For those interested in growing Sorghum or Amaranth for small scale food production, you may want to do a TH-cam search on "DIY Seed Cleaning Machine" or "diy winnowing machine" or "DIY threshing machine". The process goes a lot faster and results in a cleaner grain at the end. I'm in the process of building something similar to the machine in the "Small Scale Grain Threshing Machine" video by the Vegetable Academy youtube channel.
@@Dirt-FermerI’ve got some amaranth drying in the garage. Once it’s good and dry, I’ll probably record the threshing. Like you said, it’ll all fall out!
It’s beautiful, as good food should be. I started a patch of chicken scratch for my hens. Now I see I must do some for me. (Eyes side yard, scratches chin)
This was so nice to watch!! I'm from Argentina and my grandparents where sorghum and rice farmers, now my family does mainly soy, I dream of going back to those main two crops and there's not really a lot of info about it, so, thank you so much, watching this was very moving 🥺💚💚💚
Sorghum accidentally came up in my garden. Probably from the bird feeder, and I love it. I'm going to grow it on purpose next year. So I really enjoyed your video😊
Sorghum is a thing in my country's kitchen..we make a delicious porridge for breakfast we top it with mix of chopped nuts ,cake,traditional cookies,couscous..we're the only to consume it in the region ,the neighboring countries wondering why we eat "birds' food"😅
We have a severe problem with ground squirrels in Arizona. They like to tunnel under trees and that will kill them. When irrigating, water runs down the burrows. Best thing is sorghum. A few stalks planted by each tree keeps them away. Cyanide in the roots is why. Often, planting once is OK because the crowns usually survive winter. It's cut and come again, makes good mulch, good sugar, and the last growth is allowed to mature for grain; cowpeas seem to favor it over bean poles. White Mountain Apache likes the heat, droughty conditions, and looks good.
Hi from Australia here,I am just a 77 year old lady accidently droped sorgam seeds from bird sead on a empty pot with some soil in it, the sorgam grew I was surprised did not know what it was,I always wonderd how it could be used,So I looked into it and was surprised at the many uses. So I am going to grow some this year,I have my own hand grinder and will process it.I am surprised we in Australia do not use it more often. THANK YOU FOR THE INFOMATION..
@@crystalroseblue6760 seems like it grew easy for you! If you find you dont like the flour or other uses, you could always just leave it for the birds to enjoy instead of buying seed.
@zedmeinhardt3404 YEP I had a pet Galah she loved it,( she can not fly broken wing) she has a new home now with other Galah's for company I sometimes pass a few of her favourite over to the neibour for her ,where she lives in a giant avery..
This video made me pull the trigger on starting a sorghum grex , i just ordered 9 varieties from experimental farm network and iv got a few others already. Thank you for the video
Great to hear your experiment growing sorghum into existing grass. I thought to experiment with this myself this year with my broomcorn which grows so much taller than the high paddock grasses. I also tried growing white sorghum last summer (called jowar in India)- this didn't do as well as the broomcorn in our very wet summer as it is shorter (1m high) with dense seed heads, much of which rotted in the wet. Broomcorn being tall with looser seed heads did much better. Because I don't artificially irrigate, I generally plant in the wet season (after Christmas in Southern hemisphere) but this year have just planted sorghum in spring (usually dry) to get a longer growing season before the wet. The white sorghum is supposed to be the best for humans to eat, less bitter than red varieties. I know many people's chickens don't eat sorghum in mixed seed. An old-timer told me they used to feed sorghum mash to their hens (cooked, not soaked, as has bitter exudates)
The coral, popping and Williams sorghums are all tall! The popping and coral are also probably considered better for human consumption, but it’s Williams we have mostly, and broomcorn and are very happy with both. Next year I will plant more coral and popping.
Good to see the "when to harvest" notes. I'm on year two of expanding seed for several sugar sorghum varieties. I'm in 5B too. You may want to try Winter Rye grain (a lot hardier than wheat). This year I added Einkorn and ordered Barley seed for spring. If you are trying corn, start with Reids Yellow and maybe Bloody Butcher dent corn. Use the Nixtamalization process on the corn to free up niacin (hominy/tortillas), I wonder if that also works for Sorghum? Pickling lime, CAL, hardwood ashes, or even Baking Soda boiled with the corn for 45 mins, let sit a day or overnight, rinse well, then boil like beans.
This is an excellent and very helpful comment. Thank you. Thank you for the rye suggestion. I do grow barley, and want to grow more. I have been researching nixtamalization for corn. You confirm what I have found. Haven’t tried it yet. Have you? Why would it be necessary for sorghum? I think there are many available nutrients in sorghum, including protein.
I love to feed the birds and that was the start of my "What is this plant" trip. They seem to call it Milo on the bag of seed. I have it growing naturally in my garden...thanks to my little friends❤ Thank you for making this vid..it really helps us to broaden our food knowledge. Great work❤
Thank you Veronica! 😊 Milo sounds like a word for millet, and another name for sorghum is great millet. We also grow millet. I may do a video on that too!
sorry i have been away for a while. my isp more than doubled my access so i had to cancel and youtube kept messing with my other account which i have abandoned. i was planing on starting a channel for my food forest so once i got back online, i started this account to dedicate to the food forest. your sorghum looks great. i am going to have to try some of the varieties you have. i just got back so i have a lot of catching up to do still. just started this account and you are the first place i went 🙂
Good to hear from you Alsan! Glad you’re back! Your contributions are always very educational! When you say dedicate your channel to your food forest, are you going to do videos? If so, I’ll be your first subscriber!
What an energetic guy you are.... Instead of commercial wheat farming which is making land barain due to fertiliziers, you are showing that in USA (at least Westcoast) one can grow sustainable grains
I’m about to experiment in using Sorghum, Peanuts and Clover in sequence as soil conditioner, as a cut and drop to condition ground for an orchard planting.
I grew several types of sorghum this year including Martin Milo. It's a very early maturing crop which I was able to harvest twice this year in zone six. It's a pretty strong tasting grain though. I grew a small packet of Dorado Sorghum too which did really well for me and I plan on planting more of it next year. I also made a small batch of syrup the last two years with great success. I plan on making a video soon of how I made tortillas from the sorghum seed, nixtamalizing it like you would to make corn tortillas. Great video!
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture There's a paper I read discussing nutrition. Nixtamalizing can increase bioavailability of the protein, lower tannin content which is more important in darker colored varieties and it can also reduce aflatoxins if present. Most importantly though it totally changes the texture of the resulting product allowing for a more cohesive dough making 100% sorghum thin tortillas possible.
Amazing video! You answered so many of my questions. I've never heard it mentioned that you can get a second crop, so i was very surprised when mine put up more! I appreciate the tips on knowing how to tell if it is ripe.
Very interesting! I know that it's a bit too cold for sugar cane here (it grows 50 miles south) because we get sea air, but I think we could grow sorghum. I haven't tasted sorghum molasses, so I'll have to ask my son for his opinion. He spent some time teaching in Botswana and used it there.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture The map shows 10a, but I am in the foothills directly across from the Golden Gate, so we get a lot of wind off the ocean. The temperature usually ranges between mid-low 30s F and high 70s/low 80s F, but with climate change we get all kinds of temps. Last week we were at 95/100 F aand last winter we had one or two days of 28 F.
@@harriettejensen479you should be able to easily grow syrup sorghum in your climate. If you have a lot of weed pressure, start it in pots first. Once it’s germinated and grown a couple of inches, it grows quickly.
So glad you did a Harvest video for sorghum! Can't wait to start my own down by our pond! Hoping it can replace the phragmites!! And I can make sourdough bread with it!!
Thank you! Keep the phragmites well cut down if it’s too hard to pull them, until the sorghum is tall. Something about phragmites, however, I have not verified it with research, but I have read the grain is edible. I’m not in support of it of course. Very invasive.
Thank you for the great informative video, I'm also loving growing & baking with white, ,brown, orange & purple sorghums from our garden in the mountains of west Java Indonesia. It must be the easiest thing to grow here too, even when we have a heavy rainy season or in the dry season, also in dryer parts of Indonesia. Also happy our birds can eat some too.
Thank you! Wow, what a beautiful variety of colours! There was another comment from someone in Indonesia, but he was having difficulty growing it. I hope he sees your comment. Maybe you can give him some ideas. 😊
Very informative and thorough, thank you so much! I'm growing black sorghum for the first time this year - for the birds. Also growing other varieties for myself. Tried the new perennial sorghum for the first time this year. Only got enough for next year's seed on that one; hope to build up from there. I plan to explore the rest of your channel, as your presentation was excellent.
