Little millet and Sorghum trials

I have been keeping the seeds of little millet for some time now, and also a few seeds of sorghum. Each year some plants of this will come in the backyard and they will give some seeds. This year thought of putting them in some small area to get some more seeds.

Last year I had put seedballs of sorghum in one area (0.01 acre), but could see only a few plants, they also did not survive because of grazing. Generally seedball survival rate is very poor when the rain is not very consistent. Some time, will receive a good rain, after that 3 or 4 days no rain and seeds won't survive.

This time, cleaned one raised bed and put a line using a sharp tool (back side of a hoe which has a pointing head) then seeds were put and then covered with soil. These rows are around 0.5 to 0.75 feet apart. But since the seeds are covered by wet soil, they germinated readily.

25-June-2020

Seeds were put around 10 days back, little millet

Sorghum below

In some cases leaves mulch affects the germination rate, since leaves may fall on to the rows,kept them aside for now, after the plants grow to some size will put it back.

28-July-2020

I did some thinning for little millet, sorghum was left as it is...

20-August-2020

Little millet started flowering, it looks like density is too high for this. At home voluntary little millet plants are much healthier

03-Sept-2020

Little millet has grains, but the plants looks weak, may be they are too crowded and also needed some cowdung treatments.