Growing Sorghum in Australia: The Complete Guide

Sorghum is a moderate grain & staple to grow, needing full sun with low–moderate watering, drought-tolerant once established.

Sorghum is a moderate grain & staple to grow, and this article walks through everything behind our one-page printable guide in a good deal more depth than a single card allows.

Every crop earns its place in a garden differently, and sorghum is no exception. At a glance, it's rated moderate, with a sun of full sun; water of low–moderate, drought-tolerant once established; soil ph of 5.5–7.5 — details that matter more once you're actually planning around them than they do on a first read. The rest of this article works through exactly what each of those means day to day, with the reasoning behind each recommendation rather than just the recommendation itself.

Climate and Timing Considerations

Australia's climate zones change growing timing more than most general advice accounts for. Cool temperate zones (Tasmania, the Victorian highlands, southern NSW) have recurring frost risk well into what other zones call spring, which compresses the safe planting window for frost-tender plantings. Warm temperate zones (Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth) sit closest to what general advice assumes by default. Subtropical zones (Brisbane, northern NSW) rarely see frost at all, and the growing calendar shifts as a result. Our site-wide zone setting adjusts the advisory note shown on the Planting Calendar for exactly this reason — worth setting once if you haven't already. The same zone setting also feeds the Harvest Calendar, so both ends of the growing cycle reflect wherever you actually garden, rather than a generic Australia-wide average.

• Cool Temperate (TAS, VIC highlands, southern NSW, ACT): a short warm season can leave heads unripe — sow once the soil warms and choose an early-maturing variety.
• Warm Temperate (Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, coastal NSW/WA): sow October to November; a hot, dry summer suits sorghum well.
• Subtropical (Brisbane, northern NSW, coastal QLD): close to ideal — sow September to December, and watch for midge and caterpillars in humid weather.

The grain head

Sorghum grows as a tall, corn-like stalk topped with a dense head of round grains. Unlike wheat it loves heat and copes with dry spells — but ripening heads are a magnet for birds.

Getting Sorghum Into the Ground

Method. Sow seed in rows once the soil is warm, then thin seedlings to 10–15cm apart.

Soil. Free-draining, moderately fertile. Tolerates poorer, drier soil and a wider pH range than corn.

Timing. Sow in spring to early summer once soil is reliably above 18°C (around September–December in the subtropics, October–December further south).

These few details do most of the actual work, more than any single trick or shortcut would.

Day-to-Day Care

A few things matter most here:

• Water until established, then it copes with dry spells; water during head fill in hot weather.
• Weed well for the first 4–6 weeks while seedlings are small.
• Dig in compost before sowing — heavy nitrogen delays ripening and encourages lodging.
• Bag heads in paper or mesh as the grain fills to protect them from birds.

These aren't equally important, but all of them are worth building into your routine — bagging the heads matters most, since birds can strip an unprotected planting as it ripens. Treat this list as a routine to build rather than a one-off checklist, and it becomes second nature within a season or two.

What Can Go Wrong

The key things to get right:

• Birds — parrots, finches and cockatoos target ripening heads; bag or net them.
• Head pests — sorghum midge and caterpillars damage developing grain in warm, humid areas; sow on time and check heads at flowering.
• Aphids — sticky honeydew and sooty mould on leaves; encourage predators or wash off with water.
• Toxic to grazing animals — young, drought- or frost-stressed sorghum can contain prussic acid; never graze or feed it fresh to livestock.

None of these are complicated on their own, but skipping one is a common source of trouble — the livestock warning in particular is worth remembering, since fresh young or stressed growth can be dangerous to grazing animals. Treat this list as a routine to build rather than a one-off checklist, and it becomes second nature within a season or two.

Harvest and Storage

Signs. Grain is plump, full-coloured and too hard to dent with a fingernail, several weeks after flowering.

Method. Cut heads with a length of stem, dry in a shed 1–2 weeks, then rub or thresh the grain free and winnow.

Curing. Dry grain until it is hard and brittle — damp grain moulds in storage.

Storage. Whole grain, cool, dry and airtight, 1–2+ years. Milled flour keeps only a few months.

None of these are difficult individually — the value is in getting all of them right at once.

Preserving. See Dehydrating for drying grain fully before storage.

Companions & rotation

Sorghum is often grown alongside beans or pumpkin, which add nitrogen and shade the soil between rows. Rotating with a legume the season before benefits the following crop, and allowing a gap before sowing small seeds into sorghum residue avoids slowed germination — this matters more over multiple seasons than in any single one.

Related Guides

If sorghum suits your garden, these related guides in the same category are worth a look too:

• Corn
• Wheat
• Oats
• Barley
• Quinoa

That's the full picture behind sorghum. The printable A4 version of this guide — with the quick-reference gauges and diagram in one page — is available on the main guide page below. As with every guide on this site, this is general information based on our own research and experience, not professional advice — your specific soil, climate, and circumstances will always vary from ours to some degree.

Beyond the printable card, our Planting Calendar and Harvest Calendar tools will show a zone-adjusted note for sorghum specifically, and the Companion Planting Checker covers companion pairings in more detail.

Frequently Asked Questions