How brooms are made from sorghum. How to knit brooms for a bath correctly? Recommendations from experienced bath attendants. How to knit brooms

Cleanliness is the key to health, and order is above all. This is exactly the phrase that was spoken by the heroes of an old, but still relevant, Soviet cartoon. Various things help us keep our house clean. modern means– vacuum cleaners, rags made from the latest fabrics, unique chemical compositions... But in everyone’s home there is one more item that helps keep the floor clean - this is an ordinary broom. Now it is somewhat different from its “ancestors” in the manufacturing technique and materials used. What are brooms for sweeping the floor made of?

Vacuum cleaners appeared in human everyday life relatively recently, with the beginning of the development of technological progress, but it was the broom that was and remains to this day the very assistant that makes it easy to keep the floor clean.

A traditional broom is a bunch of branches or twigs, used for cleaning apartments and houses, and sometimes adjacent areas. Although the device for sweeping streets is usually called a broom, it is still the closest relative of an ordinary broom. Previously, these bundles of twigs were also used for cleaning wardrobe items, spraying flowers or linen - the broom was simply dipped in water, and housewives fanned with it what needed to be moistened.

Typically, twigs of bushes or stems are used to make a broom. herbaceous plants up to 50 cm long. They are attached to a short or long cutting using special strands, twine, soft branches of trees and shrubs or wire.

On a note! From Old Church Slavonic, Czech and Slovenian languages, broom is translated as “bun”. This is reported in the etymological dictionary of M. Vasmer.

Now a broom can be made from both natural and synthetic materials. Previously, their creation was carried out by people called brooms. There are currently large-scale industrial production– brooms from conveyors go on sale, have become mass products, and their production has certain standards regulated by the document OST 56-31-91.

OST 56-31-91. Sorghum brooms. Technical conditions. Downloadable file (click the link to open the PDF in a new window).

On the territory of Russia, the broom also had cultural significance. Residents believed that a brownie lived in the “crown” of the broom, and in general this object was associated with evil spirits. However, at the same time, it was also considered a talisman for the home, a person’s wealth, and was used for fortune telling.

On a note! Broom in some regions still has important. And in the village of Semeno-Alexandrovka Voronezh region residents do not create simple devices for cleaning the floor, but are real works of art, distinguished by their special beauty. The individual rods are tied here using willow twigs.

Nowadays, a broom is considered a common household tool used for cleaning the floor. It is ideal for cleaning the base from large particles of debris that can clog the vacuum cleaner and cause it to fail. As a rule, a broom is used at one of the stages of major cleaning - first they walk across the floor with it, then they pick up a vacuum cleaner, then comes the final stage of cleaning - washing the floor with a rag.

A good broom should be durable and neat in appearance. Use long time It is not recommended - it is usually thrown away about 10-12 months after purchase. The fact is that if it is made from natural raw materials, the branches dry out and begin to crumble over time. Thus, during cleaning, the broom itself produces more garbage than it is useful.

What are floor brooms made of?

Throughout its centuries-old history, the broom has remained virtually unchanged in appearance - only the materials from which it is made have changed. You can make this cleaning device out of almost anything. Basically, brooms are made from stems and branches of bushes and herbs, and twigs. Most often they are created from special plant– sorghum, but we’ll talk about it a little lower.

To create brooms, the stems of a plant such as chiliga or wild acacia can be used. It has quite strong and flexible shoots. But such a broom is not suitable for cleaning the house because of its density and roughness.

Brooms are also knitted from common wolfberry, a shrub popularly called “wolf berry.” By the way, this is the plant that produces the popular goji berries. But a soft broom can be made from St. John's wort, wormwood, and oregano. If you sweep the floor with such a product, the house will smell fragrant, and moths and other insects will not appear. Spiders could be expelled from a home by sweeping it with a broom made of reed stems. In villages they still use brooms made from nettles and linden branches.

The Slavs often used millet stems to create brooms. But now such products have practically sunk into oblivion - they have been replaced by softer brooms made from broom sorghum.

What is a house broom made of?

Natural raw materials have always been in price. It is environmentally friendly and does not pose a health hazard. That is why natural brooms made from broom sorghum are still used. It is also sometimes called economic.

Sorghum is an annual plant native to hot Africa. However, now it grows in India, America, Europe, Asian countries and Russia. This plant is drought-resistant, is not afraid of lack of moisture, is generally unpretentious in care, and loves warmth. Sorghum has a strong stem that is excellent for broom production.

To make brooms, only mature branches of this plant are used - a kind of panicles. In a temperate climate, they still do not have time to grow, so most of the brooms, one might say, come from the south. The highest quality products are obtained from stems that end their life and dry out on the root. Also, the best raw materials have reddish panicles and red or brown grains. Some growers even leave them on the branches to prove the quality of their product.

On a note! Not only brooms are made from sorghum. The plant is excellent for making paper, starch, and silage. In terms of nutritional properties, it is no worse than corn.

From a business perspective, sorghum is a profitable investment. It grows well, and from 1 hectare of land you can get up to 4 thousand brooms. However, this plant is very fond of pests, which adversely affects the harvest as a whole. Sorghum can ripen to the desired state already cut, which is used by broom producers in the northern regions.

What are brooms for sweeping made of nowadays? Cleaning brushes

Brooms will never go out of use due to the fact that there is a certain number floor coverings that require careful treatment. These are laminate, parquet, some types of tiles (for example, vinyl), etc. In no case should they be cleaned using brute force. And a broom comes in handy here.

Nowadays brooms are also made from polymers. They may have an antistatic brush, a long one plastic handle. They are convenient to work with, and such brooms are also good at collecting dirt from the floor covering. Synthetic products can be used to clean any surfaces, they do not scratch anything, do not generate dust (to avoid the dusting effect when cleaning with a regular broom, you have to wet it), they allow you to reach hard-to-reach places and sweep them well.

Synthetic brooms are used for cleaning both residential premises and local areas. They are purchased by enterprises for cleaning production areas. Their main advantage is durability compared to conventional brooms and lack of fragility.

Most often, synthetic brooms are called brushes - they just look exactly like brushes, bearing little resemblance to a standard and familiar broom. They are usually made of PVC. Their cost is greatly influenced by the quality of the raw materials, the length of the handle and bristles of the brush itself, strength and manufacturer brand.

By the way, in modern artificial brooms the length of the sweeping part (broom) has become much shorter than in their predecessor - the traditional broom. But the handle has become longer and can have a variety of configurations. These brooms are lightweight and easy to clean/storage; they can be treated and disinfected with various chemical compounds.

Table. Types of brushes.

A broom is a simple tool, but requires preparation

A newly purchased broom needs preparation before it can be used to clean the floor. And it is important to prepare it correctly so that it serves well and for as long as possible. Exact instructions for pre-treatment There is no broom, but many people use those that their grandmothers and mothers shared with them.

A new broom can be filled with boiling water, preferably with the addition of a small amount of salt (at the rate of about 1 teaspoon per 1 liter of water). Although some use only 2 tsp. for a 10-liter bucket - this does not make the procedure any worse. Leave the broom in a bucket of water until the liquid cools completely (at least 3 hours). Next, it is dried (preferably in a pressed state).

Advice! For ease of use, the broom whisk can be trimmed - cut it at a slight angle. Then it will be easier to handle hard-to-reach places and corners.

You also need to properly care for the broom so that it lasts as long as possible and does not deteriorate.

1. Store in vertical position This cleaning tool is not recommended. The best option– place the broom after use on horizontal surface. On extreme case The broom is placed in a corner with the sweeping part up.
2. Before using, it is better to soak the broom in a hot salt solution each time.

How to knit brooms

Making a broom is not as simple as it seems at first glance. First of all, ripened sorghum is cut and sent for drying. It is usually done in a dry room where there is good air circulation. The drying time of the material is about 10 days. Next, the sorghum stems are cleared of leaves and excess seeds are removed - this is done with a special comb.

