Corn and relatives - The Manual of Seed Saving - page 111

cies by 1000 ft. (300 m) or more. Millet can be mechanically isolated with row cover, as with amar-
anth.
GROWING FOR SEED Sow millet in spring, after all danger of frost is past (it is very sensitive to frost);
plant in 10 in. (25 cm) rows, 10 in. (25 cm) apart within the row. Sowing time and planting distances
for sorghum are the same as for corn (maize).
HARVEST Sorghum requires a long season to ripen seed. Millet seeds are ripe 60 to 90 days after sow-
ing, so seed sown in late spring means harvesting in mid to late summer. Seeds of proso millet gener-
ally do not fall from the plant, so they can be allowed to fully ripen on the plant before harvesting, and
there is no need to further dry stalks after harvesting; for proso and foxtail millet, it is likely that birds
will come to snack on seeds before the harvest. Cover well with bird netting. There is no such danger
with sorghum, as seeds are attached firmly to the plant.
SELECTION CHARACTERISTICS Compared to the cereal grains, millet is practically an afterthought in
Europe, and this has been the case for many centuries. There is not a lot of knowledge, therefore, about
growing and selecting seed in temperate climates. Potential selection criteria:
• earliness and tendency to produce ripe seed (tropical selections do not tend to ripen well in temperate
climates)
• stability
• proso millet: tillering, synchronous ripening of seed, size and flavor of seed, many highly productive
panicles
• sorghum: ideal traits for intended use (popcorn, porridge, broom-making, etc.), seed size
• foxtail millet: compact ears
DISEASES AND PESTS The only problem we at Arche Noah have had in growing garden-sized patches
of millet and sorghum are the aforementioned birds, which can be thwarted with the help of bird net-
ting.
CULTIVATION HISTORY Eastern Asia is the center of genetic diversity for proso millet, but the area of
origin is unknown. It is speculated that it was domesticated in northern China, where the oldest finds
in the world reside (4th millennium BC ). Seeds have been found in Switzerland dating back to the
Stone Age, and millet was an important grain crop of the Neolithic period in eastern and central
Europe. Since millet is highly drought tolerant, it was an important crop in poor, dry soils in the
Middle Ages. Millet cultivation in Europe all but ended with the introduction of the potato, and it is
now little more than a relict crop. Foxtail millet is also not among the early grain crops of the Middle
East, instead being domesticated (probably) in China (5500-5000 BC ) and later in Europe (2nd millen-
nium BC , finds in central Europe and France). Durra-type sorghum is widely grown from Nigeria to
Ethiopia, where it is eaten cooked like rice. Broomcorn varieties of sorghum were once frequently
grown in far southern German-speaking areas like southern Styria, Austria, and South Tyrol, Italy.
Sorghum bicolor is mostly grown as livestock feed; it was gathered as early as 6000 BC in southern
Egypt and was domesticated in the Sudan and Chad.