Deenanath Grass - 0.5 kg Seeds

Deenanath grass (Pennisetum pedicellatum) is a fast-growing tufted annual grass with slender erect culms, narrow leaf blades and feathery purplish flowering spikes. It establishes quickly and produces abundant leafy growth in a single season.

It is grown chiefly as a nutritious fodder and hay grass for cattle, and is also useful for quick ground cover and soil conservation on bunds, slopes and degraded land. Hardy and adaptable, it tolerates poor soils and seasonal drought once established. In India it is cultivated and naturalised widely across the plains and dryland farming regions as a rainfed fodder crop.

• Family: Poaceae
• Native region: Tropical Africa, naturalised in India
• Mature height: 1–2 m
• Growth rate: Fast

The seeds are very small and need no pre-treatment. Broadcast or line-sow them shallowly, barely covering with fine soil, in a prepared moist bed at the onset of the rains. Germination is quick, typically 7–14 days, and the grass establishes rapidly; keep the seedbed evenly moist until the stand is well rooted.