Exciting times for me as a farmer πΎ, while one crop, my rice, is giving me heartbreak π, on one of my farms, my sorghum farm is mending my heart with so much care.
You can plant, water, and groom your crops π± till they've grown and then you will still struggle during harvest because you couldn't identify when the crops are ready for harvest.
This post is here to fix that for you if you are growing sorghum right now, like I am, or you are planning to do so in the future.
Don't miss any line, you will need it to start anything on sorghum, because what is the essence of farming if you cannot locate when the crops are ready to be harvested?
Harvest Signs to watch out for as a farmer cultivating sorghum? πΎ
The seed head changes color
The yield we've been hoping for from the sorghum plant is always held high up, that's where your yield lies but how would you know if the head is mature? Well, you need to look at the color of the grain; at first, the grain is meant to be green, but any change that converts it from green to red is a clear sign to watch out for.
Seeds become hard πͺ
Another thing to look at is the hardness of the seed. When the seeds are young and green, you can easily crush them using your hands, but the mature seeds are hard and difficult to crush.
And how do you find out if it was hard or not?
You can bend the sorghum down gently until you can reach the head.
The leaves begin to dry from top to bottom π
That's the final sign for me because irrespective of how ready the heads are, the moment the leaves start drying up, then that's a definite sign that life is gradually leaving the sorghum.
At that stage, nutrients cannot be taken to the plants' needed parts because their cells are dead at that point, so we have no choice but to.
A few tips to hold on to π
Make sure you don't rush the harvesting π; you wouldn't want mould growing over your sorghum after harvest because the seeds didn't properly dry. Keep your eyes on your yield during this time because of birds π¦, and finally, handle the heads carefully; you might lose more this way if you don't take care, because what you are dealing with are grains that can easily get lost in the soil because of their size.
I hope this was helpful in some way. π