Sunn Hemp - Crotalaria juncea

Sunn Hemp is a fast-growing, resilient summertime plant that has become a key element in our food forest/agroforestry work. This amazing plant has a long list of benefits:

• Fixes nitrogen into the soil, providing an early dose of fertility to plants nearby.

• Resistant to root-knot nematodes and has been shown to reduce their numbers in the soil.

• Tolerates sandy soils, extreme heat, and drought conditions.

• Grows EXTREMELY fast and can provide shade to surrounding plants quickly.

• Produces an abundance of biomass or “green manure”. Excellent chop & drop species.

• Flowers prolifically and helps attract beneficial pollinators.

• Can be used as a forage for livestock. Wild deer and rabbits love eating Sunn Hemp, making it an ideal “distraction plant” to help deter animals from eating your young fruit trees.

It’s important to note that Sunn Hemp is a daylight sensitive plant and does best when planted in the spring or early summer. It is commonly grown as a summer cover crop in Florida as it handles our extreme summers very well and leaves the soil in great conditions for fall/winter growing.

When working in a food forest/agroforestry context, Sunn Hemp works great when sprinkled around young tree seedlings. It’s rapid growth will provide shade to baby trees and it’s nitrogen-fixing capabilities will supply the fertility.

Sunn Hemp is by far one of our favorite plants to work with when starting food forests from scratch, it truly embodies the saying “making something out of nothing!”