Update To Coffee, Hemp, and Biosustainability
We were excited to see the wonderful article on Sunn Hemp by Dr. Koon-Hui Wang, Agroecologist with the Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, at the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, U.H., in the Sept/Oct/Nov 2009 issue of Hanai‘Ai, the Food Provider.
Dr Koon-Hui Wang advocates the use of sunn hemp for its ability to provide biological protection from the root-knot nematode pest, which presents an ominous threat to coffee farmers in the Kona coffee corridor.
In addition she endorses sunn hemp as a nitrogen fixing “green fertilizer” and conservational ground cover. In a video accessed from YouTube: Sunn hemp for Soil Health and Nematode Management. The techniques used by her team, for growing sunn hemp between the rows of cash crops, and harvesting and applying it ‘in situ”, where it is grown, as a surface mulch is most important (in our opinion).
We heartily applaud the findings in this study, and we would like to add a few suggestions for the harvesting process. Sunn hemp is indeed one of the great fiber producing plants in nature. Most is used to make rope or clothing. Attempting to chop or shred sunn hemp requires special machinery. It is most easily harvested (cut down) when it is still in the vegetative phase, and just starting to flower. The plant may be simply cut or broken, just above the soil surface, leaving the roots (with their nitrogen fixing nodules) in the soil. The stalk and leaves are simply layed down between our coffee trees and the surface mulching begins. The ground is covered, weed suppression is aided, water is conserved, soil health is improved. The roots decompose, but the soil population of rhizobial bacteria which render atmospheric nitrogen available for plant metabolism, is increased and in place for incorporation into the next planting of sunn hemp.
Thank you Dr Koon-Hui Wang.
Check out the video on YouTube: Sunn hemp for Soil Health and Nematode Management
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