Scardanelli, I will be following your post. I to would like to find a better mulch. I used to be able to find old hay, left over from winter feeding. I liked the hay because it seemed to work better with my watering system.
The hay seemed to stay in place better than the leaves also.

I use mulched leaves and grass clippings now, which works ok, but seem to work sort of like a thatched roof and sheds water more readily than the larger stemmed hay. If I place the water lines under the mulch like I did with the hay, it seems the leaves some times rest on the water holes and restrict the water flow.

I neeed to do more research to know for sure I am correct before I do any major changes. Larry

I'm growing some Sudan Grass in a backyard planter bc I want to enrich the soil. Any advice would be appreciated. I live in central TX and have just planted it. I am a little worried about how to cut and incorporate into soil because I only have hand tools. Any advice would help......Thx

April, You probably can cut the Sudan grass with a string trimmer being careful not to let the string trimmer hit your container and damage it. Then, you'll need a way to chop up the Sudan grass into smaller pieces. You could leave it lying on the ground and run over it with a lawnmower with a grass-catcher bag attached, or you can put the Sudan grass into a large rubber trash can and carefully insert your string trimmer into the trash can and chop it up within the can. Then, just put the clippings where you want them for soil improvement.

Dawb

I use a mower to chop up everything around here that gets chopped. That includes small tree trimmings, okra stalks, pea and bean vines, sweet potato vines, and watermelon vines. I often pile the vines along side the garden and run over then with the rider mower several times. After they dry a few days I go over them again and try to blow them out into the garden. My mower wont blow wet material very far.

I have some hand trimmers that I use to use to trim hedges and pampas grass, my arms are too weak to use them now but I think you could cut a small amount of Sudan with something like that.

Lot's of people grow Sudan for hay. I believe it's in the Sorghum family. It can get quite tall, maybe 6 feet or taller if it has adequate moisture. The stalk can get pretty large if they go to maturity. It should make good mulch though as it produces a lot of forage.

Sudan grass would make mulch if cut early at about 4-5 ft. tall. But it is hard o the soil as it uses a lot of the minerals and plant food. Hairy vetch would make a better choice. It can be planted in late Aug.- early Sept. and will live all winter and will grow very fast in early spring. It will make a very good mulch after it is cut and will put nitrogen back into the soil.

Just don't plant vetch IN your garden!

I've grown a sorghum sudangrass hybrid for a couple of years. It gets really tall if the weather plays to its strengths, if you let it get five to six foot tall then cut it back to 18" or so, it will tiller into the soil very nicely and really makes a nice tilth for next year. If you cut it too low, it converts into a more grassy growth and produces a lot less biomass and only gets a couple feet tall.

It will die nicely with the first freeze, most will die even with the first frost. However, it will stay a hedge all winter if you don't mow it down. If you cover with a decent layer of organic matter in the warm and wet winters you all seem to have it should be a couple inch layer of compost come spring. Have you cut it several times already? I ask because that seems REALLY short for Sudangrass in that climate in late July. Of course you said your soil was poor and very shallow, so that would of course alter maximum size.