Divisi
How to grow Sorghum
Sorghum bicolor · Poaceae
Photo: Daniel Georg Döhne (user Bugdream) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor — mapfunde, mtama, amabele, mapira, dawa, mashilla) is the toughest of the grain cereals: a tall, C4 grass that keeps standing and yields when heat and dry spells have already beaten maize. It grows 1–5 m tall, sends roots down deep, and can pause through a drought and pick up again when the rain returns. One crop meets many needs — grain for porridge, thick beer and injera; sweet stalks for syrup; and leaves and stems for animal feed. It is mostly self-pollinated and short-day (it flowers as the season's days shorten), so plant it in its window. Its main battles are underground and airborne: Striga (witchweed) on hungry soils, shoot fly and stem borers in young plants, midge at flowering, and above all birds on the ripening heads.
Salil Kumar Mukherjee · CC BY-SA 4.0 
No machine-readable author provided. Pethan assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Days to maturity
- 90–140 days
- Row spacing
- 70 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 15 cm
- Sowing depth
- 2–5 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will sorghum actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Sorghum
ማሽላ (mashilla) · sorghum · guinea corn · great millet · kaffir corn · sorgho · gros mil · dawa · amabele · mapira · sorgo · mapfunde · mabele · mtama · amazimba
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing sorghum, stage by stage
Your sorghum season, step by step — from a fine, firm seedbed and a clean, even start, through beating Striga and feeding it lightly, to guarding the flowering heads from midge and the ripening grain from birds, and drying it hard so none is lost to weevils.
- Get your field and inputs ready
- Plant and get a full, even stand
- Feed it, keep it clean, and beat Striga
- Protect booting and flowering — the make-or-break window
- Fill the grain and guard it from birds
- Harvest
- Dry hard, thresh, and store sealed
25 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for sorghum — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack sorghum
22 more threats tracked in the app
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your sorghum right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does sorghum take to grow?
Sorghum takes about 90–140 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for sorghum?
Space sorghum rows about 70 cm apart, with roughly 15 cm between plants within the row.
How deep should sorghum be planted?
Sow sorghum at about 2–5 cm deep. Shallower risks drying out; deeper wastes seed energy before the shoot reaches light.
What pests and diseases attack sorghum?
The ones covered in this guide are African armyworm, Angoumois grain moth, Anthracnose. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
More reading
- Quelea Birds: How to Protect Your Sorghum and Millet, Warn Your Neighbours, and Turn the Swarm Into Cash
- Sorghum Storage: How to Cut Post-Harvest Losses by Half
Grow sorghum with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first