We grow sorghum in Ontario just north of Lake Ontario, not far from Kingston. We grow three types - Broomcorn, Syrup Sorghum and Coral Sorghum. The last two give us the sweet cane and we eventually want to be able to press it. All three give us the grain and we use it whole. We don't shell it. We put it in a good blender to make our flour with it and we combine it with wheat flour to make bread, about 50/50. It works.
First grew sorghum last year mostly for fun, the variety was 'Tennesee Tall', supposedly grows to 14 feet. Didnt expect it to come to maturity here in southern Canada because everywhere I read said it wouldn't, but lo and behold it did! Our summers are plenty hot here but our frost free season isnt as long as in Tennesee, they grew to just over 12 feet but the grain on most stalks fully matured and the cane was sweet. Going to try pressing cane this year! Thank you for this threshing demo!
The first time I grew sorghum I couldn't believe how irritating and itchy it was to harvest and how difficult it was to thresh. I then ran it through a hammer mill we used for grinding alfalfa and hay. It worked perfect and fast. It did over 100 lbs in less than 10 minutes. Now that I no longer have a farm or a hammer mill, I run the whole heads right through a corona hand cranked mill set at just the right setting and it quickly threshes and dehulls at the same time. Then it's winnowed to remove all the chaff. It takes about 20 minutes (after soaking overnight) to cook whole sorghum in a pressure cooker. I also grind it into a coarse power and make polenta with it. One cup grits to 4 cups water. The sorghum I have also pops and that is the easiest and fastest way of all to cook. I have seen people making tortillas from white sorghum in Central America.
Thank you for your reply. Which Corona do you have and what was the setting. The stems didn't clog up the mill? And it kept the seed whole? I have to grind mine and the sift it like flour to remove the chaff.
I start out with the mill wide open and then adjust it down until the grains come out just right. I strip everything off the main stem to run it through the hand mill. Yes, with just the right setting I find by trial and error I can get mostly whole seeds.
I agree, it's terrible to strip off the seeds. I have hand threshed all kinds of grains, but sorghum if by far the worst. I have read that there are varieties that are easier to hand thresh. I threw in whole heads into the chicken coop and they wasted more than they ate from it. End of that experiment.
The one I grew in the video was so much easier to thresh than a broom variety which was gorgeous but grain was too small. I would die for a hammer mill. I wish they made a small farm one. Does a hammer mill thresh too?
It depends on the variety. Usually the stalks wil have the sorghum on top and it will be a color. Generally go by the harvesting data associated with the seeds. The stalks get pretty tall. Taller than corn.
i found sorghum/milo in my garden! i didn't plant it! i came up volunteer! i have only 2 seed heads-1 brown and one still green...i am so excited and would like to use this and grow more. can i plant any of the seeds for more sorghum/milo? i am in shock because my grandmother grew up in Milo Arkansas and lived on a homestead there. i feel such a connection to her. i am also gluten free! i would love to grow more. how and when can i grow it?
I would get fresh seed if you want to grow it. It may not be sorghum. if it is in fact sorghum, it will get about 8 feet tall. Wait until the seed heads completely dry to see if you can use it to grow from that seed. It takes about 90 plus days to grow into useable heads. It grows like corn but taller. You can't plant until there isn't any frost pending. I don't know your zone so you might want to do some research about when to plant and grow. Most seed companies have this information.
Thanks for video. This is my first year growing milo for my hens (in MS) and I have been trying to find out when it is fully ripe. From the look of the head on your video, it seems I need to wait until all the grains are fully brown.
I grew Black Amber and made syrup. I'm a small time newby with no equipment. I had no problem separating the seed from the stalk, but over 1/2 my seeds have the hard hulls attached. how can I get them removed?
Hi I am growing the burgundy colored Sorghum here in Bali and it grows well. Its my 1st harvest so thanks for the info. Will a food processor work to grind the grain into a flour? Thanks
+Anita Dewi The problem is shifting out the hard shell. I use a grain grinder and then sift out the shells with a sifter. I think a food processor would just grind everything up--shell and all. Anna
@@Green-talk I've seen folks cut the knuckles out of each stalk, peel the sections and crush them or put them in a vegetable juicer to extract the juice. Then strain and cook it down to make syrup.
Thanks, love that hardware cloth.. I use 1/2 inch mesh for compost screening. We have a few dozen re sorghum stalks and am wondering how to process and use. What are you using the seed for?
I started hearing about this just this year. Very easy to grow just wish I had a cane press My seeds didn't look like that and I got white spots on it. I grew the popping sorghum.
@@Green-talk all strains will pop as far as I'm aware some just better. seeing as your comment was 5 years ago have you tried it? Do the kernals get stuck on your tongue like regular pop corn?
