We planted some Sorghum in the school garden this year, and since I've never grown it before I really don't know when to harvest it. Anyone? This is also a "popping" variety (sort of like popcorn) so again I don't know if there's anything special I need to do to it so it will pop.

Here's a picture taken last week. The seeds are still slightly greenish but by the time we get back after the holidays that may have changed. Hoping the birds don't discover it before we return.

Harvest it when the heads start to turn - or when the birds start to harvest it for you - whichever comes first.

Seeds pop best with the right amount of moisture in them, so drying them to the correct point is the idea. Depending on how old the kids are, you could first test some of them at specific drying time intervals to determine the proper moisture level as school experiments. Or, if you don't want to disappoint the young 'uns, you might want to test them yourself before you pop them in class. Good luck!

Next year maybe you would like to grow broom corn (another kind of sorghum). It grows taller than corn and makes more impressive corn shocks, too.

Thanks guys. What color do the heads turn? Am I looking for yellow, or brown or what? Does the whole head ripen at once or do we harvest individual seeds?

We can't really grow anything much more demanding than the sorghum, since we're severely limited as to space as well as how much water we can give them. Each grade has one raised bed, some are 4ft. x 8ft. and the little kids have narrower beds 3ft. by 10ft. The goal has become to grow various things that teach the kids something about soil, space management, and they get to taste a bit or two of something as long as there's enough for everybody. So corn and the like really doesn't work. We thought the sorghum would be a good compromise and tried it this year in the 5th grader's bed.

There's a history/social studies lesson in sorghum grown for sweetener.

I am always amazed what I learn here.
I Did not know what Sorghum was had to do a goggle search.
Interesting plant with many uses.

I wrote an article about sorghum that you may enjoy:

https://garden.org/ideas/view/...

Thanks Dave. I knew I'd read about it somewhere.