Love this information, but I noticed a couple of things that I would like to point out. Those flower and seed heads aren't called tillers. They are called flower or seed heads, or more correctly called panicked. The term sorghum tiller refers to the secondary shots that grow from the base of the main sorghum plant. These tillers originate from nodes located at or below the soil surface. I hope this helps.
Thank you for that clarification. I thought a tiller was any stem, main or secondary, and could start from any node, and usually ends up with a seed head if it has the time to mature. It just seems like a simple generalization. In seed packets, it will sometimes say ‘can grow up to seven tillers’ to give an idea of how much grain it will produce.
Thank you David! You know, I really enjoy your videos. I am one of your subscribers in case you didn’t know. I appreciate very much your attitude to learning and experimentation. I would love to do a collaboration with you at some point if that interests you. I’ve never done one before.
It is best for diabetic people.. It releases sugar slowly and you feel full also it has lots of fiber... It's staple food in some places of India.. We make flat bread out of it😊
Thank you! You’ve reminded me that I read about that! Wish I’d talked about this in the video! Good for diabetics, slow release sugar, high fiber… Next time!
This might be your best video yet! I've been looking for an easy to grow (and easy to process) grain, and it looks like sorghum fits the bill. I'll keep an eye out for some local seeds and hopefully give it a go next year. Thank you! Enjoy the harvest :)
Thank you so much for this video! I have Leaky Gut Syndrome and therefore cannot eat any grain except for sorghum and millet. Since I have a permaculture garden, I tried growing my own sorghum three years ago. They grew so beautifully well. I harvested them, then… well I was stuck. How do I turn these into flour? I spent two years researching and only found what farmers do. I’m just a regular homeowner and do not have machinery. So out of frustration, I finally threw out my harvest all over the ground as mulch. Your video just made me feel embarrassed that I didn’t try harder. I’m going to try again and this time, use my blender! Thank you again!
Thank you for sharing! Don’t be too rough on yourself Fawzia. For me, over 30 years of gardening, in the early years it was so hard to get useful information and everything tended to make it seem so hard for an individual to do their own thing. However, I am someone who always questions everything and everybody because I’m very curious. It took me a long time too, to grow grains, because I figured it was just too hard. Then I realized that they’re just another plant and just another harvest and so should be no harder than tomatoes or potatoes, and I dived in. And it was because of broomcorn I realized it, because I bought some for decoration, not knowing it was sorghum. It grew so easily and well and looked like it was edible, I started my research again and the rest is history! I’m glad I could be of help. You know you can grow them, so you’ll be eating amaranth and sorghum next year!
Just found your channel. You're living my dream. My husband retires in May and we would live to find a homestead and have an amazing garden like yours. I am curious to know if you and your wife do all of the upkeep and harvesting on your 2ish acres or do you have to hire help? Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge :).
Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture! It’s just the two of us. Our two young adult children help out around the house when they’re around and available. It’s mostly Magali and me. Nature helps us out a great deal! And next year, we are planning on letting many parts of our food forest grow on their own with many things that should just come back! Check out more of our videos to see how we do this. It can be done, and people have been doing it for millennia! 😊
What an awesome video! It looks like corn and sorghum are in the same family. I was thinking about growing corn for the plant characteristics, but it seems like sorghum is more versatile
Thank you! Yes, corn is beautiful and has its charm, but we do find sorghum has many uses in the kitchen. It also does not attract raccoons the way corn does. Corn is a real magnet for raccoons. I’m going to be planting it far away from my main garden next year to attract them away from our main garden. Corn and sorghum do not cross-pollinate, so if they are related, it’s not close enough for cross pollination.
We are at 5b or 6a, 6,000 ft elevation, very dry. With its natural sugars, I bet that would make a great ingredient for a homemade sourdough starter!🤗🤤🤤🤤 Have you tried growing this mixed with sudan grass, which grows fast and tall for multiple harvest, for a high protein and natural sugar foder for small to medium livestock, such as rabbits, poultry, goats, pigs, etc...??? Maybe even use a small portion of the harvest to hold back for winter foder?
Your comment about harvesting wheat reminded me, I've never seen anyone try using electric hedge trimmers for cutting grain. It's what I'm currently planning to use for harvesting my rye and spelt. If anyone's tried it let us know how it worked?
I’ve used hedge trimmers and I’ve harvested rye. You’re going to have your rye all over the ground if you use a hedge trimmer because normally you need both hands to operate it. I would suggest using a good sickle, because it frees up one hand to gather what you’re cutting. It’s probably my favourite tool. You can see me use one in the sorghum video I did in the spring. Here’s the link. th-cam.com/video/8_-m9WWW4po/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DJtPRWPc8v18euPU
Birdseed contains sorghum, maybe that's why the birds forage it. Or the other way around maybe companies put sorghum in their birdseed because wild birds forage it. That was my first encounter with sorghum btw. Someone scattered bird seed in the margins of a parking lot, and the sorghum seeds in it grew. There were other plants sprouting, in fact to this day there are all these tiny sunflowers that grow in part of that margin, less than a foot high and with tiny little blossoms. There was buckwheat and safflower that grew too. I had never seen safflower flowers up close before. I saved the sorghum seeds and gave them out for free at the farmer's market. Why let good seed go to waste?! Aesthetically the coral sorghum is my favorite. It looks like something a neighborhood florist would have. If you pop the popping sorghum I want to see it! But I think the coral sorghum would even satisfy those in my town that only care about downtown aesthetics and not about the ecology. *facepalms* they sprayed the cracks in the road next to the sidewalks with fucking ROUNDUP as if that wouldn't spread!!! But only on the main drag because heaven forbid the tourists see weeds growing at the curb!!!!
It’s interesting, because you can even find edible wild plants and medicinals growing up through the cracks in sidewalks and roadways. Nature wants so much for us to have the best stuff, she stops at nothing to show us!
Excellent! I tried some seeds this year but they did not germinate. I will try again next year. I love that you can leave some of the chaff (sp?) in the flour too!
Try germinating them first in spot pots. I find they do much better that way. Because they’re grass, it couldn’t be easier transplanting them. Wait until they’re at least a few inches or several cm tall.
I've been thinking about trying sorghum. Now it's a must! Thank you for your awesome video! Could you tell me where you ordered your coral sorghum from? It looks amazing!
I got the coral sorghum from backyard Seedsavers. But they don’t do seed selling anymore since last time I checked this past spring. If you live in Canada, I could easily sell you some.
@@BonnieBlue2A depends on the type of traffic. If you get three or four cars go by per day along the whole length of the ditch and no salt use in the winter, not sure it’s a big problem. Of course, I wouldn’t put strawberries there.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Think of what washes down those ditches and from where it is flowing. I don’t use weeds from ditches nor anything growing in a greywater recycling ditch for food. Respectfully, YMMV. Just found your channel in the sidebar suggestions.
Enjoyed your video. Just bought some 50# bags of milo (the farmer called it) and was searching for ways to use it. $10.00 Walmart blender made it into flour. Then I made a pancake that stuck to the pan. Tasted like cereal. The chickens loved it. Next time going to mix half real flour like you suggested. I bought a dozen bags to feed my pets here in central Arkansas. Thank you for all your information. Looking forward to more of your training. Do you think that bag of brown milo would grow if I planted it this fall?
I’ve planted feed seed as well (wheat and oats) and they grew fine. If the fall is normally when you plant grains, then there’s no reason your bag of feed seeds shouldn’t grow. Here I can’t plant grain in the late fall (unless it’s winter wheet) because winter will just kill it.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thanx for your response. It is 4am here and I am on my way out the door to plant 50# of milo. Excited to find out how it does. My pets will thank you if this works. Happy gardening to all 🌱
There's a chap in Ireland with a channel that does this sort of thing and I think he does ok. Sells seeds and cuttings of perennial permaculture plants, I got my sunchokes from him. And he's still got a good channel, doesn't feel like too heavy on the advertising. So I would definitely say that Willows Green could do a bit of seed/tuber selling to good effect! Many of these plants are hard to get from "normal" sources. Gardens for Life, in case any Europeans are here! I haven't seen that he has sorghum though. Maybe it isn't good in the climate, or he just hasn't tried it yet.
Great video as usual! I also realized that a volunteer plant I have might be sorghum! ( I thought it was corn at first). The birds must have brought it...
Towns and cities need to do more to make space for animals and the native plants that support and feed them. Cities are like deserts. So when animals see a garden that so wine is growing in the middle of a sea of lawns, concrete and asphalt, it’s like an oasis!
