We have an increase interest in planting grain sorghum (milo) in Thomas County this year. Here is some going into a field this week (above). Milo performs best on soils suitable for corn production and is more tolerant than corn to short term drought stress. We need to have 65 degree soil temperature for five consecutive days to play. Many of our plantations use the seed for wildlife. Most, if not all, of our fields planted in milo are non-irrigated, and this changes things in terms of plant population. Without water, we don’t want to plant too much with higher input need. Here are planting population recomendedations from UGA Grain Agronomist Dr. Dewey Lee:
Dryland Fields
- 40-45K in very sandy soils
- 50-60K in sandy loams and 60K in heavier soils.
Irrigated Fields
- 60 to 75K in very sandy soils
- 75 to 100K in sandy loam soils
- 100K + in heavier soils
Twin row grain sorghum
We’ve also looked at twin row. Dr. Lee says we can increase our population for twin row sorghum. It is not recommended to go any higher than 10%. Basically, we want to divide the single row population in half and plant that in both twin rows.
Example: 100,000 seeds per acre is roughly 7 seeds per row foot (6.89) in 36 inch rows. Set the twin row planter (if its is set on 36″ row centers) to drop 3.5 seeds per row.
Below is a table from the Planting Guide for Row Crops in GA that can help when looking at plant population.
Thomas County Ag 