Does anyone here grow there own millet? Can i just try and grow some french white or something out of my main finch mix? Need some info. I tried before with red panicum and other stuff outta my finch mix but it justs grew to about 6 inches and then dies.
Ben
Growing your own milk seed or millets.
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GregH
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- Posts: 1671
- Joined: 17 Feb 2009, 08:20
- Location: Brisbane
- Location: Chapel Hill, Brisbane Qld
I've had no luck with annuals as most aren't adapted to where I live. I tried "French millet" once and it got to about 4cm and set seed as the day-length is too short in the tropics. There are a couple of "millets" that I do grow for the birds which grow in temperate regions too. I have good luck with perennial Settaria sp. like palm grass and fox-tail millet. They won't give you the yield of the annuals but they are reliable. From the rice paddies around here there are sometimes pure stands of various Echinochloa sp which I'm sure could be cultuivated. I believe that "Japanes millet" is an Echinochloa sp. if you're looking for seed to try.
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fincher
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- Posts: 981
- Joined: 17 Nov 2008, 19:09
- Location: Perth, Western Australia
- Location: perth western austalia
with most of ur millets they grow best in the long hotter days like summer soo i normally plant mine about mid spring or so nd keep planten a month apart until january or so depends nd get a pretty goo supply from that plus also have got access to other seeden grasses in pots then every week go to me dads nd raid the very big vacant block/bush land for all sorts of grasses and also nesting materials all within a 5 min walk from his place lucky its semi rural
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GregH
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- Posts: 1671
- Joined: 17 Feb 2009, 08:20
- Location: Brisbane
- Location: Chapel Hill, Brisbane Qld
Getting the best green seed relies on you knowing how to recognise a grass in flower. 
The photo shown here is of a typical grass (rice) in full flower (ie. at anthesis). Anthesis or flowering is said to have occurred when the lemma and palea (future husks) separate and the anthers are exserted for about an hour before their pollen is emptied and they dry and wither. Self pollination occurs just before or during the period of flower opening. Flowering usually occurrs mid-morning but it is species and variety dependant. Cell walls start to form within the liquid endosperm of the developing seed about 5-7 days after anthesis. Millet, like rice, will start to flower from the top of the panicle and work down over a period of 5-12 days depending on the size of the panicle. This means that by the time the panicle has finished flowering the top will be mature which is a headache for anyone trying to grow grain of a particular quality and that is exactly what you're trying to do! If you wait about 3-4 days after the last last of the flowers have gone through anthesis then you will capture the maximum number of spikelets at the milky stage. The more mature flowers will still be good as a suppliment similar to soaked seed which is easier to digest than the dry staple you get at the store anyway.
I'm lucky enough to have seed growing around where I live all year round and have so few birds that I can individually pick heads and keep them in the refrigerator and feed them off over 3-4 days before I need to get more. If you aren't in that position then you will have to make a call when you believe your crop is at the optimal stage. Most people who want to cut and freeze in bulk would do so about 2 weeks after 50% of the crop has flowered. Picking that 50% mark is an art rather than a science but you'll get your "eye in" over the flowering time I'm sure
Hope this helps rather than confuses you!
The photo shown here is of a typical grass (rice) in full flower (ie. at anthesis). Anthesis or flowering is said to have occurred when the lemma and palea (future husks) separate and the anthers are exserted for about an hour before their pollen is emptied and they dry and wither. Self pollination occurs just before or during the period of flower opening. Flowering usually occurrs mid-morning but it is species and variety dependant. Cell walls start to form within the liquid endosperm of the developing seed about 5-7 days after anthesis. Millet, like rice, will start to flower from the top of the panicle and work down over a period of 5-12 days depending on the size of the panicle. This means that by the time the panicle has finished flowering the top will be mature which is a headache for anyone trying to grow grain of a particular quality and that is exactly what you're trying to do! If you wait about 3-4 days after the last last of the flowers have gone through anthesis then you will capture the maximum number of spikelets at the milky stage. The more mature flowers will still be good as a suppliment similar to soaked seed which is easier to digest than the dry staple you get at the store anyway. I'm lucky enough to have seed growing around where I live all year round and have so few birds that I can individually pick heads and keep them in the refrigerator and feed them off over 3-4 days before I need to get more. If you aren't in that position then you will have to make a call when you believe your crop is at the optimal stage. Most people who want to cut and freeze in bulk would do so about 2 weeks after 50% of the crop has flowered. Picking that 50% mark is an art rather than a science but you'll get your "eye in" over the flowering time I'm sure
Hope this helps rather than confuses you!
......I'm a Forester, so Grasses arent exactly my thing 
......give me a tree & I'm right ;) ......all the same language though 
, nerdy as it is 