You can’t live without a good broom in an apartment or private house. The equipment is used for indoor cleaning, and although it is inexpensive, many people prefer to knit brooms with their own hands.
This is especially true for owners of country houses who have at least a small plot of land. They can easily sow black sorghum on the plot and tie a broom for sweeping.
Part of the inventory can be used for your own needs, the rest can be sold on the market and receive financial benefits.
Knitting a broom with your own hands
You can’t live without a good broom in an apartment or private house. The equipment is used for indoor cleaning, and although it is inexpensive, many people prefer to knit brooms with their own hands.
This is especially true for owners of country houses who have at least a small plot of land. They can easily sow black sorghum on the plot and tie a broom for sweeping.
Part of the inventory can be used for your own needs, the rest can be sold on the market and receive financial benefits.
Don't forget to share with your friends!
Do a little magic
Even if you don’t believe in miracles, you need to treat magic with caution! In fact, who knows, maybe wizards and witches hide so cleverly that they never catch the eye of ordinary people. After all, just in case, every person has some item that he tries to save: for good luck, for happiness, for “let it just be.” These are amulets and amulets, which often do not have much material significance, but are valuable as a memory of something good and happy. You can make a broom-amulet with your own hands if you want. He will become a talisman of love for his home, hard work, and the ability to see beauty. And it can actually become a talisman for your beloved home and everyone at home.
Features of a homemade broom
A broom is a small bunch of branches or twigs. The item is often called a broom; it is used to restore order in living quarters or sweep the local area. In addition to its standard purpose, the tool was used by our ancestors to spray laundry or garden crops against pests. When treating plants, it is necessary to dissolve the active substance in water, dip a broom into the liquid and make a sharp movement with your hand.
To make a broom, herbaceous plants and twigs of shrubs no less than 55 cm long are used. They are attached to a small wooden handle with a rope or wire. In addition to natural raw materials, modern brooms are made from synthetic materials (polypropylene threads), which are tied with twine.
Note! From the Old Church Slavonic language, broom is literally translated as “bun”.
Now a broom is considered a standard household tool and is used to clean the floor in any room. With its help, you can clean the floor covering from large debris, which can lead to clogging of the vacuum cleaner. The equipment is recommended to be used for preliminary cleaning of the floor. The broom must be compact and durable, its standard service life is at least 10 months. This is true for products made from cereals or other natural raw materials. After the specified period, the branches dry out and begin to break off, causing more harm than good.
Modeling mass
In order to sculpt small figures at home, there are many materials. They make both cold porcelain and clay mixture on their own. But there is the simplest material available - bioceramics. This is the name for a mixture of flour, fine table salt and water. Here is the classic recipe for such a mass:
- 200 grams of flour;
- 200 grams of salt;
- 125 grams of water.
You can improve the recipe a little by adding 100 grams of starch and another 50 grams of water. With this addition, the dough becomes more plastic, and small parts can be made from it. The mass is kneaded to a homogeneous consistency and stored in the refrigerator, wrapped in cling film. Details are molded from it as needed and left to dry in the open air. Finished items are painted with regular paints and covered with clear varnish. You can also involve children in this activity, help them sculpt figures of the appropriate size and shape, teach kids the names of certain objects, telling stories and fairy tales about them. Such a talisman will become a real guardian of the family, because spending time together will forever remain in warm memories.
Growing sorghum
To grow raw materials you need sorghum broom. Culture seeds can be bought at a specialty store or borrowed from neighbors. In the southern part of our country, sorghum has time to ripen; the seeds of the crop can be collected independently.
Harvesting and planting seeds
Ripened sorghum grains are black in color; they are not needed for the production of brooms, so the seeds are collected during the procurement of raw materials. Many summer residents simply squeeze the stem and tear off the sorghum with their hands. In this case, it is necessary to use gloves to protect the skin on your hands. Craftsmen have come up with a simpler way of preparing seed material. They take a metal bucket, clamp the seed part between the handle and pull out the stem - the grains end up in the bucket.
