🌾 Sorghum
Field Crops · growing reference
| Days to maturity | 60 days – 120 days, by type |
|---|---|
| Germination | 7 days |
| Planted as | lb |
| Water | ~0.50–1 in a week |
When to plant
In USDA zone 6, for example: Plant around Apr 29, once the soil has warmed — sown into cold ground it just sits.
| Spring | |
|---|---|
| Zone 3 | May 29 |
| Zone 4 | May 21 |
| Zone 5 | May 10 |
| Zone 6 | Apr 29 |
| Zone 7 | Apr 15 |
| Zone 8 | Mar 29 |
| Zone 9 | Mar 6 |
Dates are the typical window for each zone's average frost dates — your own last frost can differ by a couple of weeks. Zone 10 and warmer is effectively frost-free: plant to the season, not the frost. Southern Hemisphere: shift six months.
Sorghum Types
- Grain · 110 days · 300–600 lbs/plant — Milo — the compact grain sorghum: food, flour, and stock feed; drought-proof where corn fails.
- Sweet · 120 days · 20–50 gallons of syrup/plant — Sorghum cane — pressed and boiled for sorghum syrup/molasses (the sugaring crop). Tall, juicy stalks.
- Sudangrass · 60 days · 200–400 lbs of forage/plant — Sorghum-sudan forage — fast summer hay/graze and a heavy smother cover. Mind prussic acid when short.
- Broom · 110 days · 30–80 lbs of brush/plant — Broomcorn — grown for the long fibrous seed heads that make brooms and dried arrangements.
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