Raw materials are sorted by size - length and thickness of the stems. On average, their consumption to create one broom is 20-35 pieces. The length should be about 85 cm. The width of the panicle is 25-40 cm.

The stems of the plant are tightly pulled together using metal and rubber rings and fastened with special pins. Twine, nylon, wire, and willow branches can also be used. Finished brooms are sent from production for sale.

Making a broom with your own hands

You can grow your own broom in your own garden plot. It is enough to buy sorghum seeds, and by autumn you will have the necessary raw materials. Let's get acquainted with the technology of creating a broom at home.

Step 1. To make a broom with your own hands, sorghum stems are grown in your garden plot. Seeds are planted in the spring.

Step 2. In the fall, when sorghum ripens, its stems are cut off. It is easy to recognize the moment of pruning sorghum - the leaves of the plant begin to turn yellow, and the seeds acquire a reddish color.

Step 3. Large leaves from the sorghum stems are removed - a small panicle remains, which is hung upside down in a dry, ventilated room from the ceiling for proper drying. The drying period is about 10-30 days, but it is better to leave sorghum until spring.

Step 4. Next, the seeds are removed from the sorghum stems - otherwise they will all end up in the room during cleaning. A regular metal bucket will help you cope with the seeds. A sorghum sprig is pushed into the bucket with a broom so that the metal handle of the bucket then rests on its stem. This way the handle is pressed against the bucket and the sorghum is between them. The stem stretches outward, and the seeds all remain in the bucket thanks to the bucket and handle.

Step 5. It's time to form a broom. First, a flat working surface panicles. To do this, all sorghum stems are placed neatly on flat surface. In this case, small branches should be inside the broom, large and powerful stems should be placed outside.

Step 6. To make a broom, you need a rope about 2 m long, which is suspended from some kind of support. A wooden lever is tied to its lower part.

Step 7 A bunch of sorghum is taken, a place is selected where the first knot will be located, and then a loop of suspended rope is made around this place. The rope is fixed by pressing the foot on the lever. The rope is stretched and makes it possible to pull the broom as tightly as possible, which at this time rotates half a turn.

Step 8 After this, a nylon thread is taken and passed through the middle of the sorghum bundle. At the location of the rope, the thread is wrapped around the future broom. The ends of the thread are tied after winding. After tying, the ends are passed through the middle of the bun again and pulled up. Excess threads are cut off.

Trimming excess stems

Step 11 Next, the broom needs to be stitched. The following device is useful, created from two slats connected to each other by a piece of rubber. One of the strips has two holes, and the other has two bolts. The broom is placed between two slats and tightened with bolts. The panicle straightens out well.

Step 12 The stitching will be done according to the principle of sewing shoes - with two threads and an awl.

Step 13 The broom is pierced with an awl and the thread laid at the bottom of the broom is picked up by it and pulled up. The top thread is pulled into the resulting loop. The lower thread is tightened.

Step 14 The entire broom panicle is stitched in the same way in the selected place. The threads are tied at the end. You can knit a couple of rows for reliability. The ends of the thread are hidden inside the broom.

Step 15 Using the same principle, the place on the panicle located below the retaining slats is also stitched. The broom is ready.

Prices for brooms for cleaning

brooms for cleaning

Video – Knitting a broom from sorghum

It’s up to you to decide what will be easier and cheaper – buy a ready-made broom or knit it yourself. But if you make a broom with your own hands and decorate it beautifully, it can become a rather unusual and interesting gift for new residents or good, zealous owners.

Have you ever grown broom sorghum in your garden?

If not, be sure to try it. This is a very necessary crop in the economy. All parts of the sorghum plant can be used: panicles - for making brooms, seeds - for feed for livestock and poultry, and stems - for mulching beds.

Sorghum is a high-yielding plant, national economy it is used as a grain and fodder crop. Sown area different types sorghum in the world is more than 60 million hectares. In Ukraine, it is grown over large areas, mainly in the southern and central regions, since it is a very drought-resistant crop.

But due to global warming climate, sorghum is now developing even in the northern regions of our country.

Broom sorghum: planting and care

When the soil temperature warms up to 15 °C. I sow the seeds in a row method to a depth of 2-4 cm, leaving a distance of 40-50 cm between the rows.

I sow by hand so that there is approximately 2 cm between the seeds. When the seedlings reach a height of 5-7 cm, I thin out the crops, leaving a distance of 5 cm between plants.

I noticed that when the crops are thickened, sorghum lays down.

I do three weedings per season: the first - after the emergence of seedlings, the second - during thinning and the third - when the plants grow to 10-15 cm (at the same time, corrective thinning can be carried out). After this, sorghum begins to grow actively and no longer needs weeding.

At the beginning of the waxy ripeness of the grain, I collect the plants by hand, cutting them off top part by 80-100 cm, almost to the first node. To clear the grain from the whisk, I insert it between the handle and the edge of a galvanized bucket with the top inside the container and jerk it with a sharp movement. All the grain is poured into a bucket, and the panicle is cleaned.

Our pension, as they say, is good, just small. So you have to make money and save money. Land plot, even though the same notorious 6 acres are a great help to us, pensioners. And I have my own greens, not purchased ones, and I can preserve cucumbers and tomatoes for the winter, and I even plant sorghum broom.

I grow sorghum not only to plant brooms, it also blooms beautifully. The plot is transformed in an extraordinary way, it seems that fantastic birds have taken up residence in the garden, and the sorghum panicles are their tails. Yes, and sorghum planting creates a barrier from the wind, and if planted next to cucumber bed, then there is no need to build a support. This unpretentious, heat- and drought-resistant plant grows in almost any soil. Feels great when the temperature rises to 45*C.

But there are still disadvantages: sorghum seedlings can be damaged even with slight frosts, so I plant it together with cucumbers and zucchini when the soil warms up to 12’C. And also weak growth of seedlings: sprouts hatch quickly, and then their growth slows down. Only on the 20-25th day do the sprouts begin to reach for the sun, and during this time the weeds manage to “clog” the planting.

Therefore, it is necessary to plant sorghum in soil that is well cleared of weeds. I carry out pre-sowing cleaning of the beds from weeds by freezing. As soon as the snow melts, I cover the bed, dug under sorghum in the fall, with film, wait for the weeds to grow, open it and leave it for four days. During this time, the weeds die.

I have my own sorghum seeds, so I sow them generously, and then, when the third leaf appears on the shoots, I thin them out.

Sprouts growing in crowded conditions will be weak and will form a thin panicle (which is why sowing is done). But there is no need to place them too far apart from each other; powerful stems are then difficult to tie into a broom. Between the rows I make a gap of 15-25 cm, and between the sprouts - 5-10 cm, I sow in wet soil to a depth of 4-5 cm.

Even a child can take care of broom brooms. The plant does not require any special work: water it as the soil dries, pull out the weeds, and you need to feed it. Once - as soon as the shoots appear, the second - when the sorghum begins to bloom.

I cut sorghum when the inflorescences are fully ripe. By this time, the seeds will become brown or burgundy in color. I dry the cut panicles with stems in the sun or in a dry, ventilated area for 5-7 days. Then I clear the stems of leaves and scoop out the seeds, pour them into glass jar for storage.

Usually 25-30 sorghum panicles are enough for one broom. I tie the rods together with regular twine. Knitting is best done by two people; the rods must be pulled tightly together. Tied broom I immerse it in salted boiling water for 2 hours (2 teaspoons of salt per 10 liters), then place it on a flat surface, pressing it down with something heavy, until it dries completely.

On a note:

Sorghum is grown not only for knitting brooms: it makes excellent silage. Common varieties of broom sorghum: Vavigen 100, Venichnoe 623, Venichnoe early, Donskoe 35, Karlikovoe 45, Tavriyskoe 1.

“They sweep with two brooms” - they said about spouses who constantly quarrel. “Breaking dirty laundry in public - making all scandals in the family accessible to the ears of neighbors. And to prevent this from happening, there is another folk wisdom: “Sweep your trash away and bury it in a corner.” Those who were too curious and liked to pry into other people’s affairs were told: “Everyone should keep his own gates.” Well, about the new bosses: “The new broom sweeps harshly.”

