Sunnhemp is a dryland crop. Where irrigated, furrows are opened in fields separating them into small plots. If there is no rain after sowing, field is irrigated along these furrows. Crop is irrigated once in 10-15 days, lightly compared to other crops, like tobacco and chilies. Too much moisture is harmful during the first 2 weeks after germination.
Seeds germinate rapidly.
In about 3 days seedlings appear above ground and soon form a thick cover. No manure is applied. Sunnhemp is often grown as a green manure, in rotation with tobacco, vegetables, dry grains, rice, corn, cotton, also sugar cane, pineapples, coffee, and orchard crops. In Rhodesia the crop is cut when stems have turned yellow along the major portion of their length. If grown for seed, plants are harvested after seed are well set, and before pods are dry, so that no seed is lost during cutting and bundling prior to threshing.