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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 2, 2010 9:13:35 GMT -5
Well that gives me hope that the seed I sent to you buys will germinate then if babied. I also have some seed given to me from other sources that I"ll treat that way. Thanks for the tip.
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Post by raymondo on Dec 5, 2010 19:58:33 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip about old sorghum seeds. I'll give the method a try.
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Post by greenzone on Dec 29, 2010 6:58:27 GMT -5
Very glad to see the interest in sorghum. In my opinion, it's an under-utilized crop for the homesteader, at least where it's easy to grow.
Most of what I know has already been said by prior posters, but one thing I think I did not see is how easy it is to handle when harvesting for hay by hand. I can go down a row of sorghum and in just 5 or 10 minutes harvest a good feed for my approximately 10 sheep/goats. And they really like it, at least when it's green. I am talking about sweet sorghum here, which was grown for seed. After the seed heads were cut, the remaining stalks were fed. My stock would even eat the main stems. These I tasted and they were about as sweet and as juicy as an apple.
Anyway, I love sorghum!
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Post by atash on Dec 29, 2010 12:44:00 GMT -5
Greenzone, thanks for the comments. I didn't know you could harvest the stalks for feed after the seed was harvested. I've also heard that although it works better growing it for one purpose or the other, that it is possible to extract the sweet sap from the stalks after the grain is harvested. I don't have any grazing livestock but I'll try to put the greens to some good use.
I agree it's underutilized for the homesteader. A lot of people buy brown rice flour for making non-glutenous cakes, pancakes, muffins, etc. Some people claim Sorghum is too tropical for growing in the north. That's probably true of the tall syrup sorghums but not necessarily the short grain sorghums. But anyway, it's more feasible than rice. Even upland rice needs too long of a warm growing season to be adaptable to northern latitudes. Sorghum needs warmth but matures faster than rice.
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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 29, 2010 14:55:51 GMT -5
I'm certainly interested in trying sorghum. Not sure how well it will work here so we'll see.
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Post by greenzone on Dec 29, 2010 19:32:24 GMT -5
Greenzone, thanks for the comments. I didn't know you could harvest the stalks for feed after the seed was harvested. I've also heard that although it works better growing it for one purpose or the other, that it is possible to extract the sweet sap from the stalks after the grain is harvested. I don't have any grazing livestock but I'll try to put the greens to some good use. I agree it's underutilized for the homesteader. A lot of people buy brown rice flour for making non-glutenous cakes, pancakes, muffins, etc. Some people claim Sorghum is too tropical for growing in the north. That's probably true of the tall syrup sorghums but not necessarily the short grain sorghums. But anyway, it's more feasible than rice. Even upland rice needs too long of a warm growing season to be adaptable to northern latitudes. Sorghum needs warmth but matures faster than rice. I certainly could have pressed mine this season, after removing the mature seedheads. Actually the plants wanted to re-grow. So the original stalks and leaves stayed green right up until hard frost took them out. In a long enough season a person could get more than one cutting or seed crop, but that would probably only work in the deep south. A crazy idea I had while cutting bunches of the sorghum stalks, was that if a person had enough of it, there must be some way to utilize it as a building material. There might be better building materials out there, but still...it might be good for something! And before anyone feeds sorghum on my say-so, I should say a word about prussic acid poisoning: there is such a thing. But I did quite a bit of reading before I fed much to my churro sheep, and I determined the risk was manageable. Basically, you don't feed recently frosted or wilted plants. I was pretty good about cutting just enough for a feeding, and I tried to balance it so that the critters would clean it all up in a couple of hours. Which, generally, they did.
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Post by flowerweaver on Jul 26, 2014 16:34:47 GMT -5
It's been awhile since this thread was alive. Being gluten intolerant and living in a hot, dry climate I would like to explore sorghum as both for grain flour and syrup. For a couple of years we observed a self-seeding plant in our garden path, presumably from bird seed or scratch grains, that was unattended yet prolific. I'm thinking about adding it to the rotation of my corn and bean plots next year.
In reading some abstracts online I see that GMO has entered sorghum since this thread was begun. Milo, likely GMO for livestock, is heavily grown about 50 miles south and 1,000 feet downhill from my farm.
This year I am growing a handful of Tarahumara Popping sorghum in a little experiment and so far, so good, it has flowered and is setting seed pretty quickly. I would like to hear about your experiences in growing both types. Are there affordable home presses available? We already have a grinding mill. Is it easy to grind? Is it generally planted the same time as corn? I ask, because my season is long enough to plant another crop of corn right now and I am thinking of trying some other sorghums. At what temperature will it fail to set?
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Post by 12540dumont on Jul 26, 2014 23:09:14 GMT -5
Flower, In my opinion, it grows easily during the hot dry season with little water. It's a bitch to get off the stem. I have not eaten it myself. I have always dried it and fed it to the chickens, whole on the stalk during the winter. It's eaten often in Africa. I tasted it once in sort of a gruel. Atash knows more about this, but he's not been posting lately. I have not found a reasonably priced press. There's a company in Japan that makes them, but they don't answer my letters. Gene Lodgsdon wrote about them in his grain book, which got me interested. I have some seed that I will send later. Too late for this year and I'm too swamped to fool around with seed sending. And way to crabby because of the heat.
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Post by flowerweaver on Jul 27, 2014 11:26:05 GMT -5
Holly, by too late for this year do you mean it's too late for me to get some in? I still have about 120 growing days ahead of me.
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Post by 12540dumont on Apr 28, 2015 16:25:41 GMT -5
Flower, I'm sorry I never saw this. Most sorghum is done in 100 days (or so).
I went to plant mine today, and everything in the quart jar was ruined. It appears that some "thing" critter-like got in the jar and the whole mess was moldy. Sigh.
But then I went through the seed freezer and found some Tarahumara popping. Okay, who sent this? Someone with nice handwriting. I want to plant this tomorrow, so please confess so I can enter it in the seed log. I also have a little bi-color and some white left. But I may just plant the popping. I need to leave room for flax and sunflowers. Yes I know that there's more land out there, but I can only irrigate an acre out. I have no water pressure past that. Seems like a good year to put some of this drought tolerant grain in.
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Post by castanea on May 16, 2015 15:53:06 GMT -5
Baker Creek has more grain sorghums this year incuding:
Allu Jola Popping Sorghum - an Indian landrace
India Red Popping Sorghum Tunisian Sorghum
White African Sorghum - also good for syrup
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