Sorghum is planted in previously prepared, weed-free soil. It is best to carry out operations after the threat of frost has passed, when the ground warms up to +15 °C. Sorghum is sown to a depth of 2 to 4 cm in rows, with a row spacing of 35–40 cm. There is also a continuous scatter sowing method. The area is leveled with a metal rake, which will allow the grains to be deepened into the soil.
Important! After the emergence of seedlings, the crops need to be thinned out so that there is a distance of 7–12 cm between neighboring plants. This will prevent lodging of the crops.
Harvesting
Harvesting begins at the stage of waxy maturity of the grain. The stems are cut by hand, only the tops within 80–100 cm. After this, the grain is collected in a bucket, sorted and the stems are tied into bunches. It is necessary to properly store the raw materials; they are hung under a canopy or in a well-ventilated area.
Agrotechnicians recommend drying the grain, part of it will be used for subsequent sowing or for sale, the rest is used as an additive for poultry. Unnecessary stems that remain in the field are collected in late autumn, when the summer resident has more free time. The raw materials are crushed in a special crusher and used as mulch for various garden crops.
Preparation
The main requirement for areas for sorghum sowing is high levels of accumulated moisture and the absence of weeds. The most effective method of creating such conditions is considered to be earlier spring harrowing.
The main requirement for growing technology is the creation of a dense seed bed, which will ensure uniform germination.
Sowing is carried out with quality seeds after dressing with Baitan or Vitavax preparations at the rate of 2 kg of the drug per ton of grain to protect against fungal and other diseases.
Knitting
Making sorghum brooms with your own hands is quite simple. You need high-quality raw materials and special tools.
Procurement of material
Weaving a broom from millet is not difficult. At the preparatory stage of work, the required number of stems is selected. Each product will use 25–30 thin branches or 20 thick ones. The raw materials are placed in a large container, then poured with boiling water. An important condition for softening sorghum is keeping the shoots in warm water for 2 hours. After this, the stems need to be dried a little.
Brooms are produced in a factory using a special machine, which allows you to produce from 150 to 200 products per shift. We don’t have such equipment at home, so we knit a broom from twine or tie the stems with rope and cut off the end part. It is important to familiarize yourself with the features of the workflow.
Manufacturing technology
Step-by-step process for making a broom:
- The dried and seeded twigs of the crop are placed in small bundles with a diameter of about 10 cm. The panicles are trimmed and tightly tied with wire or twine near the base.
- In tying (with rope, wire or other material - each person has the right to choose independently), the main thing is to tie a tight bunch, the stems of the crop should not crumble.
- Divide the lower part of the broom into three parts and tie the bundle in these places (you should get three bundles).
- On the side bunches, several upper stems are cut obliquely, which will help reduce the diameter of the handle to convenient parameters. The shoots are cut about 5 cm higher from the bottom trim.
- Squeezing the handle of the broom, make sure that the shoots fit tightly one to the other, and tie them in several places, every 8–10 cm.
To give the product a neat appearance, the panicles in the lower part are trimmed with scissors, and the upper protruding rods are cut with a knife. If something is unclear about the technology for making a broom at home, you can watch the video.
How to lay branches
The best quality birch twigs are placed at the base of the broom. The main burden will fall on them. You can say these branches are the base, the skeleton of the broom. When adding new branches, align them in height, shake them off, and press them more tightly to the rest of the added twigs. Scroll the collected branches in your hand.
To make the broom neat, even, and not have to cut it off with a knife or scissors, just lay the branches evenly. Correct the twigs, do not let individual branches stand out from the general mass.
Many bathhouse attendants trim off the unruly ends of birch branches; I don’t really like this method of tidying them up. Chopped branches can in no way compare with the most delicate thin birch tips of twigs.
Place the branches in one hand and hold them tightly. The future broom handle is in your hand; there should not be any birch leaves in it! At the stage of laying branches, the handle of the broom can be of different lengths and the branches can stick out in different directions. This problem is solved after you collect the fluffy king of the steam room.
Homemade brooms made from other materials
Sorghum stems are not the only material for making brooms. Thin birch branches are suitable for the production of a broom with a handle. They are tied into a bundle of the required diameter, then the stalk is hammered. The tool is used for cleaning the local area.
