MF Sorghum experiment

[MaartenFoubert]

I am creating a separate post to document my Sorghum grex experiment.

Starting Varieties:
White Dwarf
Dorado
Korjaj
Maizeña
M61 survivor
Allu Jola
Gaolian Voskovidnyj
Kawanda
Rox Orange
Coral
Gila River Kaña
Texas Black Amber Molasses
Caña Ganchado
Apache Red “Sugarcane”
Mountain Pima
Tasagui
Ba Ye Qi
Honey Drip
Sugar Drip
Mennonite
Tarahumara
Dale

I’d like to grow the sorghum for seeds (popping and flour), syrup (especially if the syrup leaks from the stalk, as I can get my bees to harvest it for me), and also for biomass.

The experiment is to figure out: 1) what is the least amount of protection I have to provide from deer (as I have a fenced-in area, but that is prime real estate, I would rather grow it outside the fenced-in area) and 2) what is the least amount of work I have to do for it to grow.

So, in 2025, I am growing sorghum under different starting conditions (but all sowing was done during/before a 5-day rainy week 4/28-05/01):

Outside fence in dry garden:

1. seeds cast in the weeds, weeds mowed down with grass mower, nothing else till harvest
2. weed barrier down in the fall, removed before planting, seeds planted, nothing else till harvest
3. (2) and seeds covered with weeds/grass to help moisture till germination

Inside fence in dry garden:
4) (2) but inside fence
5) (3) but inside fence
6) manure dug under in the fall and (5)
7) bales of hay buried in the fall and (5)

Home garden:
8) Seeds cast in a nicely aerated bed of leaf mulch compost, slightly covered by a light sprinkling of evenly spaced hay which was hand selected by French maidens. Electric fence low to the ground to discourage bunny activities. Watered as needed and if necessary, I will sing lullaby songs to them in the evening.

Needless to say, I hope (1) is a success for all sorghum (or at least for one syrup sorghum and one grain sorghum), so I won’t have to do 2-8 going forward.

Status 5/11:
Rox Orange (starting condition 8) and Gaolian Voskovidnyj (starting condition 6) are popping, there are some signs of single sorghum seedlings popping, but hard to tell if a single seedling is sorghum or some random grass that happened to pop up.

Maarten

[isabelle (Harlé)]

9. = 8) with English lads selecting the hay.

[MaartenFoubert]

Current status of the nursery seedlings (starting condition 8):

Rox Orange (I am planning to transplant some of these as the germination rate is off the chart):

Maizena:

Honey Drip:

This is the Rox Orange description: Rox Orange is a selection of forage sorghum released by the Kansas State Agricultural Experiment Station in the 1930’s. Compared to earlier forage sorghums, it had more palatable stalks with a higher sugar content and less tannin in the seeds. It is distinctly inferior in both yield and quality to modern BMR hybrids.

Liking how that variety is behaving so far.

Maarten

[MaartenFoubert]

Visited my dry garden today to see how my unpampered sorghum plots were doing

This is a pic of a method 3 lot(weed barrier placed in fall and removed before sowing, seedlings covered with mulch made from pulled weeds) (ref 3-1). These are 4 rows, 2 Coral, 2 Ba Ye Qi, the second row was heavily seeded, which is the greenish line going from almost the top left corner to the middle of the pic):

Some life showing up in the “scattered some seeds in a weedy patch, then mowed it” plots:

Another seedling in a similar plot:

I checked some of my other projects and the “David The Good Compost Pumpkins” are struggling, I may have to find out where he lives, go visit his garden and yell at his pumpkins that they are mightily spoilt little Alabama debutantes, can’t handle a little bit of clay, a little bit cooler temperatures and a little rain…

Maarten

[cjs419]

I’m in a heavily deer populated area of Ohio but i never see signs they’ve been eating my sorghum. Maybe because there’s plenty of other stuff to eat between the woods and corn/soy fields.

I’ve only planted a tall “sugar cane” type and I’ve tried broadcasting in various conditions and i wasn’t impressed. What i grow acts like corn, in that it wants wide spacing, and lots of water and compost otherwise it seems to stall at 3 or 4 ft and not put on a seed head. So I plant a row or two like corn and I still save seeds and broadcast to see what will happen but it usually just results in treats for the pigs. I’d rather grow fruit for sugar and corn for grain.

[MaartenFoubert]

cjs419,

That is discouraging, hopefully I have a big enough mix of genetics so some of them will do well enough to reproduce under neglect.

