How to grow teff

In the month before sowing, plough or dig the plot, then break it down and level it. Work it over several times across those weeks — teff needs a finer bed than any other cereal you grow.

Loosen the topsoil about 10-15 cm deep — a bit less than a hand-span (a hand-span is about 20 cm). No need to dig deeper: teff roots are shallow, and what matters here is fine and level, not deep.

Crush every clod to a fine, crumbly tilth (a soft, crumbly surface) and rake out stones, roots and old stalks. Aim for a surface as fine as a nursery seedbed — if big clods remain, the dust-fine seed falls into the gaps and comes up in patches.

Firm the bed: roll a log or a drum over it, or tramp it down, so it is level and firm underfoot. Teff must have firm soil under the seed — a loose, fluffy bed dries out and swallows it.

On heavy black clay that holds water (the sticky kind that gets waterlogged), open shallow drainage furrows a few strides apart (a stride is about 1 m) across the plot so heavy rain runs off. Teff stands wet feet better than other cereals, but a drowned, crusted seedbed still gives a poor stand.

Save the final fine raking for just before sowing, while the soil is still moist — a firm, moist, fine bed is exactly what the seed needs on sowing day.

Buy a short, lodging-resistant (semi-dwarf) variety if you can get one — short, stiff straw is the best defence against the crop falling flat. Ask the dealer or check your recommendation for a named variety that suits your area.

Choose your grain colour for your market: white teff usually fetches the best price; brown/red types are hardier and fine for home food. Both grow in exactly the same way.

Buy only a little seed — teff is dust-fine, so a handful sows a big plot and a small bag goes a long way. Get clean, certified seed from a trusted dealer, not grain scooped from an old store, which carries weed seed and disease.

Buy the modest fertiliser your recommendation gives — mainly phosphorus (P) to feed the young roots, with only a small amount of nitrogen (N). Teff needs far less feeding than maize, and too much nitrogen makes it fall over.

Store seed and fertiliser dry, off the floor, and away from food, water and children. Keep the label and the receipt in case the seed turns out poor.

Use the fertiliser and the amount your recommendation gives — mostly phosphorus (P), with only a modest helping of nitrogen (N). Don't add extra 'for luck'.

Spread it evenly over the whole plot, like sprinkling flour by hand — patchy fertiliser gives patchy, uneven growth.

Work it into the topsoil as you make the final fine tilth, in the last three days before you sow, right up to sowing day, so it is mixed in and ready for the roots.

Keep nitrogen small for the rest of the season — do not plan a big nitrogen top-dressing later, or the crop will lodge.

Sow onto a fine, firm, moist bed on a calm, still day — wind blows the dust-fine seed into drifts. Moist soil helps the seed stick and come up fast.

Mix the seed with dry sand or fine dry soil — about three or four parts sand to one part seed. This bulks up the tiny seed so your hand spreads it evenly, and so you can see where it has already fallen.

Scatter it by hand (broadcast) as you walk the plot, swinging an even arc. Broadcast simply means spreading the seed over the surface — not dropping it in holes or rows.

Walk the plot a second time, crossing your first path (criss-cross), so any strip you missed gets covered. An even spread beats a heavy-here, bare-there stand every time.

Barely cover the seed: drag a light branch or a leafy brush over the surface, or lightly tramp or roll it, so the seed is pressed onto the soil with no more than a fingernail's depth of cover (a few millimetres). Never bury it — buried teff seed has no strength to reach the light and simply dies.

Keep the surface just moist (not flooded) until the seed is up in 3-5 days. A hard crust or a dry-out now costs you the stand.

From about 3 days after sowing, when the seedlings first show, walk the plot every 3-4 days. Cross it corner-to-corner so you see the middle, not just the edge by the path.

Watch the young stand come up evenly, and note any bare or thin patches early — while there is still time in the season to re-sow them.

Teff shoot fly — look for 'deadheart': the central leaf of a young seedling turns yellow, dries, and pulls out easily while the outer leaves stay green; plants look stunted and throw out weak side-shoots. Worst on late, thin, slow-growing patches. ('Deadheart' just means the killed central shoot.)

Damping-off — look for: seedlings that suddenly flop over with a thin, dark, water-soaked pinch right at the soil line, and bare patches that spread in the wettest, most crowded spots.

If shoot fly or damping-off is building, open its guide. For damping-off, ease off any watering and improve the drainage on the wet patches straight away — a just-moist (not soggy), not-too-thick bed is the best prevention.

About a week after sowing (once seedlings are clearly up), walk the whole plot and look down at the green haze of young teff.

Judge how evenly it covers the ground. A good stand is an even carpet with few bare gaps; a poor one is thick in some spots and bare in others.

Ask yourself: has about 7 in every 10 of the plot come up in an even cover (70%)? Look hardest at the low, wet spots and any hard-crusted patches.

An even, roughly 7-in-10-or-better cover → good. Carry on.

If it fails — much less than 7 in 10, with big bare patches — the bed was likely too loose, too dry, crusted, or the seed was buried. Re-broadcast the bare patches (or the whole plot) onto a freshly firmed, moist surface while there is still season left — and this time firm the bed and barely cover the seed.

Start weeding from about 2-3 weeks after sowing, while the weeds are still small and the crop is short.

Hand-weed — pull them, or hoe very shallowly. Teff has fine, shallow roots right near the surface, so deep or rough hoeing tears them up; in a broadcast (scattered) stand, careful hand-pulling is often safest.

Get the weeds out roots and all where you can — chopping only the tops lets many grow straight back.

Weed a second time a couple of weeks later if weeds return, before the crop closes over. Once the dense stand shades the ground, it smothers most new weeds for you.