Bath brooms are made from branches of various trees (oak or aspen). The stems are tied together with the leaves and hung in a shed to dry. An original idea would be to make cleaning equipment from plastic bottles. In the container, cut off the neck and bottom, then cut thin strips from bottles 1 cm thick and 20 cm long.
Subsequently, the elements are inserted between two wooden planks and glued together to make a broom handle.
We draw up a business plan
The production of brooms seems at first glance to be a primitive matter. But you can really benefit from it only if the business plan is created correctly. So, what points should you pay attention to when planning such a business?
First, you should take care of renting several hectares of land on which the raw materials for your products will be grown. Secondly, you need to find a permanent supplier of knitting threads. Thirdly, all this work requires a small workforce who will be involved in sowing, assembling grain crops (sorghum is the main raw material for making brooms), as well as knitting and delivering them.
And finally, for such a business you should rent not only land, but also a warehouse where equipment for broom production and finished products will be stored until they are sold. Below we will look at all these nuances separately.
How to make a broom for a bath - technology of preparation, knitting and drying
Do you like a real bathing holiday and have decided to try making brooms with your own hands for the next season? Then this article will be very useful to you, because it will talk about how to make this original Russian invention yourself.
Here you will learn what brooms can be knitted from, how to properly prepare, dry, store and steam them.
“In a bathhouse, a broom is more valuable than money!”
Put together
When the broom is ready and the decorative elements have been selected, they need to be beautifully placed on the base broom. Experienced craftsmen and those who believe in magic do not recommend making a talisman for the home with all possible elements at once. After all, a young family needs children, and those who already have children need stability and success in business. So you should make a broom-amulet with your own hands in accordance with life circumstances. All elements must be secured evenly; their location relative to each other does not matter. The decor can be attached with glue, for example “Titanium”, or with thin wire. If the parts are molded, then the wire can be placed in the body of the figure in advance.
Raw materials for brooms
The starting material for these miracle devices can be branches/stems of a wide variety of trees and plants! We will mention only a few and briefly talk about their unique properties.
So, what do our compatriots make bath brooms from?
- Traditional birch products. The choice of most steam room lovers! And this is not surprising, because such brooms have a very mild, but at the same time profound effect: they remove waste and toxins from the body, heal the kidneys and lungs, expand the small bronchi and get rid of phlegm. In addition, a bath broom made of birch twigs is convenient for massage - it is flexible, durable, and the leaves stick to the body like an adhesive plaster, well drawing out and absorbing all the dirt from the body and skin.
In the photo - fresh birch “massagers” on drying
In addition to all of the above, birch leaves and buds contain a valuable complex of vitamins, essential oils and tannins.
- Nettle brooms. They are usually harvested in mid-summer, before or during the flowering of this burning plant. It should be noted that steaming with them is a special pleasure! They tingle pleasantly, relaxing and massaging the whole body. No burns, blisters or similar troubles. The only health benefit is the prevention of radiculitis, gout, and rheumatism.
And this is a product made from nettles
For your information! The only disadvantage of such brooms is that they are only suitable for one trip to the bathhouse, but this disadvantage is fully compensated by the easy preparation and knitting of nettle products.
- Currant and cherry brooms are as durable as birch or oak brooms, but steaming with them is much more pleasant thanks to the amazing aroma that comes from them! In addition, these “aroma massagers” are good for skin health.
Note! The branches are harvested in early June: young shoots and root shoots are cut off. There is no need to go far for raw materials, especially if you live in a private house.
Fragrant broom made of cherry twigs
- Juniper brooms are the choice of the most desperate people. Such a device stings “oh-ho-ho”, in addition, it is also rough and prickly. If you use a juniper broom improperly, you can very easily injure your skin. However, all these inconvenient moments are fully compensated by the benefits of massage with such twigs. An excellent remedy for the treatment of radiculitis, neuralgia, gout, rheumatism, paralysis, various allergies, colds and even tuberculosis. Indispensable bactericidal and antiseptic properties.
Juniper "massager". By the way, the price of brooms today varies from 60 to 200 rubles! Why pay when you can easily do it yourself?
Interesting to know! It is not for nothing that not so long ago surgeons sterilized threads for suturing wounds in juniper oil.
You can stock up and use juniper branches all year round, since this shrub is evergreen. