Heads Up! -Sorghum Panicle Bagging

All is well in the land of sorghum. Temperatures have increased along with the workload, but I’m still happy to go to work every morning! College Station has gotten a small bit of rain lately, but if we don’t get some showers soon, we may be looking at irrigating in the future. In the field, most of the sorghum has finished up its vegetative growth and is now focusing on reproduction.



Sorghum panicle

The heads (called the panicles) have emerged on most of the plots and are beginning to flower. It’s at this point that we treat the sorghum differently depending on the test being conducted. In general, we put pollinating bags on the panicles so that the maturing head will be fertilized only by what we want. This is important for sorghum because it is wind pollinated and in a strong wind, pollen can be carried up to a fourth of a mile. The pollination bags that we use are brown paper with a variety of different colored stripes and are designed to withstand the elements.

Up till now, bagging has been split into selfing and female bagging. For selfing plots, we bag panicles as they emerge from the boot but before they reach the flowering stage. Depending on the test, we bag anywhere from four to twenty-five heads per plot and any color bag is acceptable. With selfing blocks, after they’ve been bagged, that’s that.



Female bag for June 12th

Female rows are handled a bit differently. I should point out too, that in some areas of the field, the rows alternate between male and female (the reasoning for this will become clearer once I explain crossing in the next post). In these female rows, we bag panicles that have reached tip flowering, meaning only the very end has fully matured. The tip is removed and a plain brown bag with the date written on it is placed over the head and stapled with a single fold. These bags remain on the panicles until it’s time to cross.

You may be thinking “Is this really important enough to devote a whole post to?” And the answer is without a doubt, yes! Although this is a simple task, it is vital and consumes most of our time. In a single morning, we can go through several thousand bags. Every 2-3 days (everyday if we can) the rows are walked, checking for new panicles that are ready. It’s tedious sometimes, but the amount of bagging will taper off soon and we can focus crossing.

In my next post (which will be coming sooner than later hopefully), I’ll explain crossing in finer detail. Till then, catch you on the flip side!