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Almost every other grain in the garden is drought-adapted. This one is not. Job's Tears evolved in wet ground, and it responds to a dry spell by shedding the youngest beads and shrinking the ones already set. A plant that runs dry for a week during bead fill will still look green and healthy and will still give you a third less than it should.
The practical rule is that the soil should never dry below two inches (5 cm) between the start of stem extension and the point where the last beads have hardened. In hot weather that means one to two inches (2.5 to 5 cm) of water a week, delivered in one or two long soakings rather than daily sprinkles. If you have a spot that stays permanently damp, use it and stop worrying; standing water for a few days does no harm at all to this crop, which is more than you can say for anything else you grow.
Mulch two to three inches (5 to 8 cm) deep once the plants are a foot (30 cm) tall. It halves the watering in midsummer and keeps the lower leaf axils, where the earliest beads form, from being splashed with soil.
| Stage | Water need | What you see if it runs short |
|---|---|---|
| Seedling to 12 in (30 cm) | Keep top 2 in (5 cm) damp | Slow growth, few side shoots |
| Stem extension | 1 in (2.5 cm) a week | Short plants, thin stems |
| Flowering and bead set | 1.5 to 2 in (4 to 5 cm) a week | Beads abort at the growing tip |
| Bead fill and hardening | 1.5 in (4 cm) a week | Small, light, wrinkled beads |
| After the last beads harden | Stop watering | Nothing; drying is what you want |
Feed once, feed lightly, and stop
The temptation with a plant that reaches six feet (1.8 m) is to keep feeding it. Resist. Job's Tears sets its beads in the leaf axils along the stem, and heavy nitrogen late in the season pushes the plant to keep making leaf and new stem instead of filling what it has already set. You end up with a magnificent green thicket and a poor harvest.
One dressing is usually enough: a balanced feed at about two ounces per square yard (60 g per square meter) worked in when the plants are knee-high, roughly eighteen inches (45 cm). If growth is genuinely pale and stalled at that point, a second half-rate dressing four weeks later is defensible. After flowering begins, feed nothing at all. Potassium is the one nutrient worth being generous with, because it stiffens the stems, and wood ash or a tomato feed applied at the knee-high stage does that job without adding nitrogen.
Keeping six feet of grass upright
Lodging is the failure that costs most. A clump that goes flat in a summer storm rarely stands back up, and beads lying on wet soil sprout, mold and are eaten by slugs within a fortnight. The plant is top-heavy by design, since the load sits along the upper stem rather than in a single head, and a wet season plus soft growth is all it takes.
Two things prevent it. First, earth up around the base of each clump to a depth of three to four inches (8 to 10 cm) when the plants are about knee-high; the extra soil braces the crown and encourages a second tier of roots. Second, run a simple corral rather than staking individual stems: drive stakes at the corners and along the sides of the block and run twine around the outside at two feet (60 cm) and again at four feet (1.2 m). Individual stems are too numerous to tie and the clump holds itself up perfectly well if the block is contained.
- Earth up at knee height Draw soil from between the rows up around each clump to three or four inches (8 to 10 cm). Do it when the ground is damp so the soil holds its shape, and keep it clear of the lowest leaf axils.
- Corral the block at two feet Drive stakes every four feet (1.2 m) around the perimeter and run twine at two feet (60 cm) height. This is enough on its own until the plants pass four feet (1.2 m).
- Add the upper twine before flowering Once the stems reach four feet (1.2 m), add a second round of twine at that height. Doing it before the beads set means you are not fighting through a loaded plant to thread it.
- Thin out the weakest shoots A clump throws six to twelve stems. Cut the two or three thinnest and shortest at the base in midsummer. They rarely carry beads worth having, and removing them opens the clump to air and light.
Weeds, side shoots and airflow
The first six weeks are the only ones in which weeds matter. Job's Tears is slow off the mark and a young stand can be smothered before it gets going. Hoe shallowly between rows until the leaves close over, then stop; after that the canopy does the work and hoeing near the crown only damages the surface roots that support the tall stems.
The plant tillers freely, sending up new shoots from the base well into midsummer. Shoots that appear after about the halfway point of the season will not have time to ripen beads and are worth cutting out, both to concentrate the plant's effort and to keep air moving through a dense clump. Standing water at the roots is fine; still, humid air inside a crowded clump is not, and it is where leaf disease starts.
What to note through the season
Three things pay you back. Write down the date the first flowers appear, because that date minus the sowing date is the single number that tells you whether your site is warm enough for this crop and how much slack you have. Write down the date the first bead in the lowest leaf axil turns from green to its ripe color. And keep a rough tally of watering, or at least note any week you knowingly let it run dry.
Next season, when the beads come in small or the plants flower too late to ripen, those notes are the difference between guessing and knowing. A late flowering date points at a sowing that went in too early into cold ground; small beads next to a gap in the watering record point at nothing more complicated than thirst.