LANESVILLE, Ind. – It’s called broomcorn and it’s not a corn. It’s a type of sorghum used for making brooms and whiskbrooms, coming in natural fall colors. Broomcorn has a coarse, fibrous head that has been used to make various types of brooms for several hundred years.

According to Ashley Adair, Extension organic agriculture specialist at Purdue University, interest in broomcorn is gaining traction, as growers and craftsmen alike see potential with the sorghum.

“It’s a unique type of sorghum used in traditional broom making and it thrives in droughty, hot, low-fertility environments,” Adair said, “which may fill a gap for growers looking to transition to organic production without sacrificing income. Craftsmen also love it.”

Recently, Adair partnered with Brian Geier and Elizabeth Tobey, of Bundle Sticks Farm in Lanesville, in a gathering called “A Clean Sweep: Broomcorn for Organic Transition.” This farmer-driven gathering attracted craftsmen from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois.

Bundle Sticks Farm is a craft-focused farm that grows materials for wreaths, brooms, baskets and other handmade goods, plus raises sheep and maintains a native plant nursery. A key part of their work is broomcorn, used in traditional broom making.

Supported by North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NC-SARE) through a Farmer Rancher Grant and by the Indiana Organic Network, the event brought together ag professionals, farmers and crafters over broomcorn. The goal was to provide participants with practical knowledge about broomcorn cultivation, management practices, and its role in organic agriculture. At the gathering, attendees learned how broomcorn can fit into crop rotations and support the transition from conventional to organic farming systems.

“Broomcorn can be valuable for small-scale farmers, individuals considering organic certification and crafters interested in agricultural products used in artisan manufacturing,” Adair said.

While Adair discussed organic farming in Indiana and the nuts and bolts of organic transition, Geier and Tobey led the group on topics such as the history of broomcorn production in North America, and more importantly, shared findings of their broomcorn variety trial and broomcorn processing.

Attendees were able to witness a 1-acre broomcorn variety trial ongoing at the farm. There are 16 different varieties of broomcorn growing on the lot. Geier and Tobey also showcased the different characteristics of heirloom and varieties raised on their farm over the years.

“They’re looking at the suitability of the different varieties for the craft market,” Adair said. “They have a survey in the works, and they’re sitting out the harvest from these growings and they’ll be able to tell how good the broomcorn is for craftsmen and their broom making thanks to these trials.”

Adair says broomcorn has received a lot of attention the past 10 years.

“There’s even a broomcorn lab called The Stephen Moose Corn Functional Genomics Lab at University of Illinois where they study broomcorn,” Adair said.

Although the origin of broomcorn is obscure, sorghum apparently originated in central Africa. Production of this crop spread to the Mediterranean, where people used long-branched sorghum panicles for making brooms in the Dark Ages. Broomcorn was introduced to Italy in the late 1500s. Benjamin Franklin is credited with introducing broomcorn to the United States in the early 1700s.

Initially, broomcorn was grown only as a garden crop for use in the home. By 1834, commercial broomcorn production had spread to several states in the Northeast and started moving west. Illinois was the leading producer of broomcorn in the 1860s, but production of the crop in that state virtually ceased in 1967.

There is no current USDA or National Agricultural Statistics Service release for the exact number of acres of broomcorn harvested in the United States for 2026. The most recent historical data available shows that in the early 1970s, the U.S. harvested about 100,000 acres of broomcorn annually, with the largest acreages in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, plus small amounts in Illinois and Iowa. Today, half of the domestic needs for broomcorn are imported from Mexico. Which is why Geier and Tobey aim to see increased acreage for broomcorn. And not just in Indiana.

“It’s a unique crop and it takes roughly 50 plants to make a full-size broom,” said Cynthis Main, owner of Sunhouse Craft in Berea, Ky. “We’d like to see crops like broomcorn make a comeback in the U.S. There’s a lot of talk about growing things on the farm and bringing them to market.”

Main, like Geier and Tobey, uses the broomcorn she harvests to make such items as hand brooms, brushes, sweepers, wreaths, baskets, autumn displays and floral arrangements. A ton of broomcorn brush, for example, makes 80 to 100 dozen brooms.

Plants of standard varieties range from six to 15 feet in height. Dwarf varieties range from three to seven feet in height.

According to Adair, broomcorn can be grown in about every state. It will produce a fair quality of brush wherever the temperatures are high enough for corn to grow well. Like other sorghums, it is relatively tolerant of heat, drought and poor culture. The best brush, Adair adds, is produced where the summers are warm and the soils are moist and fertile. Annual rainfall of 15 to 32 inches is adequate. Poor soils and extremely cool or dry weather result in inferior brush.

Broomcorn, like other crops, has issues with weeds and diseases. Weeds are controlled by cultivation until the broomcorn plants are large enough to compete with the weeds. All varieties of broomcorn appear to be susceptible to fungal smut, which destroys the seed heads. Another disease, Sorghum rust, attacks the leaves of broomcorn but does not cause appreciable damage or loss.