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Click here for more pictures.
What
is a Velvet Bean?
Here is how the experts
define them.
Leguminosae
Mucuna deeringiana (Bort.) Merr.
Source: Magness et al. 1971
aka: "Mucuna Pruriens"
This is a strong-growing annual plant native
to the tropics. Most of the several varieties grown in the United States
are M. deeringiana although some kinds are of other Mucuna
species or interspecies hybrids. The slender stems may grow to 30 feet
in some kinds. They are mainly grown with a support crop, usually corn,
on which they climb and are partially supported. The leaves are trifoliate,
with large ovate leaflets. Pods are pubescent, up to 6 inches long, with
3 to 6 seeds per pod. Velvet beans are well adapted to sandy soils and
require a long growing season to produce much pasturage. They are grown
mainly in the Southeastern Coastal Plain for late summer pasturage and
soil improvement. All parts of the plant are nutritious and palatable to
livestock.
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Upon further investigation you will
find that they are grown in third world countries where the farmer cannot
afford the equipment to plow his field. He will use this plant to strangle
weeds in fields, add much-needed nutrients and organic matter to the soil,
and control soil erosion. (Maybe that is why it is sometimes
described as "controllable Kudzu.") You will also find out
that the people eat the beans (although they have been reported to be POISONOUS)
when the growing season was too dry for other crops to produce enough food.
(Do the research before eating the beans!)
What
does this mean to you?
Velvet bean recipies (pdf)
This is the plant you were looking
for to add to the rotation crops you already plant in you food plots.
A plant that will choke out the weeds and produce a viable food crop even
in the driest of seasons, while improving the plot's soil so your plots
will draw more deer than o' Joe's plots. All the while you will be
using less fertilizer, fewer chemicals and most of all less LABOR.
Get them now
for next year's planting.
Click here for prices and printable order blank
Shipping
Charges are the Responsibility of the Buyer
When
Requesting Pricing Please Include Zip Code for Shipping Cost
Pick-ups
other than UPS must be scheduled
Telephone 850-859-2141
E-mail John Wilkerson
Snail Mail 297 Railroad Avenue
DeFuniak Springs, FL 32433
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