Settled on the city streets. They carefully cut it, and sometimes even knit brooms for the wipers, just like in the “old” times. Waste-free production, nothing less. But this year I really wanted to grow and knit a sorghum broom, which very few people can do without country house and yard. Despite the popularity of such a tool, not everyone has a clear idea of ​​what plant it is made from. And the brooms turn out great - you can sweep the floor and spray the plants with coarse solutions that are too tough to handle.

A little from personal experience of growing sorghum

We didn’t have our own sorghum seeds, but our neighbor shared with great pleasure ready seedlings, which she very unscrupulously pulled from two completely dry rows enclosing a potato plantation. It is worth noting that the rows of sorghum create a good hedge and before the appearance of panicles are not much different from.

(Sorghum seeds are planted almost simultaneously with.)

At first, the planting had to be watered abundantly, since the days were quite hot. The plants seemed to have dried out successfully; some of them were destroyed by the mole cricket. The idea of ​​growing brooms seemed hopeless and everyone conveniently forgot about sorghum.

But it turned out that this plant has amazing ability suspend its growth under unfavorable conditions, such as drought, and catch up as soon as moisture appears. By autumn, our cabbage was separated from the blackcurrant by a fairly even sorghum forest.

Sorghum roots are quite long and removing them from the ground is very problematic; you can’t do it without a shovel.

How to knit a sorghum broom

0) We managed to start harvesting sorghum only at the end of September. Not all the plants have ripened; in half of the panicles, the grains have not acquired a reddish tint. Almost all of these plants turned out to be unsuitable for forming a broom, because A dense stem under the leaves did not form and the panicles fell off at the first node.

Of course, you can try to straighten very bent panicles after “steaming” them in boiling water... If there are only a few of them, it’s easier to throw them away.

1) It is most convenient to cut plants with pruning shears or a sickle.

To form brooms, leave a stem about a meter long from the top of the panicle.

3) Before further drying (it takes 10-14 days), it is worth freeing the crop from leaves.

sorghum without leaves

The drying process can be speeded up if you have a bathhouse on site.

4) The mice helped a little with threshing the grain during the drying process. But an amazing result was obtained using an old, slightly dented iron bucket.

threshing sorghum using a bucket

It is better not to use a plastic bucket for such an operation, so as not to damage it. Each broom had to be pulled several times with one hand between the handle and the rim of the bucket in the place where they fit together as tightly as possible. With your other hand you need to press the handle to the bucket.

sorghum threshing area

This procedure is quite dirty; seeds and particles of sorghum scattered within a meter radius. About 98% of the seeds ended up in the bucket and on the ground; it was decided to leave the remaining ones on panicles; they would fall off during use.

5) Brooms from threshed plants can be knitted at home, there is not much waste.

threshed sorghum

One broom will require 20-30 sorghum plants, depending on the condition of the stems, panicles and the desired result. The main thing is that the broom is comfortable to hold in one hand, and the width (density) of the broom is sufficient for sweeping.

Our broom was experimental, so we did not build any special devices.

bunches of sorghum for broom

The selected plants were divided into 4 approximately equal bunches. Align the plants along the top of the panicle. All the extra internodes were easily broken off.

Only that part of the plant that contains the panicle was left.

6) We tried to tie the sorghum tightly with wire, but it turned out to be not very convenient. I twisted it a little with pliers and the ring burst. It is much more practical to use synthetic dense threads, including polypropylene.

At a distance of about 20 cm from the tops of the panicles, each bunch was tightly twisted with threads, and then along the same “twists” they were tied together with twine.

7) After another 10 cm, all the twigs of the broom were tied together without dividing into bundles.

sorghum broom before cutting

8) The stems of our sorghum turned out to be too thick compared to the “lushness” of the panicle, so some of the central twigs had to be gradually (several pieces for each subsequent “twist”) “bitten off” with pruning shears so that the tool would fit in the hand. In total, we got 5 “twists” for the entire length of the broom.

9) To give " presentation» The tips of the panicles need to be trimmed. Men can do this wonderfully with an axe, but women can use the same pruning shears.

sorghum broom handle after pruning

The handle is carefully leveled with a hacksaw and rounded with a knife.

10) Before use, it is recommended to steam any sorghum broom in boiling water so that it breaks less and lasts longer.

Happy experimenting!

You don’t have to go to the market to get a good fluffy broom. You can make it yourself. Know How to do this tells us.

Before you get a good broom, you first need to “grow” it. You also need to prepare the soil for planting, plow it, add humus, and cultivate the soil in the spring.

Sorghum seeds, from which new brooms will be made in the fall, should be soaked in a large, bulky bowl of water for about 20 minutes. Unkind quality seeds float to the surface. They must be carefully scooped out with some kind of vessel. The seeds remaining at the bottom are considered suitable for planting. After soaking, dry the seeds by spreading thin layer on a tarpaulin. Dry seeds are ready for planting.

There is another way to identify “fake” seeds. In warm but windy weather, the seeds are poured onto a tarpaulin without soaking. Then they scoop them up with a bucket and, lifting them up, slowly pour them onto another tarpaulin. The wind blows “empty” seeds to the side, and only high-quality seeds will fall onto the tarpaulin.

The crop should be planted in mid-May. The interval between rows may not be observed. They are planted in a “solid line”. The seeds are planted in the soil to a depth of 4-5 cm. The row spacing is 25-30 cm. Sorghum is a light-loving crop, so it is better to plant in open, sunny places. The first shoots appear in the first ten days of June. They should be thinned out, maintaining a distance of 10-15 cm between sprouts. In this case, it is necessary to loosen the soil between the rows.

We perform the second weeding after 10-12 days. The soil must be loosened not only between the rows, but also in the rows. The plant does not require any further care. Sorghum successfully tolerates lack of moisture, so it is not watered.

Sorghum ripens in August, when the yellowed stem reaches 1.8-2 m in height. The brush with seeds, which is colloquially called a panicle, takes on a reddish-brown color at this time.

The plant needs to be mowed at the root with a sickle or scythe, and then sorted so that the panicle lies to the panicle. Since the plant is cut at the root, the stem turns out to be very long. Therefore, it needs to be cut with a knife in the shape of a crescent.

Thus, the stem turns out to be about a meter long. Then the sorghum must be dried by placing it in the sun vertically with the panicles up. After drying, the plants should be cleared of leaves and seeds.

Next, the process of knitting future brooms begins. It occurs in two stages. First you need to make “dolls”. Knitting is carried out on a special homemade device, which is a wooden arch 2.5 m high (Figure 1).

A cord thread is tied to the crossbar of the arch, and to the thread - wooden plank for the weight that is stepped on when pulling the “dolls”. The upper end of the board, tied to a thread, is located at a distance of approximately 25 cm from the ground. The lower end touches the ground. Using a thread and a “ribbon” of brushwood, ties are made on the “pupa”. First, these ribbons need to be prepared. How to do this? The cut twigs of brushwood are separated into several parts using a knife. In order for the “ribbons” to be elastic, they are soaked in water for one hour and then slightly dried.

When everything is ready, take 8-10 stems and align the panicles with each other. At the base of the panicles you need to put a “ribbon” of brushwood. After this, attach the panicles in a horizontal position to the thread and turn them around the axis together with the thread and “ribbons”. In order to tighten the thread tighter, you need to step on the board. So it turned out to be a “doll”. Then the following ones are formed.

After this, we take three “dolls” and tie them together in three places. Knitting takes place on the same homemade device, only instead of a cord thread, several nylon threads are used, woven together. Place the “ribbon” of brushwood in place of the first tie - at the base of the panicles of the three “pupae”, then bring the “pupae” to the thread and use the same principle (with a rotation around the axis) to make a tie. Then, at a distance of 15 cm from the first screed, make a second one, and at the same distance from the second one, using the same principle, make a third one. The ends of the “ribbon” after the screed must be cut with a knife and pushed inside the already trimmed broom. The handle of the product should be cut at a distance of 5 cm from the last tie. So we ended up with a broom that is familiar to everyone and is often used at home.