I'm glad I found your channel--I have enjoyed a lot of sorghum syrup in my days, but I never knew where it exactly came from--the result of having a dad from Mississippi, but living mostly in the north, lol. Does broom corn sorghum actually make good brooms? Broom making is something I looked into last year using sweet black birch branches, but wanted to make something from some sort of grass rather than the branches and wonder now if I should plant some Sorghum for next year. EDIT: Hahaha, I'm always too impatient to get answers, I just finished watching the video and will definitely get some sorghum seeds for next year. I looks great!
Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture! And thank you for watching! Broomcorn makes excellent brooms, and that’s just coming from me that I just string a bunch of stems together that I’ve threshed already and they work excellently. However, I believe it’s broomcorn that’s used for the commercial ‘corn’ type broom. You would tie the threshed tassels cut to a certain length to whatever wooden handle you’re using.
Thankyou for showing all the variety. Today I was wondering what I could plant to help the birds and critters next sping in the Hellene area of N.C...!! We have seen wild birds not in this area before. Also like the idea of the sourdough bread
Great video Stefan! I remember your first sorghum video and wished there was more information so this one was great. I really want to try growing some if i can make sure the squirrels don't eat it. By the way, the deer ate my mint, basil and lemon basil. Three plants I didn't think they liked. Little stinkers!
Sorghum isn’t very common. It took awhile for the animals to recognize it as food. So you might get a respite at least the first year. Do the dear at least let themselves be seen? In areas where I don’t garden, I try to throw extra seed of stuff they like to eat. No extra work for me, and it attracts them elsewhere.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Oh yes, they are seen. They like to hang out in our back yard and we sometimes have groups of 10-12 that stay for hours and lay around in the grass.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture used to be 7a or b right on the edge. They changed it to 8 last year or so. Totally confusing. We have had deep freezers that killed bamboo and crepe Myrtle to the ground two or three years in a row. Totally lost both my huge fig trees.
@@DGibsonxioyes, zone 8, I’m sure the temptation would be great to leave figs out. I used to live in Toronto, zone 7. Lots of people have figs there, but take them in in the winter. I have lemon trees, papaya and a bursera that go in and out every year.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture a few years ago there was a huge weird lemon tree that was as big as a small house. It froze and died. No telling how many years it had been there. It was not like the lemons we buy in the store. As well as a fig tree that was the same size. Many years old according to the nose old kids that grew up in that house. Hated to see it go. My figs were 9 and older than 13. It was here when I arrived.
Some notes for future reference.I'll make 2 separate posts.The first is, would you please link the video about making the syrup when you reference it?And that goes for other things that you're going to referencei.Listen to these videos while I drive.So I can't go searching for it and usually what happens is.I just forget what was said and I never go back.Whereas, if you linked it, I would have been able to click it and listen to that nextthis is voice to text while driving, so please forgive punctuation.Wrong words, things like that.Thanks for your
@@janew5351it’s slow to germinate, but then fast growing once germinated. I prefer to start in small pots. I do this with most of my vegetables except for things like beans, squash and corn. I have had issues with sorghum direct sowing as well. I think I mention that in the video I did in the spring.
@@albertcamus7064yes. Jane is correct. I’ve had this issue too. I think I mentioned my preference for starting indoors or in a greenhouse in small pots in the video I did in the spring.
You can substitute half of your regular flour with sorghum flour in any bread recipe. However we find that adding cooked pumpkin or squash makes it much better. Here is a video for making bread with pumpkin. You could substitute half the flour with sorghum flour. The videos us in French with English subtitles. th-cam.com/video/E3GPr5Oi4fY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=mapn56Bq_-D_YflD
Awesome timing on this video! I’m so glad you showed up in my feed; new sub. 😊 I grew broom corn on a whim this year, at the back of my 1,000 sq ft space. It’s so beautiful! Can it withstand a hard freeze starting tonight? (3 nights of 29 degrees in zone 5a) I’m deciding how to harvest it today, and what to focus my garden efforts on before this weather shift. Thanks! Also- your land is beautiful!
Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture! The seeds will not be damaged by the frost. But the plants likely won’t survive past three days of hard frost. I would harvest any seed that you want to keep for replanting. The rest will be fine for using to eat. Just make sure you hang it to dry thoroughly. Give it a day in the sun, before hanging it inside in a well ventilated spot.
I should add, when I say your seed will be fine, it will be fine if it’s ripe. If your seed isn’t ripe, yet, that is not completely ripe yet, I would harvest it with some of the stem and bring it in to dry and finish ripening, because the frost will kill the plant and then the seed may not finish ripening if it’s not ripe
Thank you so much! I will work on this today! I am definitely saving some of these seeds; this was a satisfyingly easy plant to grow and is beautiful. Plus it made a nice privacy fence from neighbors. 😉 I am looking forward to listening to your other videos. 😁 🌱
@@WS-by5cl thank you! And you are so right about the sorghum. Easy and makes an excellent fence. I even used some I hung in the workshop as curtains on a window that had non. It just had the hooks.
I am in Zone 6. We have some feral sorghum that I fiddle with, but I'm interested in a general purpose cultivar. Do you recommend interplanting several varieties, or picking a single variety?
Thank you for your comment! It’s always good to plant more than one variety. That way you see what grows best. But try to isolate them, unless you don’t mind that they cross-pollinate. Cross pollinating gives you unique varieties, but of course, it’s unpredictable.
As we steadily advance into the Golden Age humanity will be introduced to seed other types of very healthy foods, we've never heard of a beautiful world stabilized Unified emersed in Cosmic Consciousness the Source of All Life.
In a similar way, it is nature that teaches us. The animals, the insects, the fungus, all life teaches us and participates with us in this endeavour. We are all connected.
@ 🤣Oh I should have figured that one out - only two letters changed. I used to crack code type puzzles as a kid in which all the letters were substituted!
@ Hello WillowsGreenPermaculture, I’ve become somewhat intrigued by sorghum, so many variants being developed for niche climates and ecosystems and specific uses. I’m wondering if it can be used as a substitute for corn/maize in the corn/beans/squash trilogy as a rapid “chop and drop” in developing a foot forest. It’s similar use as a fodder crop isn’t to be ignored.
@ it doesn’t hold up as well as corn with pole been plant. One or two plants maximum on a sorghum plant, and even then, it can topple over. However, it is definitely a versatile plant that seems to grow well anywhere! It is also decorative! It makes the garden pretty!
I planted sorghum for the 1st time this year. It didn't come up very well; 5 plants from an entire seed pkt. 😭 Might i have done something wrong, or did animals dig up the seed, or just not the right growing conditions? Im saving seeds, so I'll try again next year!
Great question. You did nothing wrong. Sorghum is slow to germinate. With each of my four varieties, I have started in pots and direct sowed. The pot starts germinated at close to 100%, but the direct sown seeds only about 40%, maybe even less. Now, with my collected homegrown seeds, direct sowing was much better. When you collect seeds, they will be adapted to your soil and do better. That being said, I still find sorghum slow to germinate, so I start it in pots so when I transplant they will be way ahead of the weeds.
Planted sorghum for the first time, but the birds ate it ALL before any was ready to harvest. I was thinking next year I may plant a different color. Is there a certain color that birds don't mess with in your area?
Would love to plant throughout our couple of acres. We live in 7b Eastern OK. Have severe water drainage that is destroying our property. Having to resort to hounded county, for they keep promising to dig ditches deeper other side of road, but they have not made it out to do so in past 3 yrs.
I hear you! We had major water problems here that we had to deal with because neither the municipality, the local conservation authority nor the builder would take responsibility for it. We took care of it ourselves. A long story. We talk about in in the 3rd and 4th video in our Permaculture Playlist.
@WillowsGreenPermaculture Yeah, I saw you have a Pawpaw video and that's one of my favorites.That'll be next.I'm still trying to find your sorghum video
@@mxgangrelgo to the main page of my channel. Here: youtube.com/@willowsgreenpermaculture?si=L8z0wIgl83nywdYS Click on Playlists. You will see a playlist on Sorghum. However, I will add links in future videos. Also, tomorrow I have a new pawpaw video coming out!
Yes. I have read that. I should consider marketing it to local small scale goat or sheep farmers looking to diversify their feed. It is very easy to grow in abundance.
Yes! 😊 We love birds and put lots of vertical elements in the garden so they can perch safely and find the bugs. We also planted a great many native shrubs, fruiting and otherwise, everywhere on the land, to attract them and give them shelter. They have planted a great deal of wild berry fruit for us that we are able to harvest a year’s worth!
