Thanks Dave for this nice article. Last week at the school garden we noticed a couple of plants that looked exactly like corn. But we have never planted corn.

However I've been raising seedlings at my house for the school, and I'll bet some sorghum seeds from my bird feeder got into the transplant pots.

I thought it was millet, but the millet seed heads aren't nearly so big and generous as the sorghum.

Maybe next fall we'll try planting a whole bed of sorghum, and do a lesson on all its uses, too. Everybody wanted to plant corn and I've been saying it just takes too much space, water and fertilizer. But we sure can grow sorghum in a 4 x 8 raised bed!

It grows wild here and there in my garden, self sowed. Yes, hardy. Even growing in the cracks of the driveway. Must start from the mixed birdseed that I toss out for the backyard songbirds around here.

Great, great article.

Wow, I knew I liked sorghum syrup, but that's about all I knew about sorghum until your article -- thanks! I'm glad you mentioned Johnson grass, because that was my first though when looking at your sorghum photo. I've battled it for enough years that I'm not sure I could plant sorghum on purpose... I'd probably be yanking it up before I remembered I meant to grow it!