Jap Millet

[deltadukman]

Is it too late to plant. Just got acess to a new hole this weekend and we are planning on bushhogging and discing next weekend. It floods up in the rainy season when the creek gets up but with the lack of rain i can see it not getting as high as quick so I might have a few more weeks of dryer ground. Can you plant it on damp/moist ground or does it have to be a mud flat. What rate would you plant and what to fertilize with? Thanks

[dukmisr2005]

your running on the edge of late but its worth a try.. i have plenty of jap millet left.. pm if interested..

[deltadukman]

If it is kinda late, what else could i plant? Just realized we could get a tractor in there.

[dukmisr2005]

jap millet is a 60 to 90 day millet.. brown top is a 55 to 60 day millet.. if its near water and you can keep some moisture there you should be ok.. i would plant it at about 50lbs / acre this late.. fertilize with 300 lbs of 13-13-13..

[SB]

Japanese millet will do fine planted right now and browntop will too. I would not want to wait much longer though. They both need 60 days to mature, but I have seen them put on a seed head in 45 days. Find out what the average frost date is for your area and count backwards 60 calendar days. That date would be the latest you would want to plant it.

15-20 lbs/acre should be ample. If planted in good soil moisture, the millet should be up in 5 days. Japanese millet doesn't have to be planted on a mud flat.

Keep us posted on how it turns out.

Best regards,

[Hooded Merganzer]

At what point do you flood the millet and to what level
do you flood it to?

[SB]

When flooding for ducks/hunting, flood just prior to duck season. Gradually increase the water level over the season to provide fresh food for the ducks.

When flooding during the growing period, a shallow flood is good. Be sure not to over top the Jap millet with water. That will kill it.

[Hooded Merganzer]

Thanks for the info.

[hawkeye]

I usually plant my jap millet the latter part of August if I have moisture. If you plant it now, you will have a lot of spoiled or germinated seed. I have planted it the latter part of September(just experimenting and getting rid of some seed) and it made a head. It wasn't a bumper crop, but it did make a head. If it were me, I would do anything to the ground right now. I'd wait until late summer to disk it so you don't do away with all your moisture. That time of the year you still might have to have a rain to get it up. I have found that a 50 lb bag spread EVENLY over about 3-4 acres does better than being planted thicker than that.

[SB]

Good Information, Hawkeye. I, too, like to plant mine on a mudflat on or about August 1. If I'm planting into dry dirt, I'll plant it at the end of July to give me a little more time and chance to get a rain on it.

I planted some browntop with a drill one time the last week of August. It got only one rain and made a good crop.

Have ya'll checked prices on millet yet? The best price I've found is $19.00/bag.

[hawkeye]

Guys, I remember when jap millet used to be 40 dollars a bag. My experience was always to fertilize twice, once at planting, and then a big dose at about 6 inches. Also, be ready to put 2,4-D out once, maybe twice depending on the situation. Latter part of the year when the fall armyworms get here, they just love pasture grasses, which includes millet. So you might have to deal with them. Small dose of pyrethroid will do the trick, these are much easier to deal with than the ones in other crops. Beware of quail that might be using the millet. Pyrethroids could kill all the bugs that they were feeding on, and cause them to go elsewhere, and they don't need that, they need all the help we can give them.

[HappyHunter]

We normally plant jap millet with a drill (15 lbs. per acre) about the middle of August but no earlier. The problem with planting it earlier in July or August is if it gets a rain and comes up and no more rains come, it normally will burn up because of lack of moisture. If you plant near the middle of August you hopefully will get a rain soon enough for the plant to be able to mature before the first frost, but that is no guarantee. Our experience in planting this time of year is that the seed will mature and shatter and spoil due to rains before you ever have a chance to hunt over it.