Maarten

[cjs419]

Yeah i wouldn’t be discouraged. That was just my one variety. If i had a mangle style press and a big old stainless pan to reduce, I’d probably grow more and make syrup. I still intentionally grow it but mainly just for throwing the seed heads to the chickens and the stalks to the pigs. Trying to clean grain like sorghum and amaranth for human consumption just isn’t something I’ve got the patience for currently. Still great crops tho.

[Lauren (Lauren Ritz)]

My little plot last year did fine. Heavy clay, no water May to August (dry garden), no weeding, and while I didn’t get a lot most plants did produce. I just hoed in a shallow trench, covered the seeds and walked away.

I only have one variety, unfortunately, a broomcorn type. This was the initial test at this location, so if I decide to do sorghum again I’ll use more diversity.

[MaartenFoubert]

Not a lot to comment, plants are growing fine, no visible issues with pests or diseases.

This is a pic of Method 1 in the weedy field:

Growth is in line with the well-known farmers’ saying “Sorghum is 5 inches high, you say? It must be the 28th of May.”

Maarten

[MaartenFoubert]

@MaartenFoubert

1. seeds cast in the weeds, weeds mowed down with grass mower, nothing else till harvest
2. weed barrier down in the fall, removed before planting, seeds planted, nothing else till harvest
3. (2) and seeds covered with weeds/grass to help moisture till germination

Inside fence in dry garden:
4. (2) but inside fence
5. (3) but inside fence
6. manure dug under in the fall and (5)
7. bales of hay buried in the fall and (5)

Summary update:

• Method 6 (manure dug under in the fall) gives the best overall size result, method 7 follows as second best (bales of hay buried) - no surprise there
• But, surprising is that certain varieties (Ba Ye Qi/Mennonite/Texas Black Amber Molasses) on unfertilized soil (methods 1-5) have surpassed method 6 and 7
• Method 1 is the worst method, unsurprisingly, especially with variety Dale, it will be interesting to do the same experiment with the survivors next year and see if they adapted well.
• There are some early indications that dense sowing increases the size of the sorghum plants, interesting to see if the same holds for seed production (see Mennonite 3-2 vs Mennonite 5-3)
• Mulching just after seeding does not seem to have an effect on germination, so I can stop doing that going forward (seeds too small to be picked out of the soil by birds?)
• Deer leave sorghum alone, so I will be moving most of my sorghum production outside deer protected fences next year if they leave the seed heads alone as well

Detailed update on the fields (the first number refers to the method of sowing):

Field 1-1 (Dale variety) - area between the 4 bamboo stakes
only 1 survivor found

Field 1-2 (Dale variety)
No surviving sorghum

Field 1-3 Gila River Kaña/Dale
Sorghum sparse but better than field 1-1

Field 1-4 Maizena/M61 Survivor/Caña Ganchado/Apache Sugarcane/Tasagui/Mountain Pima/Tarahumara
Sparse sorghum, very similar to field 1-3

Field 2-1 Gila River Kaña
Very nice blanket of Sorghum

Field 3-1 (rows 1 and 3 are Coral, rows 2 and 4 are Ba Ye Qi)
Deer don’t seem to be messing with the Sorghum (next to the field is a blackberry, fully stripped of its leaves). Ba Ye Qi growth is impressive. Cannot compare germination rates between the 2 varieties as I put a lot of seeds in that second row.

Field 3-2 Menonite
Very nice blanket here as well, 2 ft+ stalks

Field 3-3 Dale
Good coverage

Field 4-1 Gila River Kana
good spread given that the sorghum was sowed in just one row

Field 5-1 Apache Red “Sugar Cane”
good spread given that the sorghum was sowed in just one row

Field 5-2 Texas Black Amber Molasses
great sorghum size, good spread

Field 5-3 Menonite
good spread given that the sorghum was sowed in just one row

Field 6-1 M61(east)/Gaolian Voskovidnyj(west)
Great size, great spread

Field 7-1 Dale(east)/Gila River Kaña(west)
Great size, great spread

Regards

Maarten

[MaartenFoubert]

First seed heads are forming.

Field 3-1 (in particular row 2, which is Ba Ye Qi)
After having great growth, this variety is the first to form seed heads, which is quite impressive as this was seeded in bare soil (no fertilizer, manure, hay,…)

Field 6-1 (Gaolian Voskovidnyj(west))
Also some seed heads are formed here, which is not suprising as it is the field that had manure dug under in the fall of '24:

Can’t wait to see the other fields to start popping as well

Maarten

[MaartenFoubert]

Bees pollinating the Sorghum

Maarten

[MaartenFoubert]

Some nitrogen fixing going on with some varieties

Maarten