Do you have any suggestions on how to grow sorghum in a dry, high plains western state? I have no streams or wet areas. I have plenty of sun! Grass doesn’t get as high or thick as what you have. Thank you for any tips you want to share.
Sorghum is drought tolerant. You should be able to grow it. I have planted it in my driest areas and it has done well. It also volunteered right beside where I have a native cactus rock garden, by far the dryest spot. It did well. I didn’t even plant it. Those ones were broomcorn. Not a syrup type. There are short varieties and there are likely also varieties specifically for dry conditions. It’s grown all over Africa, many regions of which are arid.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thank you for your reply. I'll give it a try. Not only will it be great for flour or syrup, but it appears its growth habit will help to hide chickens from aerial predators, of which we have many. Many-many-many!
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thank you for the suggestion. White Mountain is a gorgeous area. I found several seeds there that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. I chuckled when the seed descriptions said it was grown in high elevations of 5000 feet. Here I am at 7000 feet. But my climate is dry and it can get hot (well, hot for me, but then I'm comfortable at 55-60°F). I'm sure the sorghum will do well, and the amaranth too. I'm sure the chickens will be ecstatic, waggling their feathers at the hawks and clucking nah, nah, na-nah, nah. It looks like a great source for rare seeds. 🥰
I’ll think about that one. But the first thing that comes to mind is pole beans. When we did the bean video a few weeks back, we were threshing beans, and a few fell into the grass. Well, sure enough, they’ve all since sprouted!
So does sorghum seem to do well in wet areas then? I've heard it's drought tolerant, and I didn't need to water mine at all this year and it did great. I may reserve some extra seeds to throw around in some heavy soil areas as a test next year.
Yes. Give it a try. The stuff you plant in wet areas will likely grow bigger than in your dry areas. I suggest you start it in small pots first though, as it is very slow to germinate when direct sown, especially where there’s more weed pressure than you have time to deal with.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thanks for the tip! I started mine in a 50- cell flat this year since I was worried about seed predation. I'll plug some in all over next year!
I'm a first timer sorghum everything. Mine seemed to sprout when I dried them. Are they still edible with some strings coming out of of the seeds? I think I have some broomsticks and yellowish type but mostly brown to dark brown . First time cooking and eating as rice. They are chewy and hard. I should have cooked longer. Thank you. Will wait for your response. God bless you MARANATHA
Make sure you set them thoroughly. They won’t store well if they sprout. I think to cook the whole grain like rice, it’s about an hour. I don’t often cook it like this. I usually use it for flour. It is a meaty grain. Very hearty.
I grew some broom corn this year. First time growing sorghum. I have been wondering if it can be used for flour? I have a ton of seeds multicolored. I have a grain grinder, but I haven't been able to figure out how to de-hull the grains. I have since bought a couple of other types to try for next year. What say you?
We grind them whole into a fine flour, without de hulling them. It gives you more fiber. We substitute half our regular flour with the sorghum flour in any bread, cake, cookie, pancake, etc recipe. For bread and cake, we also like to add cooked pumpkin purée, which we also grow. You can see our grinding process at around 25:27.
It will definitely grow in North Carolina, as it is essentially the same climate zone as here. There are also very likely varieties which will grow in Florida. Just search Growing Sorghum in Florida, I’m sure you’ll get results.
Maybe you'll get more volunteers next year! However, if your volunteers grew on their own, then your conditions are good. A simple seed packet should do to get you more sorghum!
Good evening and Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture! I'm here if you'd like to chat or ask a question!
Liked and subscribed
Thanks for the video
What does it taste like,added to bread flour?
@@Chris-hw1tt it gives the bread a much more complex flavour, like what rye and pumpernickel do, for example. The bread is also much more satiating.
@@PNNYRFACE Thank you! Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture!
Where order you seeds thank you for amazing information
For those interested in growing Sorghum or Amaranth for small scale food production, you may want to do a TH-cam search on "DIY Seed Cleaning Machine" or "diy winnowing machine" or "DIY threshing machine". The process goes a lot faster and results in a cleaner grain at the end. I'm in the process of building something similar to the machine in the "Small Scale Grain Threshing Machine" video by the Vegetable Academy youtube channel.
Thank you, I will check that out.
Amaranth you can basically hang it up over a bowl and wait but I definitely know that isn’t fast
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@@Dirt-FermerI’ve got some amaranth drying in the garage. Once it’s good and dry, I’ll probably record the threshing. Like you said, it’ll all fall out!
@@PNNYRFACE😊
This is dope. This guys walks around his yard barefoot too. love that.
Glad you liked the video!
Sorghum flour is so good. Ive also started liking it cooked whole topped with milk, sugar, and chia seeds. Love the chewy texture of whole sorghum.
I’m going to try making some pudding with the flour this week.
It’s beautiful, as good food should be. I started a patch of chicken scratch for my hens. Now I see I must do some for me. (Eyes side yard, scratches chin)
Yes, it’s beautiful and nutritious too! Thank you for watching and sharing!
This was so nice to watch!! I'm from Argentina and my grandparents where sorghum and rice farmers, now my family does mainly soy, I dream of going back to those main two crops and there's not really a lot of info about it, so, thank you so much, watching this was very moving 🥺💚💚💚
Thank you very much for sharing. I’m glad you liked the video! 😊
Sorghum accidentally came up in my garden. Probably from the bird feeder, and I love it. I'm going to grow it on purpose next year. So I really enjoyed your video😊
Thank you so much! Good luck with growing your sorghum! Let me know how it goes! 😊
Sorghum is a thing in my country's kitchen..we make a delicious porridge for breakfast we top it with mix of chopped nuts ,cake,traditional cookies,couscous..we're the only to consume it in the region ,the neighboring countries wondering why we eat "birds' food"😅
Yes,many people here think it’s only for the birds, too! But it’s very healthy and delicious! What country are you writing from?
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture I'm from Tunisia..North Africa
@ I just watched a video about a sorghum breakfast pudding recipe from Tunisia. It looks delicious!
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Oh yeah it's so popular and many tourists from different nationalities love it
@@imen8254I’m going to try making some pudding this weekend!
We have a severe problem with ground squirrels in Arizona. They like to tunnel under trees and that will kill them. When irrigating, water runs down the burrows. Best thing is sorghum. A few stalks planted by each tree keeps them away. Cyanide in the roots is why. Often, planting once is OK because the crowns usually survive winter. It's cut and come again, makes good mulch, good sugar, and the last growth is allowed to mature for grain; cowpeas seem to favor it over bean poles. White Mountain Apache likes the heat, droughty conditions, and looks good.
Thank you for sharing! I sent your recommendation of WMA to another subscribers with the same growing conditions!
Hi from Australia here,I am just a 77 year old lady accidently droped sorgam seeds from bird sead on a empty pot with some soil in it, the sorgam grew I was surprised did not know what it was,I always wonderd how it could be used,So I looked into it and was surprised at the many uses. So I am going to grow some this year,I have my own hand grinder and will process it.I am surprised we in Australia do not use it more often. THANK YOU FOR THE INFOMATION..
@ it’s a great pleasure! Thank you for sharing and I hope you get all the sorghum you would like and more! ☺️
@@crystalroseblue6760 seems like it grew easy for you! If you find you dont like the flour or other uses, you could always just leave it for the birds to enjoy instead of buying seed.
@zedmeinhardt3404 YEP I had a pet Galah she loved it,( she can not fly broken wing) she has a new home now with other Galah's for company I sometimes pass a few of her favourite over to the neibour for her ,where she lives in a giant avery..
Wonderful video and very helpful for an aspiring Sorghum grower in 6B. Thank you!
Thank you Jesse! All the best with your sorghum!!!
I know more about sorghum now than I ever thought I would! Thanks
You’re welcome! And thank you for watching and sharing your comment!
This video made me pull the trigger on starting a sorghum grex , i just ordered 9 varieties from experimental farm network and iv got a few others already. Thank you for the video
Congratulations. I’d love to know how it goes! All the best!
I want to find the prolific white one with huge seed heads and three crops in a year. I think I remember it is an African strain but not sure.🤷🏻♀️
@ three crops in a year would depend on your climate zone, and likely any type of sorghum could do it if your season is long enough.