In the fall, after harvesting, the garden needs to be plowed. Rake the sorghum roots raised to the soil surface with a rake and burn them. The roots remaining in the soil can be collected after spring plowing.

Despite the fact that every home has a vacuum cleaner, a broom is still a necessary item for cleaning. After all, not every time you need to thoroughly clean up the garbage; sometimes it’s faster and easier to use a broom. Those who have a dacha or own house With personal plot, then you can grow sorghum, from which brooms are made, and try to make a broom with your own hands.

Growing sorghum

In order to make a broom, you need to grow high-quality sorghum - the plant most suitable for making brooms. Sorghum ripens in the fall, and preparations for planting begin in the spring.

Sorghum seeds are soaked in a large container of water for 20-30 minutes, and bad seeds float to the surface. They are removed, and the seeds remaining at the bottom are considered ready for planting. They are spread in a thin layer on a tarpaulin or film and dried thoroughly. You can sort sorghum seeds in another way - in warm windy weather, dry sorghum seeds are poured onto a tarpaulin and begin to sift. To do this, some of the seeds are slowly poured onto another piece of tarpaulin. In this case, empty seeds are sifted to the side, and only high-quality seeds remain on the tarpaulin.

Sorghum is planted in mid-May. Seeds are planted in a continuous line, without observing the interval between rows. The planting depth is 4-5 cm, and the distance between rows is 25-30 cm. Since sorghum is a light-loving plant, it should be planted in open sunny beds. The first shoots appear in the first half of June; they are thinned out at a distance of 10-15 cm and the soil is loosened between the rows. The second weeding is carried out after 10-12 days, and then the soil must be loosened not only between the rows, but also in the rows. Subsequently, the plant does not need care and even if there is a lack of moisture, it is not watered.

The plant ripens in August, with the yellowed stem reaching about 2 meters in height, and the sorghum cluster becomes red-brown in color. Sorghum is mowed at the root with a scythe or sickle, and then the long stem is cut off sharp knife to a length of about a meter and fold the sorghum panicle to panicle. Then the plant is dried, leaving it with its panicles up in the sun. After drying, the sorghum panicles are cleared of seeds and leaves.

Making a broom

Then you can begin the process of knitting brooms. It consists of two stages and will require special device in the form of a wooden U-shaped arch 2.5 meters high. You can replace it with a tree branch located at the desired height, to which you can tie a rope. First you need to make “pupae” - bunches of sorghum in the form of panicles.

A strong thread is tied to the crossbar of a wooden arch, and to it is a wooden board for weighting, which is stepped on when tying the “dolls.” The top end of the board on the rope should be 25 cm from the ground, and the bottom end should touch the ground. Using thread and brushwood ribbons, bunches of sorghum are tied together. In order to prepare these ribbons, you need to cut the cut twigs of brushwood into several parts with a knife, and in order for them to be elastic and bend well, the ribbons of brushwood are soaked for an hour in water and then slightly dried.

When all preparations are completed, take 8-10 stalks of sorghum and combine the panicles with each other, and apply a ribbon of brushwood to the base of the panicles. Then they apply the panicles horizontally to the thread attached to the arch and turn them around the axis together with the twigs and thread. To tighten the thread more tightly, step on the board, tighten the thread and get a “pupa”. The rest of the bundles are formed using the same principle.

The next step is to form a broom - take three “dolls” and tie them together in three places. Tying the broom is done on the same homemade device, but instead of thread they use intertwined nylon threads. A ribbon of brushwood is placed in place of the first tie at the base of the three bundles and then the “pupae” are brought to the threads and tightened by turning around the axis. Then, at a distance of 15 cm from the first puff, make a second one, retreating the same distance - the third. After the broom has been tied, the ends of the brushwood ribbons are cut with a knife and hidden inside the finished product. The broom handle is cut at a distance of 5 cm from the last tightening point. Now the broom is ready to use.