How to Grow Sorghum? A Detailed Guide to Sorghum Planting Methods and Techniques

Sorghum is a common crop. After processing, the sorghum grain becomes sorghum rice, and it is a staple food in China, Korea, the former Soviet Union, India, Africa and other places. So, how do you grow sorghum?

1. Site Selection and Land Preparation

Sorghum has a well-developed root system and a strong ability to absorb water and nutrients, so it is best to choose flat, loose and relatively fertile plots for planting. Before sowing, the land must be finely prepared, and the soil should be harrowed level and fine. Sorghum should not be grown continuously, and a reasonable crop rotation is the key to increasing sorghum yields. The ideal preceding crop for sorghum is soybean, followed by corn, potato and so on. The best following crop is preferably soybean, or a rotation with corn or millet.

2. Seed Selection

Before sowing, carry out winnowing or screening to eliminate small, shriveled and diseased grains, and select large, plump seeds for production use. At the same time, choose fine, sunny weather and sun the seeds for 2-3d days to improve seed vigor and germination rate. The sowing density should follow the principle of “dense on fertile land, sparse on poor land”.

3. Field Management

Thinning and final thinning: thin the seedlings at the 3-4 leaf stage after emergence, and set the final stand at the 5-6 leaf stage. When setting the final stand, keep seedlings at equal spacing, keep strong and upright seedlings, do not keep double-plant seedlings or second-crop seedlings, and also pull out off-type plants to improve purity and give full play to the yield-increasing effect of good seed.

Cultivation: during the seedling stage, sorghum is generally cultivated 2-3 times. The first is done together with final thinning; the second is carried out after 10-15d. It is recommended to plow one pass before hoeing, combining hoeing and plowing. It is suggested to carry out one cultivation before and after jointing, and this cultivation should be combined with topdressing and earthing up, so as to promote sorghum growth while enhancing wind resistance, lodging resistance and the soil's water storage and moisture conservation capacity.

Timely irrigation: the water requirement characteristics of sorghum are that the seedling stage accounts for about 10% of the total water requirement of the whole growth period; the jointing and booting stage accounts for 50%; the booting to flowering stage accounts for 15%; the grain-filling stage accounts for 20%; and the maturity stage accounts for about 5%. To ensure high and stable sorghum yields, the key is to irrigate timely and appropriately during the jointing and booting stage, the flowering stage and the grain-filling stage.

4. Pest and Disease Control

Before sowing, mix in 25% triadimefon wettable powder at 0.3~0.5% of the seed. For sorghum leaf spot, spray with 70% thiophanate-methyl wettable powder at 2000 times dilution, 100~125 kg per mu. For underground pests, treat seeds with the seed coating agent Jinong No. 3. For aphids, apply 40% dimethoate emulsion diluted with water at 50~80 times to the stems, or spray with 40% dimethoate emulsifiable concentrate diluted with water at 2000 times. For armyworms, 50% phoxim emulsion at 50~100 grams per mu can be used for control.

Reasonable crop rotation has a great impact on yield, so everyone must pay attention when choosing land.