Seeds can be planted closer and thinned if desired. At least four rows are needed to produce good seed. Rows can be as much as 24" apart but do not space too wide as the plants are wind pollinated and need to be close or there will be no seeds. If planting a hedge the distance can be reduced 9" but no more. Space seeds about 12" apart with the same distance between rows. Seeds are relatively large so it is best to plant them directly into the ground. Alternatively the plants can be left as wild bird food and bring winter entertainment to the home. Once planted broom corn needs little maintenance or care until harvest time. Sow at least four rows deep to achieve sufficient leaf cover for a hedge. It grows very rapidly and can make an excellent summer hedge or privacy screen. Do not space the plants out individually or you will get no seeds.īroom corn can grow to 18 feet tall so ensure that you have sufficient space to grow it. Since the plants are wind pollinated they need to be grown in blocks or clumps. It is a very hardy plant and once planted needs little care or maintenance. The tough fibers to which they are attached are used to make excellent brooms!Īdding some compost or other organic material to the soil will ensure a good crop. Seeds that can be either dark brown, tan, reddish, golden, cream or almost black. The flowers are produced at the top of the plant in a fluffy spike that is wind pollinated. The leaves are long and relatively narrow, very similar to corn but not as prolific. The plant is called broom corn because it is a grass that looks very much like corn when it grows but does not produce corn ears but a tuft of grains at the top of the plant.īroom corn can grow up to 18 feet high and produces strong woody stalks with a dry internal pith. Some of the worlds most important grains come from this group of plants. Very easy to grow with little or no maintenance makes an interesting conversation piece.īroom corn is not really a corn at all but a type of sorghum which is a grain crop plant. Seed heads themselves are used to make brooms, hence the name. This annual makes an interesting temporary hedge plant or back border topped by earth bicolor seed heads of edible seeds. Very tall grass up to 18 feet tall in one year. Sorghum is an important food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia and is the "fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world". Are drought- and heat-tolerant, and are especially important in arid regions, where the grain is one of the staples for poor and rural people. Photo Sorghum bicolor, is an important world crop, used for food (as grain and in sorghum syrup or "sorghum molasses"), fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and biofuels.
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