Sorghum Seeds - White African

Minimum Seeds per Packet: 130

Packet Weight: 4g

Planting Season: After Last Frost

Sowing Method: Direct Seed

Seed Depth: 1/2"

Direct Seed Spacing: 1-2"

Soil Temperature: 55-80 ℉

Days to Sprout: 7-14

Mature Spacing: 8"

Sun Requirement: Full Sun

Frost Tolerance: Frost Sensitive

Days to Harvest: 120

When to Seed Sorghum

Sorghum is a heat loving, warm season crop that should be direct seeded outdoors once all danger of frost has passed.

Where to Plant Sorghum

Choose a site that gets full sun and has well-draining soil. Sorghum can get very tall, so make sure it’s in a spot where it’s not completely shading out other crops. Because sorghum is self-fertile, a large plot is not needed for pollination purposes, unlike corn. 

Growing Sorghum

Ahead of planting, mix a balanced fertilizer into the bed or row. Sow sorghum directly into the garden ½ inch deep and one to two inches apart in rows planted 30 inches apart. As they grow, thin to their mature planting distance of eight inches. 

Harvesting Sorghum

Harvesting all three types is fairly simple and similar. For sweet sorghum, cut the canes at ground level about two weeks after the milk stage. Next, strip the leaves and ground or press the canes. This will yield a light green juice that then can be cooked into syrup. At this point, the seeds are not fully mature, but they can be cooked and eaten like other whole grains. The heads and grain are harvested after the plant is fully mature. Once the seeds are hard and glossy, cut off the entire head with a small portion of the stalk intact. Dry them in a warm, well-ventilated place for at least a week, then roll the dried seed heads on a hardware cloth, screen, or sieve, to free the seeds and separate them from plant debris. Your processed harvest can then be stored. Broom varieties can be cut once the seeds are mature, with stalks as long as you need them to be for your purposes.

Sorghum, Sorghum bicolor

Pollination, self/wind; Life Cycle, annual; Isolation Distance, 200 feet

Perfect, self-pollinating flowers are held in panicles (flower heads), which dry on the plant for easy harvest. Wind pollination is possible with very open flowers, though rare. Dry panicles can be cut individually as they are ready, and screened and winnowed to clean for storage.