stretchec
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2016 7:43 pm

Getting rid of sorghum

Hoping maybe someone on here might have some experience in getting rid of sorghum. I purchased a house where the previous owners planted sorghum in the beds around the house. My wife and I want to plant something else but the sorghum has taken everything over, its moving into my lawn now as well.

In the past two weeks I've tried to clear out a single bed. I used 5 gallons of round up on the one medium sized bed. I sprayed, waited, sprayed, tilled up the bed, sprayed, sprayed and tried spraying again. The roundup had no impact. I tried tearing the plants out. However, I'm pulling them from the root and they have a crazy hardy root system. I pulled out a garbage bag full the first time, when they re-sprouted I went a bit more thorough and pulled out 6 additional garbage bags full. Followed by an additional two bags a few days after that. Tomorrow I'll be at it again. I dig them out and wait for new sprouts and dig them out some more.

There has to be a better way. Anyone have any advice that might help me out? It would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

pepperhead212
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Posts: 3053
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:52 pm
Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b

Welcome to the forum!

I hope that you sprayed something safe, if you are growing any food in the area.

Are these beds in full sun, or at least for half of the day? If so, you could try solarization. And, surprisingly, clear plastic works better for this than black; despite the plants growing underneath at first, the sun's
rays heat up the ground better, and eventually kill the weeds, if left on long enough, and sealed around the edges well. There might be some seeds that survive this, but it should kill the roots.

ButterflyLady29
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Posts: 1030
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:12 pm
Location: central Ohio

I had sorghum I planted on purpose to get syrup and seed. Birds ate the seed, frost killed the plants. If it wasn't winter killed it might not be sorghum.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 14208
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

soghum is used as a green manure. some of them can be deep, but sorghum did not have deep roots, it was more like grass. It may not be sorghum.

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!potatoes!
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Posts: 1938
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:13 pm
Location: wnc - zones 6/7 line

sounds more like pampas grass than sorghum.

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Telling us where you are located and showing us a couple pictures of this plant you are dealing with would let us make more informed suggestions.



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