Great to hear your experiment growing sorghum into existing grass. I thought to experiment with this myself this year with my broomcorn which grows so much taller than the high paddock grasses. I also tried growing white sorghum last summer (called jowar in India)- this didn't do as well as the broomcorn in our very wet summer as it is shorter (1m high) with dense seed heads, much of which rotted in the wet. Broomcorn being tall with looser seed heads did much better. Because I don't artificially irrigate, I generally plant in the wet season (after Christmas in Southern hemisphere) but this year have just planted sorghum in spring (usually dry) to get a longer growing season before the wet. The white sorghum is supposed to be the best for humans to eat, less bitter than red varieties. I know many people's chickens don't eat sorghum in mixed seed. An old-timer told me they used to feed sorghum mash to their hens (cooked, not soaked, as has bitter exudates)
The coral, popping and Williams sorghums are all tall! The popping and coral are also probably considered better for human consumption, but it’s Williams we have mostly, and broomcorn and are very happy with both. Next year I will plant more coral and popping.
Good to see the "when to harvest" notes. I'm on year two of expanding seed for several sugar sorghum varieties.
I'm in 5B too. You may want to try Winter Rye grain (a lot hardier than wheat). This year I added Einkorn and ordered Barley seed for spring.
If you are trying corn, start with Reids Yellow and maybe Bloody Butcher dent corn.
Use the Nixtamalization process on the corn to free up niacin (hominy/tortillas), I wonder if that also works for Sorghum? Pickling lime, CAL, hardwood ashes, or even Baking Soda boiled with the corn for 45 mins, let sit a day or overnight, rinse well, then boil like beans.
This is an excellent and very helpful comment. Thank you. Thank you for the rye suggestion. I do grow barley, and want to grow more. I have been researching nixtamalization for corn. You confirm what I have found. Haven’t tried it yet. Have you? Why would it be necessary for sorghum? I think there are many available nutrients in sorghum, including protein.
I really enjoyed this video. From harvest to table. It was very informative. Thank you.
Thank you!
I think i just found a new favorite channel 🌱💚🌱
Thank you so much! 😊 Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture!
@WillowsGreenPermaculture thank YOU for sharing your knowledge.
@@tabp8448 ☺️
I love to feed the birds and that was the start of my "What is this plant" trip. They seem to call it Milo on the bag of seed. I have it growing naturally in my garden...thanks to my little friends❤ Thank you for making this vid..it really helps us to broaden our food knowledge. Great work❤
Thank you Veronica! 😊 Milo sounds like a word for millet, and another name for sorghum is great millet. We also grow millet. I may do a video on that too!
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture That would be very cool!!! I love learning the old ways and foods they survived on. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
@@veronicaperkins8315 thank you! 😊
Thank you everyone for watching!
I would love to see a video about different varieties of sorghum and what you like about different varieties (if there’s much of a difference).
That’s a great idea! Thank you! I don’t yet have an opinion on that as we mix it all up.
Happy to have found your channel, looking forward to more information from ya. Well done, good vibes, and overall enjoyabley entertaining
Thank you so much! Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture!
sorry i have been away for a while. my isp more than doubled my access so i had to cancel and youtube kept messing with my other account which i have abandoned. i was planing on starting a channel for my food forest so once i got back online, i started this account to dedicate to the food forest.
your sorghum looks great. i am going to have to try some of the varieties you have. i just got back so i have a lot of catching up to do still. just started this account and you are the first place i went 🙂
Good to hear from you Alsan! Glad you’re back! Your contributions are always very educational! When you say dedicate your channel to your food forest, are you going to do videos? If so, I’ll be your first subscriber!
What an energetic guy you are.... Instead of commercial wheat farming which is making land barain due to fertiliziers, you are showing that in USA (at least Westcoast) one can grow sustainable grains
Thank you! Yes, sorghum can grow in dry or wet conditions and in cool or warm climates! Very versatile. And does so much more than provide food only!
Beautiful garden, cooling to the eyes, loved your enthusiasm.
Thank you! ❤
I’m about to experiment in using Sorghum, Peanuts and Clover in sequence as soil conditioner, as a cut and drop to condition ground for an orchard planting.
That’s very interesting! Thank you for sharing. Sorghum is definitely good for soil retention.
I grew several types of sorghum this year including Martin Milo. It's a very early maturing crop which I was able to harvest twice this year in zone six. It's a pretty strong tasting grain though. I grew a small packet of Dorado Sorghum too which did really well for me and I plan on planting more of it next year. I also made a small batch of syrup the last two years with great success. I plan on making a video soon of how I made tortillas from the sorghum seed, nixtamalizing it like you would to make corn tortillas. Great video!
Thank you for your comment! I look forward to your video! Why is it necessary to nixtamalize sorghum? Which nutrient is unavailable otherwise?
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture There's a paper I read discussing nutrition. Nixtamalizing can increase bioavailability of the protein, lower tannin content which is more important in darker colored varieties and it can also reduce aflatoxins if present. Most importantly though it totally changes the texture of the resulting product allowing for a more cohesive dough making 100% sorghum thin tortillas possible.
That’s great. I like the texture advantage! I look forward to your video!
Amazing video!
You answered so many of my questions.
I've never heard it mentioned that you can get a second crop, so i was very surprised when mine put up more!
I appreciate the tips on knowing how to tell if it is ripe.
Thank you very much for sharing! I’m glad to be of help! 😊
Very interesting! I know that it's a bit too cold for sugar cane here (it grows 50 miles south) because we get sea air, but I think we could grow sorghum. I haven't tasted sorghum molasses, so I'll have to ask my son for his opinion. He spent some time teaching in Botswana and used it there.
What climate zone are you in?
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture The map shows 10a, but I am in the foothills directly across from the Golden Gate, so we get a lot of wind off the ocean. The temperature usually ranges between mid-low 30s F and high 70s/low 80s F, but with climate change we get all kinds of temps. Last week we were at 95/100 F aand last winter we had one or two days of 28 F.
@@harriettejensen479you should be able to easily grow syrup sorghum in your climate. If you have a lot of weed pressure, start it in pots first. Once it’s germinated and grown a couple of inches, it grows quickly.
Thank you! I was planning to experiment with some sorghum next year. This is very helpful.
Thank you Beth for sharing your comment and for watching! It’s a pleasure!
So glad you did a Harvest video for sorghum! Can't wait to start my own down by our pond! Hoping it can replace the phragmites!! And I can make sourdough bread with it!!
Thank you! Keep the phragmites well cut down if it’s too hard to pull them, until the sorghum is tall. Something about phragmites, however, I have not verified it with research, but I have read the grain is edible. I’m not in support of it of course. Very invasive.
This is a great addition to multi-grain bread.
That’s for sure! Thank you for sharing! 😊
Thank you for the great informative video, I'm also loving growing & baking with white, ,brown, orange & purple sorghums from our garden in the mountains of west Java Indonesia. It must be the easiest thing to grow here too, even when we have a heavy rainy season or in the dry season, also in dryer parts of Indonesia. Also happy our birds can eat some too.
Thank you! Wow, what a beautiful variety of colours! There was another comment from someone in Indonesia, but he was having difficulty growing it. I hope he sees your comment. Maybe you can give him some ideas. 😊
Very informative and thorough, thank you so much!
I'm growing black sorghum for the first time this year - for the birds. Also growing other varieties for myself. Tried the new perennial sorghum for the first time this year. Only got enough for next year's seed on that one; hope to build up from there.
I plan to explore the rest of your channel, as your presentation was excellent.
Thank you very much! Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture! What is the name of the perennial sorghum you planted?
I'll be trying to grow broom corn for the first time next spring. I'm glad to see your video. All this information is new to me. Thanks!
You’re welcome! I’m glad I could be of help. Thank you for watching! 😊
Love this information, but I noticed a couple of things that I would like to point out. Those flower and seed heads aren't called tillers. They are called flower or seed heads, or more correctly called panicked. The term sorghum tiller refers to the secondary shots that grow from the base of the main sorghum plant. These tillers originate from nodes located at or below the soil surface. I hope this helps.
Thank you for that clarification. I thought a tiller was any stem, main or secondary, and could start from any node, and usually ends up with a seed head if it has the time to mature. It just seems like a simple generalization. In seed packets, it will sometimes say ‘can grow up to seven tillers’ to give an idea of how much grain it will produce.
Thank you - subscribed!
Thank you David! You know, I really enjoy your videos. I am one of your subscribers in case you didn’t know. I appreciate very much your attitude to learning and experimentation. I would love to do a collaboration with you at some point if that interests you. I’ve never done one before.
Great video. Thanks for explaining how to grow, harvest and use this beautiful plant.
It’s a pleasure! Thank you for watching!