Maybe. But the seeds are hard so I am not sure if that would work. Plus the stems where the seeds are attached are pretty straw like so they might break. Good suggestion. Thanks for commenting. Anna
They are defintely not so tight to the cob that you would need a screw driver. A small child with tiny fingers could pick them apart with great pleasure because even the raw seeds are edible and not unpalatable. If you thrashed it on a concrete slab you could just sweep them up. I did that with my fever grass seeds. I like the idea of rubbing them on the sieve for a smaller operation. Its neat and tidy.
It depends on what sorghum seed you buy. I generally look at the number of days to harvest.(Seed package should tell you.) Mark the calendar and start watching for the color of the sorghum. If it is red broom, the seeds will be nice and red. Usually the color is the same as the seeds you plant.
I am also growing sudan grass. This is for cover crop, green manuring, composting etc. You can use it for fodder and maybe you could press the stalks for sugar water and make syrup. But i dont grow it for food for us. The birds like the seed, but the sorghum you want to grow to eat is Sorghum bicolor. Both have the same minimal requirements, but the purposes for growing them are very different. Both are tropical/ sub tropical crops.
I am doing experiements in the Bahamas with Pearl millet, Sorghum bicolor and Sorghum x drommondii (sudanensis) otherwise known as sudan grass. For a country with very poor soils unsuitable for agriculture these 3 crops have been very rewarding.
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We grow sorghum in Ontario just north of Lake Ontario, not far from Kingston. We grow three types - Broomcorn, Syrup Sorghum and Coral Sorghum. The last two give us the sweet cane and we eventually want to be able to press it. All three give us the grain and we use it whole. We don't shell it. We put it in a good blender to make our flour with it and we combine it with wheat flour to make bread, about 50/50. It works.
First grew sorghum last year mostly for fun, the variety was 'Tennesee Tall', supposedly grows to 14 feet. Didnt expect it to come to maturity here in southern Canada because everywhere I read said it wouldn't, but lo and behold it did! Our summers are plenty hot here but our frost free season isnt as long as in Tennesee, they grew to just over 12 feet but the grain on most stalks fully matured and the cane was sweet. Going to try pressing cane this year! Thank you for this threshing demo!
Interested in trading seeds? I have orange rox sorhgrum. Also in same growing region.
Hi growing sorghum as a novice backyard gardener for the frost time this year. Thanks for the information.
The first time I grew sorghum I couldn't believe how irritating and itchy it was to harvest and how difficult it was to thresh. I then ran it through a hammer mill we used for grinding alfalfa and hay. It worked perfect and fast. It did over 100 lbs in less than 10 minutes.
Now that I no longer have a farm or a hammer mill, I run the whole heads right through a corona hand cranked mill set at just the right setting and it quickly threshes and dehulls at the same time. Then it's winnowed to remove all the chaff.
It takes about 20 minutes (after soaking overnight) to cook whole sorghum in a pressure cooker. I also grind it into a coarse power and make polenta with it. One cup grits to 4 cups water. The sorghum I have also pops and that is the easiest and fastest way of all to cook.
I have seen people making tortillas from white sorghum in Central America.
Thank you for your reply. Which Corona do you have and what was the setting. The stems didn't clog up the mill? And it kept the seed whole? I have to grind mine and the sift it like flour to remove the chaff.
I start out with the mill wide open and then adjust it down until the grains come out just right. I strip everything off the main stem to run it through the hand mill. Yes, with just the right setting I find by trial and error I can get mostly whole seeds.
I found stripping the seeds off the stalks very time consuming.
I agree, it's terrible to strip off the seeds. I have hand threshed all kinds of grains, but sorghum if by far the worst. I have read that there are varieties that are easier to hand thresh. I threw in whole heads into the chicken coop and they wasted more than they ate from it. End of that experiment.
The one I grew in the video was so much easier to thresh than a broom variety which was gorgeous but grain was too small. I would die for a hammer mill. I wish they made a small farm one. Does a hammer mill thresh too?
I grow sorghum in the Bahamas! Thanks for the video xxx
Awesome loved this explanation!
Great video! When will I know the right time to harvest the seeds and the stalks
It depends on the variety. Usually the stalks wil have the sorghum on top and it will be a color. Generally go by the harvesting data associated with the seeds. The stalks get pretty tall. Taller than corn.
i found sorghum/milo in my garden! i didn't plant it! i came up volunteer! i have only 2 seed heads-1 brown and one still green...i am so excited and would like to use this and grow more. can i plant any of the seeds for more sorghum/milo? i am in shock because my grandmother grew up in Milo Arkansas and lived on a homestead there. i feel such a connection to her. i am also gluten free! i would love to grow more. how and when can i grow it?
I would get fresh seed if you want to grow it. It may not be sorghum. if it is in fact sorghum, it will get about 8 feet tall. Wait until the seed heads completely dry to see if you can use it to grow from that seed. It takes about 90 plus days to grow into useable heads. It grows like corn but taller. You can't plant until there isn't any frost pending. I don't know your zone so you might want to do some research about when to plant and grow. Most seed companies have this information.
