planted it for years as a screen and as deer forage. Works well until first frost. Must be planted on well drained soil.
Egyptian wheat works as a screen also-just make sure your soil is properly amended. The issue with sun hemp is keeping the deer off it if you want it to "top out". I've had it go 12+ ft a couple of years under excellent conditions. Late July pics from two plots, planted late April years ago. In many places it did go to 12+ by season's end.

 

[lampern]

Egyptian Wheat or cane (tall) sorghum

 

[Bob2010]

Have no clue about fiber hemp. On the sunn hemp, I've planted it for years as a screen and as deer forage. Works well until first frost. Must be planted on well drained soil.
Egyptian wheat works as a screen also-just make sure your soil is properly amended. The issue with sun hemp is keeping the deer off it if you want it to "top out". I've had it go 12+ ft a couple of years under excellent conditions. Late July pics from two plots, planted late April years ago. In many places it did go to 12+ by season's end.View attachment 1109566View attachment 1109569

Great photos. Thank you for posting them. That is great cover but if it dies at first frost there will be no cover late in deer season from the road. Will is stand dead very long or does it just fall over?

 

[Bob2010]

Egyptian Wheat or cane (tall) sorghum

Going to check the Egyptian wheat out. It looks like good coverage in the wintertime too.

 

[Bob2010]

I wish I could buy seed for just regular old blackberries. Problem is all the saplings growing back with them. Be impossible to maintain a stand of wild blackberries without the trees growing too.

 

[treemanjohn]

I wish I could buy seed for just regular old blackberries. Problem is all the saplings growing back with them. Be impossible to maintain a stand of wild blackberries without the trees growing too.

Just seed blackberries when you pick them. You'll have hundreds of seeds in no time. They're easy to grow

 

[Elkbane]

I wouldn't get my hopes up about near-term replacement of hemp for wood pulp. The problem is not in the fiber percentage or the fiber quality. The issue is finding a market which has the unloading and processing capacity to handle and store delivered hemp after harvesting. There are a number of species with better fiber characteristics than pine trees, and none of them have taken hold as a commercial success on any scale.

Having worked in a pulp mill and in the timber industry, I can pretty well assure you that capital allocation for a woodyard to modify their processes to handle harvested hemp is DOA. De-bottlenecking digesters get first shot at capital, finishing department (paper machines and driers)gets next shot, finished product material handling gets next shot....the woodyard gets last shot......Plus, material storage is a major issue - trees are easy to unload, can be stored in stacks, can be stored under sprinkler system in the wintertime....just too many problems for Hemp, switchgrass, etc.other baled products to compete.

A decent sized paper mill uses 40-50k tons of raw material a WEEK, roundwood plus chips from sawmills. Net weight of log truck deliveries is about 26 tons/load. So that's 1500-1900 truck loads a week; the product is readily available in a sustainable supply.

I really don't think Hemp has a chance to compete with that.....just sayin'

ELkbane

 

[SakoL61R]

Great photos. Thank you for posting them. That is great cover but if it dies at first frost there will be no cover late in deer season from the road. Will is stand dead very long or does it just fall over?

Bob, the SH falls down. The tough fibers decompose rapidly and can easily be incorporated by late winter / early spring. I've some pix somewhere....
Not that it applies to what your desires are, but before first fall frost, I broadcast rye-grain seed heavily into the SH stand. Oats and wheat as well if I have any leftover. Frost will make every leaf fall, covering the seed. Just leave it be at that point.
Makes for excellent late season deer chow into the spring.
FYI, I get my SH seed from Petcher Seeds most every year.

If you're really serious about a screen / cover to obscure a roadway, I'd just go with a fast growing evergreen/deciduous tree mix. Hinge cut some of the deciduous when they're mature enough. Subject to your specific needs/plans of course.

 

[doomtrpr_z71]

I wouldn't get my hopes up about near-term replacement of hemp for wood pulp. The problem is not in the fiber percentage or the fiber quality. The issue is finding a market which has the unloading and processing capacity to handle and store delivered hemp after harvesting. There are a number of species with better fiber characteristics than pine trees, and none of them have taken hold as a commercial success on any scale.

Having worked in a pulp mill and in the timber industry, I can pretty well assure you that capital allocation for a woodyard to modify their processes to handle harvested hemp is DOA. De-bottlenecking digesters get first shot at capital, finishing department (paper machines and driers)gets next shot, finished product material handling gets next shot....the woodyard gets last shot......Plus, material storage is a major issue - trees are easy to unload, can be stored in stacks, can be stored under sprinkler system in the wintertime....just too many problems for Hemp, switchgrass, etc.other baled products to compete.

A decent sized paper mill uses 40-50k tons of raw material a WEEK, roundwood plus chips from sawmills. Net weight of log truck deliveries is about 26 tons/load. So that's 1500-1900 truck loads a week; the product is readily available in a sustainable supply.

I really don't think Hemp has a chance to compete with that.....just sayin'

ELkbane

On top of all this hemp harvest is a total pain, there's no herbicides, and the realities of the situation are there's just not enough money to fool with hemp if it's the legal kind because everything else pretty much has it's market covered up.