Walk the crop every 3-4 days, crossing it corner-to-corner. Look over the leaves, and part the stand to check down at the plant bases and in the soil cracks.

Red teff worm — look for: reddish-brown caterpillars hiding at the plant bases or in soil cracks by day, with cut seedlings, ragged stripped leaves, and thinned patches. The damage shows most in the morning, after their night feeding.

Grasshoppers — look for: ragged, chewed leaf edges and holes, worst on the field edge nearest grassland, and hoppers that jump up as you walk through the crop.

Teff rust — look for: small orange to reddish-brown powdery spots (pustules) scattered on the leaves that rub off as rusty powder on your fingers, with yellowing around them. It likes cool, dewy, humid weather and lush, over-fed stands.

Note what you see and where. If any is building past a light scattering, open its guide. Rust is worse on lush, high-nitrogen crops — one more reason to keep feeding modest.

(Only if you can irrigate.) From about 6 weeks after sowing, as the seed heads emerge and flower, do not let the crop go short of water.

Water every 7-10 days, more often in heat and on light soils that dry fast; keep the soil moist but not flooded.

Check with a finger: water when the top finger-joint of soil (about 3-5 cm) is dry. Don't wait for the crop to wilt at flowering — by then the grains are already lost.

Water gently — a hard flood on a tall, heading crop can knock it flat (lodge it). Let the water soak in rather than rush through and lay the crop over.

Walk the crop every 3-4 days through heading and flowering, looking over the top leaves and at the standing crop as a whole.

Teff rust — look for: orange to reddish-brown powdery pustules spreading onto the upper leaves, with yellowing and early drying. Heavy rust on the top leaves starves the filling grain — if it is spreading on a susceptible crop in cool, dewy weather, open the rust guide.

Lodging — look for: patches where the crop is leaning over or beginning to lie flat, especially after wind, rain or a heavy watering. Lodging means the stems bend or fall so the heads end up near or on the ground.

Note which patches lean first — over-fed, over-lush, over-thick or wind-exposed spots go first. There is no fixing a lodged crop, so from here hold off nitrogen, water gently, and be ready to harvest promptly once it ripens.

Check the crop about once a week from 10 weeks after sowing, and more often as it nears ripe and after any wind or storm.

Lodging — look for: patches leaning or lying flat. A lodged crop dries unevenly, is hard to cut, and loses grain — if big patches go down and the grain is nearly ripe, cut those patches early rather than lose them.

Shattering — look for: ripe seed falling off the head when you brush it, and loose grain on the ground under the heads. Shattering means the ripe seed drops on its own — the riper it gets, the more you lose, so it is a signal to harvest.

Birds — look for: flocks working the heads and empty, stripped panicles, worst at the field edges and in the morning and evening. Scare them off and bring the harvest forward if they are hitting hard.

Red teff worm — look for: reddish-brown caterpillars and chewed heads as the grain goes soft and milky. Head smudge — look for: dark, sooty, smudgy discolouration on the ripening heads and grain, worst in warm, humid weather and where harvest is delayed.

The answer to almost all of these is the same: harvest at first full yellowing, promptly — don't leave a ripe teff crop standing.

From about 13 weeks after sowing, check the crop's colour every few days.

Ripe teff looks like this: the whole plant and seed head turn yellow / straw-coloured, and the grain in the head is hard (not soft or milky) when you press it between your nails.

When most of the crop has reached full straw-yellow with hard grain, it is at physiological maturity — the grain has finished filling and stopped adding weight. Harvest now (see the cutting task).

If it fails — still green, or patchy-yellow with soft grain — it is not ready. Wait a few days and check again. Do not cut green teff: the grain shrivels and you lose both weight and quality.

But if the crop is already lodging badly, shattering, or under heavy bird attack before it is fully ripe, cut it anyway — saving the grain beats waiting for a perfect colour.

Harvest at first full yellowing — the whole plant and heads straw-coloured, the grain hard — for most varieties around 3½ months (about 100 days) after sowing. Don't wait for the very last green head.

Cut the plants low, at the soil surface, with a sickle — teff is harvested whole, straw and all, not just the head.

Cut in the cool of the morning if you can, while a little dew still holds the grain on the heads — this loses less to shattering than cutting in the dry heat of midday.

Handle the cut crop gently and lay it down carefully — every rough shake drops tiny grain on the ground.

Carry it promptly to a clean threshing floor — a swept, smoothed floor or a tarpaulin — where it can dry a few days ready to thresh. Don't leave cut teff lying in the field to be rained on, shattered, or eaten.

Thresh on a clean, sealed surface — a tarpaulin, plastic sheet, or a swept and smoothed floor — so the dust-fine grain cannot fall through cracks or pick up soil, stones and animal dirt. Never thresh teff on bare, cracked ground.

Thresh by beating the heads with a stick, or by having animals tread the crop, on that clean surface — light beating shakes the tiny grain free.

Winnow the grain: on a breezy day, pour it from a height so the wind carries off the light chaff and dust while the clean, heavier grain falls in a heap. Repeat until it is clean.

Dry the grain hard in the sun on the mat or tarpaulin (never bare ground), turning it so it dries evenly.

Bite test: bite a few grains — dry-enough grain cracks; grain that squashes is still too wet. Only clean, well-dried grain (it cracks when bitten) is safe to store.

If it fails the bite test (the grain squashes instead of cracking) → spread it back out and dry it more before storing, or it will heat, mould and spoil in the store.

Store the dry, clean grain in clean, dry bags or a sealed container, off the floor and out of the sun. Kept dry, teff holds for years and resists most storage pests.