What’s That Mystery Molino Crop With The Yellow Flowers?

November 4, 2024

We received a lot of emails over the past few days asking about the unique yellow-flowering crop planted at Highway 29 and Highway 97 behind the Tom Thumb in Molino.

The plant is called Sunn Hemp (that’s Crotalaria juncea L for the scientific types).

It is a semi-tropical plant that is grown as a cover crop in the southeast. It’s a legume, growing in a variety of locations and returning nitrogen to the soil. It can also be used as a biomass to produce biofuels.

According to the USDA, sunn hemp can produce over 5,000 pounds of biomass and 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre. It can produce this amount within 60 to 90 days, so it has the potential to build organic matter levels and sequester carbon in the soil. It is known to suppress nematodes.

Pictured: Sun hemp Sunday afternoon at Highway 29 and Highway 97 in Molino. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge

Comments

6 Responses to “What’s That Mystery Molino Crop With The Yellow Flowers?”

  1. Claudette on November 4th, 2024 1:24 pm

    Thank you. I had driven by and taken pictures and even posted on FB looking for answers.

  2. James Hare on November 4th, 2024 12:07 pm

    Would love to set out about 6 Bee hives there!

  3. Bill T on November 4th, 2024 10:26 am

    Very effective very smart farmer

  4. Local on November 4th, 2024 9:37 am

    Thank you for sharing. Be on the lookout for deer. They devour this crop and will walk quite a distance to consume. Goats, as well, enjoy, but I don’t see many free ranging as deer.

  5. Good to hear on November 4th, 2024 9:28 am

    Thats good news because we often rely heavily on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in the fields of food we grow which depletes the soil’s organic matter content.

  6. Local on November 4th, 2024 5:07 am

    I was wondering what that is. Thank you
    It certainly is beautiful.





Have a comment on this story?

We welcome your comments on this story, but there are some rules to follow::

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments. If someone says something bad about you, don't respond. That's childish.

(3) No Libel. That's saying something is not true about someone. Don't do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions. Period.

(5) NorthEscambia.com reserves the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or we think to be inappropriate. We are not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 300 words or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over 30 days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business, political candidate or political group, or link to another commercial web site or political site of any kind.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under FRONT TOP 

  FNBT