What Is the Price of Sweet Sorghum Seeds? Included: Planting Methods
Sweet sorghum is a variety of grain sorghum in the grass family, Sorghum genus. It originated in Africa and was introduced into China during the Wei and Jin dynasties via India. It has long been cultivated as a forage and sugar crop and is known as the "northern sugarcane." It has a very wide range of uses: it not only produces grain, but also sugar, syrup, and can be used to make liquor, alcohol and monosodium glutamate. Let's take a look below at sweet sorghum seed prices and planting methods!
How much is sweet sorghum seed per jin?
The price of sweet sorghum seeds is about 10 to 15 yuan per jin, but it varies with seed quality, variety and market conditions. Sweet sorghum has a long history of cultivation in China, distributed from Heilongjiang in the north to Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other provinces in the south, and from the ** Uygur Autonomous Region in the west to Jiangsu, Shanghai and other provinces and municipalities in the east, and it is especially common in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. However, with the improvement of living standards in urban and rural areas, it is no longer used as a staple food, its cultivation area has decreased, and now it is only grown here and there.
Sowing Methods for Sweet Sorghum
1. Site selection and land preparation: Sweet sorghum has a well-developed root system and a strong ability to absorb water and nutrients, so it is best to plant it on flat, loose and fairly fertile plots. It is not strict about the previous crop; corn stubble and soybean stubble are both fine. But before sowing, the land must be prepared carefully, and the soil should be raked level and fine.
2. Seed selection and sunning: Before sowing sweet sorghum, use winnowing or screening to eliminate small, shriveled and diseased grains, and select large, plump seeds for production use. At the same time, choose fine weather and sun the seeds for 2 to 3 days to improve seed vigor and germination rate.
3. Chemical seed dressing: For sweet sorghum, before sowing, a high-quality seed coating agent can be used for seed dressing to control smut, seedling-stage diseases, nutrient deficiency disorders and underground pests, etc. Alternatively, 25% triadimefon wettable powder can be used for seed dressing at 0.3 to 0.5% of the seed weight.
4. Sowing time: The sowing date of sweet sorghum is determined according to the variety's growth period, soil temperature and soil moisture. Generally, it is suitable when the soil temperature at the 5 cm plough layer is stable at 10 to 12°C and the soil moisture content is 15 to 20%. Late-maturing varieties should be sown early at the right time, and early-maturing varieties should be sown late at the right time.
5. Sowing density: The sowing density of sweet sorghum follows the principle of "dense on fertile land, sparse on poor land." Usually, with 65 to 70 cm rows, double rows are drilled at equal spacing on the ridge. For short-stalk varieties, the sowing rate is generally 15 to 22.5 kg per hectare.
6. Sowing depth: The suitable sowing depth for sweet sorghum is 3 to 4.5 cm, but the depth should be flexibly controlled according to different soil types. Clay soil is tight and prone to crusting, so it should be sown shallowly; sandy soil has poor moisture retention, so it can be sown somewhat deeper.
Planting Methods for Sweet Sorghum
1. Thinning and final singling: For sweet sorghum, thin the seedlings at the 3 to 4 leaf stage after emergence, and finalize the stand at the 5 to 6 leaf stage. When finalizing the stand, keep seedlings at equal spacing, keep strong and upright seedlings, and do not keep double plants or second-growth seedlings. Also remove off-type plants to improve purity and give full play to the yield-increasing effect of good seed.
2. Cultivation management: During the seedling stage of sweet sorghum, cultivate 2 to 3 times. The first cultivation is done together with final singling, the second after 10 to 15 days, and one more cultivation around jointing, combined with topdressing and earthing up, to promote growth while enhancing wind resistance, lodging resistance and the soil's ability to store water and conserve moisture.
3. Timely irrigation: The water requirement of sweet sorghum at the seedling stage accounts for about 10% of the total water requirement over the whole growth period, the jointing to 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%. Water should be applied timely and in appropriate amounts during the jointing to booting stage, flowering stage and grain-filling stage.
4. Rational fertilization
① When planting sweet sorghum, apply sufficient base fertilizer in combination with land preparation. The seed fertilizer should be mainly phosphate fertilizer; 30 to 35 kg per mu of 35% special compound fertilizer can be applied, together with 1500 to 2000 kg of organic fertilizer.
② After sweet sorghum emerges, a seedling-promoting fertilizer can be applied according to emergence conditions. At the jointing stage, generally 1000 kg per mu of decomposed farmyard manure and 10 to 15 kg per mu of urea can be applied.
③ At the booting stage of sweet sorghum, 1000 kg per mu of farmyard manure and 20 kg per mu of urea can be applied.
④ At the grain-filling stage of sweet sorghum, 1000 kg per mu of farmyard manure and 8 to 10 kg per mu of urea can be applied.
⑤ From the heading stage to the grain-filling stage of sweet sorghum, spray an appropriate amount of potassium dihydrogen phosphate to promote early maturity and increase yield.