Learning how to plant browntop Jean Francois Millet ( Urochloa ramosa ) is the first step toward get this useful yet attractive millet specie at home . Treat it as an annual plant or grow it perennially within USDA works hardiness zones 7 to 11 , where it disseminate over time to form dense clumps .
Browntop Jean Francois Millet may not be as showy as other perennial grasses , but it provides a good seed of food for violent birds and is a low - sustenance plant , requiring small more than regular watering once found . However , it is of import to startle browntop millet under the in force possible condition to ensure good germination and increment early on .
About Browntop Millet
Browntop millet is a tender - season grass native to Southeast Asia , but it is grown wide in parts of Africa , Australia and India as a forage harvest and has head for the hills cultivation across the southeastern United States .
Commercially , it is grow as silage or beast feed or for use inbird seedmixes . Browntop millet is also grown as a stain remedy plant to move out zinc and take contaminants from the stain .
In home garden , grow browntop millet as a intellectual nourishment source for food grain - love birds such as quail or song skirt . It is not as showy as ornamental millet cultivar such asPurple Majestypearl millet ( Pennisetum glaucum’Purple Majesty ' ) , but it still adds visual interest group to prominent garden beds .
Tip
Browntop Jean Francois Millet belong to to the plant family Poaceae , which includes millet change such as proso millet ( Panicum miliaceum ) , finger millet ( Eleusine coracana ) and foxtail millet ( Setaria italica ) , although it is not typically grown as a grain metric grain intellectual nourishment crop .
Browntop millet can reach a fledged height of 3 fundament with thick , grassy stalk lined with light green , grassy blades that resemble the leafage of a corn whisky plant . It blossom in recent summer and fall , bring forth long efflorescence that develop into germ heads fulfill with small millet grain .
Planting Browntop Millet
Browntop millet adapts to a full cooking stove of growing condition , but it performs easily when grown in full sun with neutral to acid , well - debilitate grunge . It is very drought tolerant and thrives in high hotness and poor dirt .
Browntop millet germinates in five days and will reach a mature size of it in just 60 day , so it makes a highly efficacious weed stifling plant as well as a cover crop .
Growing Browntop Millet
Browntop millet needs very little care once demonstrate , although watering will aid keep it look fresh . lachrymation and pruning are the most significant aspects of grow all types of millet , but specially browntop millet because it can take on a ragged appearance as it ripen .
Browntop Jean Francois Millet will freely reseed if the seeds are left to ripen on the plant . Although this can be desirable in sure locations , the reseeding and rapid emergence of browntop millet can allow it to become invasive in warm , moist climates .
