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Growing Sorghum Part 2 🌾 Harvesting, Threshing & Making Flour

Willows Green Permaculture

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Three months after planting sorghum, it's time to harvest. In this video, we identify different sorghum varieties, harvest the grain, thresh it, store it, and turn it into flour.
This video is a re-upload to enable additional multilingual dubbing options and make it accessible to more people around the world.
🌾 This is Part 2 of the sorghum planting video that was re-uploaded a few weeks ago. Both videos were originally published about two years ago and are being re-uploaded to support additional language dubbing. Since then, we have also created several newer sorghum videos, each exploring different aspects of growing and using this remarkable crop.

In this video you'll learn:
• How to tell when sorghum is ready to harvest
• Three simple signs that sorghum is ripe
• Differences between Williams Syrup Sorghum, Coral Sorghum, Broomcorn, and Popping Sorghum
• How to encourage second harvests from sorghum tillers
• How we harvest, dry, thresh, and store sorghum grain
• How we turn sorghum into flour
• Ways we use sorghum flour in bread, pancakes, flatbread, cookies, cakes, and porridge

This video follows the sorghum planted earlier in the season in a chinampa-style planting along one of our watercourses. We return to see how the plants matured, compare several sorghum varieties, harvest the grain, and follow the process all the way to flour. One of the things I appreciate most about sorghum is how many roles it can play. It can provide grain, syrup, biomass, wildlife habitat, erosion control, and organic matter while remaining one of the easiest grains we grow here in Zone 5b.

▶️ Watch our Sorghum & Sugar Cane playlist:
Sorghum and Sugar Cane.
▶️ Watch Part 1: Planting Sorghum
Growing Sorghum in Wet Soil | No Till, No ...

Thank you for watching and for supporting educational gardening content that helps people grow food while working with nature — and as always, I read and respond to all of your comments and questions.

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Time Stamp Chapters:
00:01 - Intro
01:50 - Growing sorghum and using it for soil remediation
04:46 - Identifying when sorghum is ready to harvest
06:04 - Harvest and initial drying of sorghum
06:08 - Williams Syrup Sorghum
06:11 - Pre-drying for hanging
06:19 - Coral sorghum (syrup sorghum)
06:28 - Broomcorn sorghum
06:33 - Popping sorghum
07:05 - Getting a 2nd harvest from your plants
08:24 - Initial processing in the field
09:23 - Getting at the sugar cane in the stem
10:44 - Tasting the sugar cane
17:43 - Threshing
18:59 - Storing the threshed grain
20:23 - Storing whole stems of sorghum to dry
24:34 - Winnowing
25:04 - Making flour
27:18 - Using sorghum flour
28:44 - Outro
29:23 - Closing music and scenes of nature

10 Comments

@WillowsGreenPermaculture Creator 4 months ago Pinned

This video is a re-upload from about two years ago to enable additional multilingual dubbing options and make it available to more people around the world. It is also Part 2 of the sorghum planting video that was re-uploaded a few weeks ago.
In Part 1, we planted sorghum in a chinampa-style planting along one of our watercourses. In this video, we return a few months later to harvest, thresh, store, and turn that sorghum into flour.
If you'd like to learn even more about sorghum, we now have several newer sorghum videos as well, each with its own focus, available in our Sorghum & Sugar Cane playlist.
Which sorghum variety would you be most interested in growing: syrup sorghum, coral sorghum, broomcorn, popping sorghum, or dwarf sorghum?

@MerwinARTist 4 months ago

Enjoyed watching this. Down the road from me a man in the past planted sorghum .. big field area .. had a roller press so when the stalks were cut .. he made syrup. I stopped by one time and watched his operation cooking it down. Don't know the latest about that now. I need to stop by and see what's up. I'm limited on space here .. so this would be a great way to add something more as a grass. Love the colors. Thanks for sharing your stuff. 😊

@AlsanPine 4 months ago

its not a real food forest unless you grow some ancient grains🙂 sorghum is such an awesome grain to grow for those with limited space. like amaranth, it has a much higher yield per area planted than more common grains such as wheat and barley.
the benefit of grinding your own flour is to have max nutrition. once ground, nutrition drops rapidly each day.
great vid❤

@JaniceRichardson-j1b 2 months ago

I always learn things from your videos and I enjoy them very much! I would love it if you would do a video with how to make things with sorghum. That might be a winter project. I am going to try to grow sorghum next year. I like the versatility of the grain, especially being able to eat the stalk raw like a snack. My grandpa used to take me to some of the sugar cane farms near where he lived and we would get stalks of sugar cane to snack on. I am also wanting to use it as one of my staple grains. I currently do not grow any grain. Is there a variety that you prefer for raw eating? I hope I am able to buy seed from you when you have it available. I loved your ginger bug video and I am getting ready to make my first ginger bug. You explained it so well that I am pretty sure I can do it. Thank you for all that you do?

@mojavebohemian814 4 months ago

Thank you

@woodsykris 4 weeks ago

How do you keep local bird populates from eating all of the seeds before they are ready to harvest?

@maryjane-vx4dd 4 months ago (edited)

I purchased sorghum seed this year. It's a duel purpose sorghum. How big of an area do I need to make it worth my while. I have a young food forest with small perianals that will get much bigger. How could I use that extra space until the perianals mature. So far I have melons and winter squash. Is there a way to use some of that space for sorghum?. Right now I have apx a 20x50 sq ft block of space in my row garden left but will still need 1-2 more rows for the rest of the tomatoes. I would like to have enough for some grain and try my hand at making some syrup. The variety is Rox Orange. I've got 5 lbs of seed and unless I find some incredibly creative ways to plant it. I have 5/8 acer with house, a 48x24 ft high tunnel, 2 chicken coups w/runs, a duck inclosure, a 50x90 ft row garden, a food forest with 40+ fruit and nut trees with their supporting guilds. I would love to have a descent harvest may be 4 or 5 pts of syrup and a bit of grain for me and the birds. I have never grown sorghum before but though it better to grow then corn this year owing to the drought.

@TiliquaJesus 3 weeks ago

Doesn't this sorghum have to be processed further in order to remove the outer husk of the seed before turning it in to flour?

@rha995 1 month ago (edited)

Hello, I am so new to this amazing plant I just discovered growing randomly in my flower bed . I’m in zone 8 (Texas). And while one day I was watering, I discovered this plant when it was green. Now the sorghum is white or cream colored which I assume is time to be harvested. It’s one plant . But can it be propagated for next year and also it’s not much but what can I do with such a small harvest? It hurts to just let it die:(

@woodsykris 4 weeks ago

This is my first year growing sorghum and I've chosen Black African and Black Amber, both for their anti-cancer properties. Have you ever grown either of these varieties? I worry that I am harvesting too early even though I can not push my fingernail into the seed. Do you have any further advice for knowing when to harvest?