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Eleusine coracana
Poaceae FAMILY

Eleusine coracana

Eleusine coracana

Edibility
4/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual
Growth—

Finger millet cam be grown successfully as a seed crop from the temperate zone to the tropics, succeeding in arid to humid environments and also at higher elevations than most other cereal crops[1]. It can tolerate an annual precipitation in the range of 290 - 4,290mm, though for good yields it requires irrigation if the rainfall is less than 530mm[1]. Heavy rain at flowering reduces seed set[2] The plant succeeds in areas with an annual temperature range of 11.1 - 27.4°c[1]. An easily grown plant, it succeeds in ordinary garden soil in a sunny position[3]. Tolerates moderately moist conditions[4]. Cultivated on soils ranging from rich loams to poor shallow upland soils. In India, grown on black cotton soils, but thrives on red lateritic loams. Ragi stands salinity better than most cereals[1]. Tolerates a pH in the range of 5.0 to 8.2[1]. Plants can tolerate very alkaline soils with a pH of up to 11[2]. Seedlings are sensitive to drought, but mature plants go dormant during short periods of drought and produce new tillers when conditions become favourable again[2]. Weeds are a major problem in finger millet, the first two weeks after germination being critical. Several rounds of manual weeding are common, requiring much labour[2]. Time from planting to flowering is 50 - 120 days; the complete crop cycle is 3 - 6 months[2]. Flowering on individual inflorescences lasts for 8 - 10 days and proceeds from top to bottom on branches[2]. Finger millet is predominantly self-pollinated, with about 1% out-crossing[2]. The average finger millet grain yield under local practices of agriculture in tropical Africa is 0.25 - 1.5 tonnes per hectare. Potential seed yield from improved cultivars is about 5 tonnes per hectare[1, 2]. Yield depends on variety and is directly related to duration, height and tillering capacity of type grown. Types with straight spikes give better yields than those with curved spikes[1]. There are many named varieties[1]. For food purposes the white-coloured grain is preferred. The more bitter, dark-coloured grain is preferred for beer-making[2]. Plants are seldom troubled by insect pests[5, 6]. The seed stores well[6].

Propagation

Seed - sow early spring in a greenhouse and only just cover the seed. Germination should take place within 2 weeks. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle and plant them out in late spring after the last expected frosts[7, 3]. The seed can also be sown in mid to late spring in situ[3], though if the summer is cool it might not ripen its seed[PFAF]. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Eleusine+coracana>

Pollinators

Wind

References

  1. [1]Handbook of Energy Crops — Duke. J. · - · 1983 · https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/dukeindex.html · ISBN - ↩︎Published only on the Internet, excellent information on a wide range of both temperate and tropical plants.
  2. [2]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  3. [3]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  4. [4]Plants for Man. — Schery. R. W. ↩︎Fairly readable but not very comprehensive. Deals with plants from around the world.
  5. [5]A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. — Usher. G. · Constable · 1974 · ISBN 0094579202 ↩︎Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.
  6. [6]Economic Botany. — Hill. A. F. · The Maple Press · 1952 · ISBN - ↩︎Not very comprehensive, but it is quite readable and goes into some detail about the plants it does cover.
  7. [7]Ornamental Grasses. — Grounds. R. · Christopher Helm · 1989 · ISBN 0-7470-1219-9 ↩︎Cultivation details of many of the grasses and bamboos. Well illustrated.
  8. [8]Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications · 1990 · ISBN 0-9628087-0-9 ↩︎Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.
  9. [9]RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 — F. Chittendon. · Oxford University Press · 1951 · ISBN - ↩︎Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaced in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [ 200 ]).
  10. [10]Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. — Hedrick. U. P. · Dover Publications · 1972 · ISBN 0-486-20459-6 ↩︎Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
  11. [11]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  12. [12]Plants and People of Nepal — Manandhar. N. P. · Timber Press. Oregon. · 2002 · ISBN 0-88192-527-6 ↩︎Excellent book, covering over 1,500 species of useful plants from Nepal together with information on the geography and peoples of Nepal. Good descriptions of the plants with terse notes on their uses.
  13. [13]Medicinal Plants of China — Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. · Reference Publications, Inc. · 1985 · ISBN 0-917256-20-4 ↩︎Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.
  14. [14]Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). — Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. · Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. · 1986 · ISBN - ↩︎Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.
  15. [15]Flora of China — Missouri Botanical Garden Press; St. Louis. · 1994 · http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/ ↩︎An excellent, comprehensive resource in 25 volumes. In addition to the botanical information the flora also gives basic information on habitat and some uses. An on-line version is also available.
  16. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