Sorghum seeds growing into corn

This year I have and are still experimenting with growing gluten free grains. So far it looks like sorghum will be one of the winners, but some of my sorghum seeds has grown into what looks like corn. It’s nice corn, so I am not complaining, but I wonder how it happened. I know for sure I didn’t plant corn. I never grow corn in our garden, so I don’t own any corn seeds for sowing.
Has anyone had this happening to them?
Any advice on growing gluten free grains in a desert climate?

Did you plant the seeds one by one and are sure there was no corn? That is quite a mystery.  By the way, how ate you going to hull the sorghum? All the equipments I find are big machines. I would like to find some attachment that goes with the Kichenaid preferably. I don't think the milling one for making flour can be used directly with whole sorghum seeds.

May Lotito wrote:Did you plant the seeds one by one and are sure there was no corn? That is quite a mystery.  By the way, how ate you going to hull the sorghum? All the equipments I find are big machines. I would like to find some attachment that goes with the Kichenaid preferably. I don't think the milling one for making flour can be used directly with whole sorghum seeds.

Yes, I planted the seeds one by one and there was no corn in there, so it’s a mystery. I have send an email to the company I bought the seeds from.
As for the seeds. I am not planning to hull the seeds. I have a heavy duty mill, and the hull, like bran creates larger particles. Then I use my electric sifter to separate the hull/bran from the flower. If it turns out not to work with sorghum I will figure something out.
I do the same when I make cassava and sweet potato flour. Those are boiled and freeze dried first and then goes into the mill and then the sifter. I get really nice flour out of it.

Wow, you have a whole array of professional tools there.
I grow broomcorn sorghum mostly for crafting, chicken feed and soil improvement. The seeds have very hard hulls almost feel like sand grits. At one time I was able to pop the seeds but the result didn't repeat very well. I grow some Mennonite sorghum this year. Although the seeds have thinner hulls they seem to a lot smaller. Have you tried millets? They are gluten-free and easy to grow too.

Corn seeds look nothing like sorghum seeds so it would be hard to get them confused.  

I feel that what happen is some corn seeds that did not germinate from previous years has germinated.

This also could be that a bird or a harvester ant planted those seeds for you.

What ever happened that is a really nice benefit.

Anne Miller wrote:Corn seeds look nothing like sorghum seeds so it would be hard to get them confused.  

I feel that what happen is some corn seeds that did not germinate from previous years has germinated.

This also could be that a bird or a harvester ant planted those seeds for you.

What ever happened that is a really nice benefit.

The problem with this is, that 1. Only thing grown previously in that bed was garlic and we don’t use corn except in our chicken feed. So the birds would have had to steal them from the chickens and I don’t see that happening. It could maybe have been the squirrels. It’s just strange that they germinated at the same time as the sorghum, and  grows in the same rows. That said, it’s still nice. We don’t eat corn, but our chickens do, so it will be a nice treat for them.

May Lotito wrote:Wow, you have a whole array of professional tools there.
I grow broomcorn sorghum mostly for crafting, chicken feed and soil improvement. The seeds have very hard hulls almost feel like sand grits. At one time I was able to pop the seeds but the result didn't repeat very well. I grow some Mennonite sorghum this year. Although the seeds have thinner hulls they seem to a lot smaller. Have you tried millets? They are gluten-free and easy to grow too.

The Mennonite are actually one of the sorghum I have sown. I have the same seeds as you have in the picture LOL. Anyway, this is an experiment. I am looking for two things. Something that will grow in the hottest 3 months of our desert climate and some that will grow during the rest of the year. We are in grow zone 10b, so we grow food all year round. We are also 100% gluten free. I divided up several of my 8 x 4 beds into 2 and used them as test plots for gluten free grains.
I sowed three  types of Amaranth (only 1 sprouted), so I got some seedlings from azure standard and those grows nicely, but are getting so top heavy that some broke the stems. Depending on how many seeds I get out of it, I might figure out some kind of support for them. They are about 10’ tall right now.
I also sowed millet and it didn’t sprout. I think it’s too hot for it, and it’s in a dedicated test bed, so hopefully it will sprout during the cold season. We only barely get frost here. I think 36F is the lowest we have ever been.
I have attached a picture of what I put in my test plots. I try to grow something new each year, so I can get to the point of only growing what likes it here. I also use my test beds to start perennials before transplanting them into the forest garden.
As for tools. I inherited some money from my father and used it for 50 yards of compost and mulch, a freeze dryer, a grain mill, a flour sifter, an oil press and some berry plants. I have a mast cell disorder. It means that I get allergic reactions to a lot of things even in trace amounts. This makes it hard for me to eat store bought foods. Because of this I eat almost entirely what we produce on our 1/2 acre. Because we can grow food all year round, we can produce a lot of foods. I have 2 gardens. 1 is a traditional raised bed garden with 17 raised beds, and the other I a food forest garden which produces fruits, berries, herbs and vegetables year round. We only have 1 place that’s not producing food yet, and that’s a hill side, but we need to build stairs first, since it’s hard to access. I am probably going to plant it either with edible succulents or a green chicken feed.

It's a weird problem to have. Corn and sorghum don't naturally cross, and the seeds look nothing alike. Gotta be birds or squirrels. I often get corn growing in random places, pretty sure it was planted by gophers.

Any particular reason you don't eat corn? React to it? Major part of my diet, easy to grow, easy to process into food, high yields on small land area.

Thom Bri wrote:It's a weird problem to have. Corn and sorghum don't naturally cross, and the seeds look nothing alike. Gotta be birds or squirrels. I often get corn growing in random places, pretty sure it was planted by gophers.

Any particular reason you don't eat corn? React to it? Major part of my diet, easy to grow, easy to process into food, high yields on small land area.

Yes, you are right, after reading comments here, I dug down and found a squirrel stash. They probably stole some from the chickens and tried to hide them. It’s kind of funny, because I have been trying all spring to mid summer to grow sunflowers, but the seeds disappeared and got eaten. Now they are popping up all over my garden in random places, so I guess they just didn’t like where I planted them LOL.
As for corn, I am allergic to them, but I am going to dry them whole and then give them back to the birds and squirrels. It’s fair, since they were the ones who planted them. I am keeping the sunflowers though 😂.

Sorghum is a C4 plant so it likes heat and bright light, besides being more drought tolerant than corns. Southern CA sounds very suitable for sorghum growing. I did a small test processing with existing kitchen appliances with a head of recent harvest. From 200g of seeds I got 100g dehulled sorghum grains for cooking. The high-tanin skins are still on and give the Sorghum "rice" trace of astringent taste. Not very palatable for this variety but maybe the Mennonite one will taste better.