Chiwapa: How many days until heading?

[Wingman]

Chiwapa I planted on July 12 is heading. Some red heads already so I think it started last week, which would be 49 days.

Been growing in moist to flooded conditions since day 1.

[duckdawg27]

I did a test planting so I could vary the conditions and see what worked best.
Various locations: Mud Flat, dry tilled earth, pond edges, potting soil. Some top sown...some covered.
Planted in July......None of it every came up so I guess heading out is out of the question.
The Jap Millet I planted in the same locations came up. I wanted a side by side comparison.

[Wingman]

I put Jap and chiwapa in the same spreader. Tried to mix it 50/50. Jap started heading after 28 days. It has now matured. Chiwapa started heading about 3 weeks later. I will post up when I've got mature seed.

One intersting thing I've noticed is that my chiwapa has tillered nicely and I've counted 8-12 heads per plant on most of it. If there are 100 seed per head, then that's a pretty good yield off of one lonely little millet seed.

[Wingman]

Checked it today and some of the plants on the drier spots are getting mature seeds. The majority of the first heads are still filling out on the other plants.

I did find a large number of chinch bugs in the heads and on the stems. Last year chinch bugs wiped out a 5 acre plot of chiwapa I had. The only difference is that this year I'm keeping it flooded to muddy and they aren't able to get to the roots. The plants seem to be tolerating the chinch bugs well this year.

I also noticed treefrogs everywhere. They were hanging out on the shady side of the chiwapa stems when I checked around 1 PM. I wonder if they eat chinch bugs?

[Wingman]

Majority of it has matured. Roughly 100 days.