Proso millet is an annual warm season grass. The seedlings grow rapidly into upright plants which may tiller at low densities. Leaf blades are more or less hairy on both surfaces and the edges. They are 1 cm to 2 cm wide and up to 30 cm long. Leaf sheaths are densely hairy and have overlapping margins. The ligule (projection from the inner surface of the leaf sheath at the point where the leaf blade meets the stem) consists of a line of dense hairs. There are no auricles.
Proso millet develops from a relatively large seed. The seed hulls are slow to decay and may remain attached to the primary roots even after the plant is mature. Emergence normally begins about the third week of May. Germination and emergence of proso millet continue throughout the season. Plants may emerge after cereal crops have been harvested and these late-emerging plants may still be capable of producing seeds before fall frosts arrive.
Without competition from the crop early in the season, growth is extremely fast. In corn, this weed will reach a height of 150 cm and it normally reaches a height of about 100 cm in white beans. Good stands of barley will severely restrict the growth and numbers of proso millet and for those weeds that do survive, plant height will be held to about 25 cm.
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