Ba Ye Qi - Easy Sorghum Grain

Sorghum bicolor 

Sorghum: a heat and drought tolerant, gluten-free grain.

Straightforward to plant, harvest and process, Ba Ye Qi sorghum is an excellent choice for those looking for a resilient and gluten-free grain to grow. It is a short season variety suitable for outdoor or greenhouse growing.

Sorghum plants look similar to corn. Grain forms in heads at the top of stalks. Plants send up a central stalk, followed by up to 4 more stalks (“tillers”). Because of this placement, harvest is a breeze. Once the grain heads have plumped up and dried to a uniform red colour, they are ready. Plant reaches up to 7’ tall.

Fun fact: sorghum produces a wax coating on its stalks that help protect it from heat and drying out. Everyone I’ve shown this to has been mesmerized!

Since its domestication in Syria over 5,000 years ago. untold varieties have been bred for grain, ethanol production, animal fodder, cane juice and cover cropping. There are a plethora of seed colours – Ba Ye Qi produces beautiful dark red grain.

Growing:

Can be direct sown or transplanted. Must be grown in well-drained soil. Will not tolerate waterlogging. Choose a location with direct sun and as much heat as possible. Can be grown outside or in a greenhouse.

For direct seeding, start late spring to early summer, after soil has warmed. Plant 1” deep, spaced 3” apart. Once plants are sprouted, thin to 6” spacing.

In cooler areas, transplanting gives you a jumpstart. We prefer transplants as we have rodent challenges. Start 2 weeks before intended transplanting date. Plant seeds 1” deep and use bottom heat.

Plant in rows. Unlike corn, sorghum is primarily self-pollinated. Sorghum benefits from a balanced starter fertilizer applied at sowing/transplanting and some additional nitrogen. Potassium fertilizer during grain fill will help achieve larger, plumper grains.

Cut the head off the plant once the grains have turned red. Ideally dry further before threshing. Thresh grain from head by using a “wringing” motion as if wringing out a sponge. Rub grains against screen to remove any attached plant matter and then blow away light chaff.

Dry growing (growing without irrigation):

Sorghum thinks we’re right hilarious to be worrying about how much we water it. After all, it evolved in an arid environment - hotter and drier than your garden will probably ever get here in Canada. It also uses the “C4 carbon fixation pathway,” meaning it is far more efficient using water than most other plants. However, yields will usually be better with irrigation.

We have dry farmed Ba Ye Qi successfully. The best dry growing success would likely be in medium-textured loamy soils that are well structured and with a decent amount of organic matter. I suspect direct seeding may work better than transplanting in a dry growing approach.

Increase space between plants if dry growing. Do not remove tillers, even if they don’t seem to be producing grain: the plant draws on the nutrient reserves in the tillers when producing grain on the main stalks.