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Sorghum bicolor is a ANNUAL growing to 5 m at a fast rate.
It is hardy to zone 8. It is in flower from August to October, and the seeds ripen from September to October. The species is hermaphrodite and is pollinated by Wind.
Suitable for: light , medium and heavy soils. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought.

Cultivation

A fairly easily grown plant, though it is on the edges of its climatic zone in Britain. It requires a warm, sheltered and sunny position, preferring a slightly to moderately acid soil, though some cultivars have succeeded with a pH as high as 8. Plants are adapted to a wide range of soils varying from light loams to heavy clays, they thrive best on light, easily worked soils of high fertility, with moderate to high availablility of water. Moderately well-drained soils are suitable for sorghums. Small amounts of alkali in sand reduces performance considerably. Plants are moderatley tolerant of saline soils. Established plants are very drought resistant, they succeed in arid soils. A nitrogen rich soil causes the plants to lodge. Plants are reported to tolerate an annual precipitation in the range of 20 to 410cm, an annual temperature in the range of 7.8 to 27.8°C and a pH of 4.3 to 8.7. Sorghum is widely cultivated in tropical and warm temperate zones for its edible seed, as well as for its panicles and the syrup obtained from its sap. Yields of around 6 tonnes per hectare have been achieved, though yields as low as 200 kilos have been reported - yields below 2 tonnes are not considered financially viable.There are many named varieties. Some cultivars are short-day plants and are unlikely to produce flowers and seed away from the tropical zone. Plants are adapted to tropical and subtropical summer rainfall climates with rainfall from 25 - 125 cm annually, they are of little importance in more humid areas with higher rainfall. It is grown in Britain as a tender bedding plant but requires a long hot summer if it is to ripen its seed here. In warmer climates it takes 3 months from sowing to seed harvest.

HabitatsNot known in the wild.
HabitatsCultivated Beds
HabitatsCultivated Beds

Resources


Major pests

Minor pests

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