Thank you for this informative video, i have bought 3 variations for next year: A Romanian broom Sorghum, Black Texas, and the Sweet Sorghum "Piper."
That’s great! What sort of conditions do you have? Dry or humid?
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture humid conditions...
@@verdikulk6193so your varieties may work in my conditions as well, which are also humid. 😊
Hand threshing seems like a good "by the fire watching a show in the winter evening" kind of activity 😊
Yes it sure is. It’s also good around a kitchen table with family or friends after a meal and with good music.
Like shelling dried beans for me
@@DonalldArmentor Yes, that's our favourite!
It is best for diabetic people.. It releases sugar slowly and you feel full also it has lots of fiber... It's staple food in some places of India.. We make flat bread out of it😊
Thank you! You’ve reminded me that I read about that! Wish I’d talked about this in the video! Good for diabetics, slow release sugar, high fiber… Next time!
Thank you for showing and telling.
You’re welcome!
Love your food forrest my friends!❤
Thank you!!! ❤️
Sending support, love, and kindness from Lexington, MI, USA.
Thank you Brandy! And the same from our family to you! 😊
Great video, great rythm and cadence, got to love it , thanks you🙏🏻
You’re welcome! Thank you for sharing! 😊
This might be your best video yet!
I've been looking for an easy to grow (and easy to process) grain, and it looks like sorghum fits the bill. I'll keep an eye out for some local seeds and hopefully give it a go next year. Thank you! Enjoy the harvest :)
Thank you so much! 😊 Good lunch with the seed search! My four varieties came from four seed growers. 2 local and two from the US.
Very useful and informative, thank you.
You’re welcome! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for putting together this video. Ok ok you convinced me to try it!
It’s a pleasure! Thanks for watching! All the best with your sorghum!
i find your videos very calming and relaxing. wishing you guys all the best.
Thank you so much! And all the best to you too!
What a beautiful harvest!!
Thank you! ❤
Thank you so much for this video! I have Leaky Gut Syndrome and therefore cannot eat any grain except for sorghum and millet. Since I have a permaculture garden, I tried growing my own sorghum three years ago. They grew so beautifully well. I harvested them, then… well I was stuck. How do I turn these into flour? I spent two years researching and only found what farmers do. I’m just a regular homeowner and do not have machinery. So out of frustration, I finally threw out my harvest all over the ground as mulch. Your video just made me feel embarrassed that I didn’t try harder. I’m going to try again and this time, use my blender! Thank you again!
Thank you for sharing! Don’t be too rough on yourself Fawzia. For me, over 30 years of gardening, in the early years it was so hard to get useful information and everything tended to make it seem so hard for an individual to do their own thing. However, I am someone who always questions everything and everybody because I’m very curious. It took me a long time too, to grow grains, because I figured it was just too hard. Then I realized that they’re just another plant and just another harvest and so should be no harder than tomatoes or potatoes, and I dived in. And it was because of broomcorn I realized it, because I bought some for decoration, not knowing it was sorghum. It grew so easily and well and looked like it was edible, I started my research again and the rest is history!
I’m glad I could be of help. You know you can grow them, so you’ll be eating amaranth and sorghum next year!
Just found your channel. You're living my dream. My husband retires in May and we would live to find a homestead and have an amazing garden like yours. I am curious to know if you and your wife do all of the upkeep and harvesting on your 2ish acres or do you have to hire help? Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge :).
Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture! It’s just the two of us. Our two young adult children help out around the house when they’re around and available. It’s mostly Magali and me. Nature helps us out a great deal! And next year, we are planning on letting many parts of our food forest grow on their own with many things that should just come back! Check out more of our videos to see how we do this. It can be done, and people have been doing it for millennia! 😊
What an awesome video! It looks like corn and sorghum are in the same family. I was thinking about growing corn for the plant characteristics, but it seems like sorghum is more versatile
Thank you! Yes, corn is beautiful and has its charm, but we do find sorghum has many uses in the kitchen. It also does not attract raccoons the way corn does. Corn is a real magnet for raccoons. I’m going to be planting it far away from my main garden next year to attract them away from our main garden.
Corn and sorghum do not cross-pollinate, so if they are related, it’s not close enough for cross pollination.
Thanks for the info, great video
You’re welcome! And thank you!
Very inspiring, only started using sorghum for bread, love the color and taste of it. Now seeing your video might inspire me to grow. 🙏
That would be fantastic! I’m sure you’ll enjoy growing it!
Awesome , thanks for the video and information .
You’re welcome! 😊
We are at 5b or 6a, 6,000 ft elevation, very dry. With its natural sugars, I bet that would make a great ingredient for a homemade sourdough starter!🤗🤤🤤🤤
Have you tried growing this mixed with sudan grass, which grows fast and tall for multiple harvest, for a high protein and natural sugar foder for small to medium livestock, such as rabbits, poultry, goats, pigs, etc...??? Maybe even use a small portion of the harvest to hold back for winter foder?
I’ll look into Sudan grass. Thank you! I have received this suggestion before! And yes, we have made sourdough with it. 😊
28:50 I enjoyed it very much, thank you!
Thank you! 😊
I’ve got sweet sorghum and red amaranth seeds, but haven’t planted any yet, had poor results with my sugar cane from lack of rain this year.
I find amaranth tolerant of dry growing conditions. Some types of sorghum are as well. All the best for next year!
New Subscriber. Keep the videos coming
Thank you! Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture!
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture you're welcome and glad to be on board
😊
In Alaska -it sometimes is risky -but I have the seeds -ready for spring
That’s fantastic, with your long summer days, you should be good! Best wishes for your sorghum!
Your comment about harvesting wheat reminded me, I've never seen anyone try using electric hedge trimmers for cutting grain. It's what I'm currently planning to use for harvesting my rye and spelt. If anyone's tried it let us know how it worked?
I’ve used hedge trimmers and I’ve harvested rye. You’re going to have your rye all over the ground if you use a hedge trimmer because normally you need both hands to operate it. I would suggest using a good sickle, because it frees up one hand to gather what you’re cutting. It’s probably my favourite tool. You can see me use one in the sorghum video I did in the spring. Here’s the link. th-cam.com/video/8_-m9WWW4po/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DJtPRWPc8v18euPU
Birdseed contains sorghum, maybe that's why the birds forage it. Or the other way around maybe companies put sorghum in their birdseed because wild birds forage it. That was my first encounter with sorghum btw. Someone scattered bird seed in the margins of a parking lot, and the sorghum seeds in it grew. There were other plants sprouting, in fact to this day there are all these tiny sunflowers that grow in part of that margin, less than a foot high and with tiny little blossoms. There was buckwheat and safflower that grew too. I had never seen safflower flowers up close before. I saved the sorghum seeds and gave them out for free at the farmer's market. Why let good seed go to waste?!
Aesthetically the coral sorghum is my favorite. It looks like something a neighborhood florist would have. If you pop the popping sorghum I want to see it! But I think the coral sorghum would even satisfy those in my town that only care about downtown aesthetics and not about the ecology. *facepalms* they sprayed the cracks in the road next to the sidewalks with fucking ROUNDUP as if that wouldn't spread!!! But only on the main drag because heaven forbid the tourists see weeds growing at the curb!!!!
It’s interesting, because you can even find edible wild plants and medicinals growing up through the cracks in sidewalks and roadways. Nature wants so much for us to have the best stuff, she stops at nothing to show us!
2nd reply. Oh, and I love how coral sorghum looks too!
Excellent! I tried some seeds this year but they did not germinate. I will try again next year. I love that you can leave some of the chaff (sp?) in the flour too!
Try germinating them first in spot pots. I find they do much better that way. Because they’re grass, it couldn’t be easier transplanting them. Wait until they’re at least a few inches or several cm tall.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thank you!! I will do that!
I've been thinking about trying sorghum. Now it's a must! Thank you for your awesome video! Could you tell me where you ordered your coral sorghum from? It looks amazing!
I got the coral sorghum from backyard Seedsavers. But they don’t do seed selling anymore since last time I checked this past spring. If you live in Canada, I could easily sell you some.
Thank you, so much!!
You’re very welcome! 😊
Very much appreciated
It’s a great pleasure!
Also do you need winnowing the stuff with the seeds when you pull them off the stalks? Thank you God bless you MARANATHA
When using for flour, it’s ok to have a little chaff. No need to winnow. It will just be blended into the flour and provide extra fiber.
Thanks! I have this growing in the drainage ditch in my front yard!!
Wow! That's great!