Might have come from birdseed. Mine did
Thanks for video. This is my first year growing milo for my hens (in MS) and I have been trying to find out when it is fully ripe. From the look of the head on your video, it seems I need to wait until all the grains are fully brown.
It depends on the variety. Mine was red.
do you do anything with the heads after you deseed them?
I grew Black Amber and made syrup. I'm a small time newby with no equipment. I had no problem separating the seed from the stalk, but over 1/2 my seeds have the hard hulls attached. how can I get them removed?
I ended up putting them through a grain mill and then sifting the shelling. I can only make flour with the seeds.
Nice! Are the seed heads dried first?
Yes.
Great idea, Hardware wire has lead in it though. Would be fantastic to have something like that mesh in stainless steel.
Hi I am growing the burgundy colored Sorghum here in Bali and it grows well. Its my 1st harvest so thanks for the info. Will a food processor work to grind the grain into a flour? Thanks
+Anita Dewi The problem is shifting out the hard shell. I use a grain grinder and then sift out the shells with a sifter. I think a food processor would just grind everything up--shell and all. Anna
+Green Talk Hi Anna, thank you. We cultivate rice here and there are plenty of Mills here so maybe they can do it. I'll send a photo of ours.
+Anita Dewi I wish I was so lucky. I wanted to harvest the stalks for syrup but couldn't find anyone to crush them for me.
@@Green-talk I've seen folks cut the knuckles out of each stalk, peel the sections and crush them or put them in a vegetable juicer to extract the juice.
Then strain and cook it down to make syrup.
@@Green-talk I just saw a tutorial that shows you how to make syrup by cutting up the canes and boiling them. No press needed...
Thanks, love that hardware cloth.. I use 1/2 inch mesh for compost screening. We have a few dozen re sorghum stalks and am wondering how to process and use. What are you using the seed for?
I mill it into flour for gluten free baking. (I shift out the shells) I don't have a machine to take off the hard shell. Anna
I started hearing about this just this year. Very easy to grow just wish I had a cane press My seeds didn't look like that and I got white spots on it. I grew the popping sorghum.
Never heard of the popping type. Interesting! I wish I had a cane press too. I heard some people use an old washing machine with the crank.
I looked at one of those I thought maybe it would work. I got mine from rareseeds.com.
I wonder if I can pop mine but they still have the shell on them. Does yours have a shell too?
I trhink it depends on they type you have. i'm just learning about it myself.
@@Green-talk all strains will pop as far as I'm aware some just better. seeing as your comment was 5 years ago have you tried it? Do the kernals get stuck on your tongue like regular pop corn?
I use a flax hackle but will have to try quarter inch fiber cloth, thanks for idea
My god I’ve got sorghum everywhere and don’t know what to do with it or about it.
Or just put it in water, the stems should float
That won't work. The seeds are pretty stuck like corn.
I wonder if you could use a screwdriver like you do corn.
Maybe. But the seeds are hard so I am not sure if that would work. Plus the stems where the seeds are attached are pretty straw like so they might break. Good suggestion. Thanks for commenting. Anna
They are defintely not so tight to the cob that you would need a screw driver. A small child with tiny fingers could pick them apart with great pleasure because even the raw seeds are edible and not unpalatable. If you thrashed it on a concrete slab you could just sweep them up. I did that with my fever grass seeds. I like the idea of rubbing them on the sieve for a smaller operation. Its neat and tidy.
How do you know when to harvest the seeds
It depends on what sorghum seed you buy. I generally look at the number of days to harvest.(Seed package should tell you.) Mark the calendar and start watching for the color of the sorghum. If it is red broom, the seeds will be nice and red. Usually the color is the same as the seeds you plant.
clever!
Why rub it when you can beat it with a cardboard tube?
It doesn't come off for me that way. I guess it depends on the sorghum seed you use.
+Green Talk The ones that I found growing in my garden do,and they're red too.
Are they really tight to the stalk? I grew red broom ones one year which are more spaced out and have a broom like seed head. They are like corn cobs.
+Green Talk I let mine dry while on the plant to be drier than your plant,the shaft have no green left.
+Green Talk I meant the ears you're working with,or maybe it's because of genetics.But I strike them real good.
Anyone experience with sorghum sudanese?
I don't sorry but there may be other TH-cam videos that do.
I am also growing sudan grass. This is for cover crop, green manuring, composting etc. You can use it for fodder and maybe you could press the stalks for sugar water and make syrup. But i dont grow it for food for us. The birds like the seed, but the sorghum you want to grow to eat is Sorghum bicolor. Both have the same minimal requirements, but the purposes for growing them are very different. Both are tropical/ sub tropical crops.
I am doing experiements in the Bahamas with Pearl millet, Sorghum bicolor and Sorghum x drommondii (sudanensis) otherwise known as sudan grass. For a country with very poor soils unsuitable for agriculture these 3 crops have been very rewarding.
For seed harvest ...use chopsticks!
That would take a really long time!