Probably not a good idea to use plants growing in drainage ditches adjacent to roads for food.
@@BonnieBlue2A thanks. I will relocate it.
@@BonnieBlue2A depends on the type of traffic. If you get three or four cars go by per day along the whole length of the ditch and no salt use in the winter, not sure it’s a big problem. Of course, I wouldn’t put strawberries there.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Think of what washes down those ditches and from where it is flowing. I don’t use weeds from ditches nor anything growing in a greywater recycling ditch for food. Respectfully, YMMV. Just found your channel in the sidebar suggestions.
Enjoyed your video. Just bought some 50# bags of milo (the farmer called it) and was searching for ways to use it. $10.00 Walmart blender made it into flour. Then I made a pancake that stuck to the pan. Tasted like cereal. The chickens loved it. Next time going to mix half real flour like you suggested. I bought a dozen bags to feed my pets here in central Arkansas. Thank you for all your information. Looking forward to more of your training. Do you think that bag of brown milo would grow if I planted it this fall?
I’ve planted feed seed as well (wheat and oats) and they grew fine. If the fall is normally when you plant grains, then there’s no reason your bag of feed seeds shouldn’t grow. Here I can’t plant grain in the late fall (unless it’s winter wheet) because winter will just kill it.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thanx for your response. It is 4am here and I am on my way out the door to plant 50# of milo. Excited to find out how it does. My pets will thank you if this works. Happy gardening to all 🌱
@ that’s fantastic! Good luck!
Make sure you make an offer for seeds (mailed packets). That way, you can generate a few hundred bucks from that, too
I guess I’ll have to familiarize myself with exporting procedures and inspections. 😊 Thank you for the suggestion.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture its a natural
There's a chap in Ireland with a channel that does this sort of thing and I think he does ok. Sells seeds and cuttings of perennial permaculture plants, I got my sunchokes from him. And he's still got a good channel, doesn't feel like too heavy on the advertising. So I would definitely say that Willows Green could do a bit of seed/tuber selling to good effect! Many of these plants are hard to get from "normal" sources.
Gardens for Life, in case any Europeans are here! I haven't seen that he has sorghum though. Maybe it isn't good in the climate, or he just hasn't tried it yet.
@@MLMseminars😊
@@kirstypollock6811I’ll look into it, for the US and the EU.
Thank you
It’s a pleasure!
Great video as usual! I also realized that a volunteer plant I have might be sorghum! ( I thought it was corn at first). The birds must have brought it...
Thank you Eleonora! It’s wonderful when the birds bring us surprises!
Unfortunately I live in town. House sparrows wiped my harvest. Live and learn!
Towns and cities need to do more to make space for animals and the native plants that support and feed them. Cities are like deserts. So when animals see a garden that so wine is growing in the middle of a sea of lawns, concrete and asphalt, it’s like an oasis!
I'm glad I found your channel--I have enjoyed a lot of sorghum syrup in my days, but I never knew where it exactly came from--the result of having a dad from Mississippi, but living mostly in the north, lol.
Does broom corn sorghum actually make good brooms? Broom making is something I looked into last year using sweet black birch branches, but wanted to make something from some sort of grass rather than the branches and wonder now if I should plant some Sorghum for next year.
EDIT: Hahaha, I'm always too impatient to get answers, I just finished watching the video and will definitely get some sorghum seeds for next year. I looks great!
Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture! And thank you for watching! Broomcorn makes excellent brooms, and that’s just coming from me that I just string a bunch of stems together that I’ve threshed already and they work excellently. However, I believe it’s broomcorn that’s used for the commercial ‘corn’ type broom. You would tie the threshed tassels cut to a certain length to whatever wooden handle you’re using.
Thankyou for showing all the variety. Today I was wondering what I could plant to help the birds and critters next sping in the Hellene area of N.C...!! We have seen wild birds not in this area before. Also like the idea of the sourdough bread
Yes, the climate zones are shifting! Likely those new birds are arriving from the south. And yes, you can certainly grow sorghum in NC!
Great video Stefan! I remember your first sorghum video and wished there was more information so this one was great. I really want to try growing some if i can make sure the squirrels don't eat it. By the way, the deer ate my mint, basil and lemon basil. Three plants I didn't think they liked. Little stinkers!
Sorghum isn’t very common. It took awhile for the animals to recognize it as food. So you might get a respite at least the first year. Do the dear at least let themselves be seen? In areas where I don’t garden, I try to throw extra seed of stuff they like to eat. No extra work for me, and it attracts them elsewhere.
And also, thank you!!!
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Oh yes, they are seen. They like to hang out in our back yard and we sometimes have groups of 10-12 that stay for hours and lay around in the grass.
@@barbsoddznendz1896 Wow! That's impressive! I love seeing dear.
I enjoy your videos even though our growing zones are very different. I want to try growing this. Thank you.
Thank you! What growing zone are you in?
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture used to be 7a or b right on the edge. They changed it to 8 last year or so. Totally confusing. We have had deep freezers that killed bamboo and crepe Myrtle to the ground two or three years in a row. Totally lost both my huge fig trees.
@@DGibsonxioyes, zone 8, I’m sure the temptation would be great to leave figs out. I used to live in Toronto, zone 7. Lots of people have figs there, but take them in in the winter. I have lemon trees, papaya and a bursera that go in and out every year.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture a few years ago there was a huge weird lemon tree that was as big as a small house. It froze and died. No telling how many years it had been there. It was not like the lemons we buy in the store. As well as a fig tree that was the same size. Many years old according to the nose old kids that grew up in that house. Hated to see it go. My figs were 9 and older than 13. It was here when I arrived.
@@DGibsonxio wow! That is tragic. Even the roots died?
Some notes for future reference.I'll make 2 separate posts.The first is, would you please link the video about making the syrup when you reference it?And that goes for other things that you're going to referencei.Listen to these videos while I drive.So I can't go searching for it and usually what happens is.I just forget what was said and I never go back.Whereas, if you linked it, I would have been able to click it and listen to that nextthis is voice to text while driving, so please forgive punctuation.Wrong words, things like that.Thanks for your
Thank you. You are absolutely correct. I must start doing that. I will put the links in the description. I imagine at least that way would help?
Definitely going to add this in during the beginning years in my food forrest! seems so yummy
I grow a few sorghum plants each year. I seem to have problem with germination with direct seed application. 5b Ontario
@janew5351 I'll be sure to start em inside, then thanks for the heads up
@@janew5351it’s slow to germinate, but then fast growing once germinated. I prefer to start in small pots. I do this with most of my vegetables except for things like beans, squash and corn. I have had issues with sorghum direct sowing as well. I think I mention that in the video I did in the spring.
Definitely worth it!
@@albertcamus7064yes. Jane is correct. I’ve had this issue too. I think I mentioned my preference for starting indoors or in a greenhouse in small pots in the video I did in the spring.
Do you have any recipes for making breads and cakes with a sorghum flower?
You can substitute half of your regular flour with sorghum flour in any bread recipe. However we find that adding cooked pumpkin or squash makes it much better. Here is a video for making bread with pumpkin. You could substitute half the flour with sorghum flour. The videos us in French with English subtitles.
th-cam.com/video/E3GPr5Oi4fY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=mapn56Bq_-D_YflD
Awesome timing on this video! I’m so glad you showed up in my feed; new sub. 😊
I grew broom corn on a whim this year, at the back of my 1,000 sq ft space. It’s so beautiful!
Can it withstand a hard freeze starting tonight? (3 nights of 29 degrees in zone 5a) I’m deciding how to harvest it today, and what to focus my garden efforts on before this weather shift. Thanks!
Also- your land is beautiful!
Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture! The seeds will not be damaged by the frost. But the plants likely won’t survive past three days of hard frost. I would harvest any seed that you want to keep for replanting. The rest will be fine for using to eat. Just make sure you hang it to dry thoroughly. Give it a day in the sun, before hanging it inside in a well ventilated spot.
I should add, when I say your seed will be fine, it will be fine if it’s ripe. If your seed isn’t ripe, yet, that is not completely ripe yet, I would harvest it with some of the stem and bring it in to dry and finish ripening, because the frost will kill the plant and then the seed may not finish ripening if it’s not ripe
Thank you so much! I will work on this today! I am definitely saving some of these seeds; this was a satisfyingly easy plant to grow and is beautiful. Plus it made a nice privacy fence from neighbors. 😉
I am looking forward to listening to your other videos. 😁 🌱
@@WS-by5cl thank you! And you are so right about the sorghum. Easy and makes an excellent fence. I even used some I hung in the workshop as curtains on a window that had non. It just had the hooks.
I am in Zone 6. We have some feral sorghum that I fiddle with, but I'm interested in a general purpose cultivar. Do you recommend interplanting several varieties, or picking a single variety?
Thank you for your comment! It’s always good to plant more than one variety. That way you see what grows best. But try to isolate them, unless you don’t mind that they cross-pollinate. Cross pollinating gives you unique varieties, but of course, it’s unpredictable.
As we steadily advance into the Golden Age humanity will be introduced to seed other types of very healthy foods, we've never heard of a beautiful world stabilized Unified emersed in Cosmic Consciousness the Source of All Life.
In a similar way, it is nature that teaches us. The animals, the insects, the fungus, all life teaches us and participates with us in this endeavour. We are all connected.
Wonderful
Thank you! ❤
Please don’t forget that sorghum skews a good beer and that can be distilled into a good whisky
What do you mean by ‘skew a good beer’?
@ Hello WillowsGreenPermaculture, the dam auto-correct, “brew” a good beer.
@ 🤣Oh I should have figured that one out - only two letters changed. I used to crack code type puzzles as a kid in which all the letters were substituted!
@ Hello WillowsGreenPermaculture, I’ve become somewhat intrigued by sorghum, so many variants being developed for niche climates and ecosystems and specific uses. I’m wondering if it can be used as a substitute for corn/maize in the corn/beans/squash trilogy as a rapid “chop and drop” in developing a foot forest. It’s similar use as a fodder crop isn’t to be ignored.
@ it doesn’t hold up as well as corn with pole been plant. One or two plants maximum on a sorghum plant, and even then, it can topple over. However, it is definitely a versatile plant that seems to grow well anywhere! It is also decorative! It makes the garden pretty!
I planted sorghum for the 1st time this year. It didn't come up very well; 5 plants from an entire seed pkt. 😭
Might i have done something wrong, or did animals dig up the seed, or just not the right growing conditions?
Im saving seeds, so I'll try again next year!
Great question. You did nothing wrong. Sorghum is slow to germinate. With each of my four varieties, I have started in pots and direct sowed. The pot starts germinated at close to 100%, but the direct sown seeds only about 40%, maybe even less. Now, with my collected homegrown seeds, direct sowing was much better. When you collect seeds, they will be adapted to your soil and do better. That being said, I still find sorghum slow to germinate, so I start it in pots so when I transplant they will be way ahead of the weeds.
So cool
Thank you!
Planted sorghum for the first time, but the birds ate it ALL before any was ready to harvest. I was thinking next year I may plant a different color. Is there a certain color that birds don't mess with in your area?
great stuff
Thank you! 😊
Would love to plant throughout our couple of acres. We live in 7b Eastern OK. Have severe water drainage that is destroying our property. Having to resort to hounded county, for they keep promising to dig ditches deeper other side of road, but they have not made it out to do so in past 3 yrs.
I hear you! We had major water problems here that we had to deal with because neither the municipality, the local conservation authority nor the builder would take responsibility for it. We took care of it ourselves. A long story. We talk about in in the 3rd and 4th video in our Permaculture Playlist.
Thank you.Have given a little explanation at the beginning of what sorghum is And how?
It could be used
Thank you for the suggestion. I appreciate it. I will give more examples earlier in my videos for this sort of thing. And thank you for watching!
@WillowsGreenPermaculture Yeah, I saw you have a Pawpaw video and that's one of my favorites.That'll be next.I'm still trying to find your sorghum video
@@mxgangrelgo to the main page of my channel. Here:
youtube.com/@willowsgreenpermaculture?si=L8z0wIgl83nywdYS
Click on Playlists. You will see a playlist on Sorghum. However, I will add links in future videos.
Also, tomorrow I have a new pawpaw video coming out!
@@mxgangrel hers the link to today’s pawpaw video! Enjoy!
th-cam.com/video/wfLWT2ha8og/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DnWwPKP-UjMRYsfc
That standing sorghum would probably make good animal fodder.
Yes. I have read that. I should consider marketing it to local small scale goat or sheep farmers looking to diversify their feed. It is very easy to grow in abundance.
Right view, bi4ds are ok to forage on some seeds and they eat bugs so birds actually give you more food and no pesticides.
Yes! 😊 We love birds and put lots of vertical elements in the garden so they can perch safely and find the bugs. We also planted a great many native shrubs, fruiting and otherwise, everywhere on the land, to attract them and give them shelter. They have planted a great deal of wild berry fruit for us that we are able to harvest a year’s worth!
Do you have any suggestions on how to grow sorghum in a dry, high plains western state? I have no streams or wet areas. I have plenty of sun! Grass doesn’t get as high or thick as what you have. Thank you for any tips you want to share.
Sorghum is drought tolerant. You should be able to grow it. I have planted it in my driest areas and it has done well. It also volunteered right beside where I have a native cactus rock garden, by far the dryest spot. It did well. I didn’t even plant it. Those ones were broomcorn. Not a syrup type. There are short varieties and there are likely also varieties specifically for dry conditions. It’s grown all over Africa, many regions of which are arid.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thank you for your reply. I'll give it a try. Not only will it be great for flour or syrup, but it appears its growth habit will help to hide chickens from aerial predators, of which we have many. Many-many-many!
@@Blackavian Another subscriber just recommended White Mountain Apache for what looks like exactly your conditions.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thank you for the suggestion. White Mountain is a gorgeous area. I found several seeds there that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. I chuckled when the seed descriptions said it was grown in high elevations of 5000 feet. Here I am at 7000 feet. But my climate is dry and it can get hot (well, hot for me, but then I'm comfortable at 55-60°F). I'm sure the sorghum will do well, and the amaranth too. I'm sure the chickens will be ecstatic, waggling their feathers at the hawks and clucking nah, nah, na-nah, nah. It looks like a great source for rare seeds. 🥰
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture In Australia, sorghum is grown commercially in dry country.
Wondering what else you can plant in “thick grasses”!
I’ll think about that one. But the first thing that comes to mind is pole beans. When we did the bean video a few weeks back, we were threshing beans, and a few fell into the grass. Well, sure enough, they’ve all since sprouted!
So does sorghum seem to do well in wet areas then? I've heard it's drought tolerant, and I didn't need to water mine at all this year and it did great. I may reserve some extra seeds to throw around in some heavy soil areas as a test next year.
Yes. Give it a try. The stuff you plant in wet areas will likely grow bigger than in your dry areas. I suggest you start it in small pots first though, as it is very slow to germinate when direct sown, especially where there’s more weed pressure than you have time to deal with.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thanks for the tip! I started mine in a 50- cell flat this year since I was worried about seed predation. I'll plug some in all over next year!
@@Jabberwalks That's great! All the best!
I'm a first timer sorghum everything. Mine seemed to sprout when I dried them. Are they still edible with some strings coming out of of the seeds? I think I have some broomsticks and yellowish type but mostly brown to dark brown . First time cooking and eating as rice. They are chewy and hard. I should have cooked longer. Thank you. Will wait for your response. God bless you MARANATHA
Make sure you set them thoroughly. They won’t store well if they sprout. I think to cook the whole grain like rice, it’s about an hour. I don’t often cook it like this. I usually use it for flour. It is a meaty grain. Very hearty.
I grew some broom corn this year. First time growing sorghum. I have been wondering if it can be used for flour? I have a ton of seeds multicolored. I have a grain grinder, but I haven't been able to figure out how to de-hull the grains. I have since bought a couple of other types to try for next year. What say you?
We grind them whole into a fine flour, without de hulling them. It gives you more fiber. We substitute half our regular flour with the sorghum flour in any bread, cake, cookie, pancake, etc recipe. For bread and cake, we also like to add cooked pumpkin purée, which we also grow. You can see our grinding process at around 25:27.
Sir Thank you for sharing. Question: Will sorghum grow in central or N FL? How about in devastated W NC? Are seeds easy to obtain?
It will definitely grow in North Carolina, as it is essentially the same climate zone as here. There are also very likely varieties which will grow in Florida. Just search Growing Sorghum in Florida, I’m sure you’ll get results.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture cool. thank you for the reply. I'll search for FL sorgham growing
@@markcharts Good luck! I'm sure you'll find something!
I had some volunteers from birdseed, shoulda collected some seed.
Maybe you'll get more volunteers next year! However, if your volunteers grew on their own, then your conditions are good. A simple seed packet should do to get you more sorghum!
Just stumbled upon you, I'll be back.
Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture Loni!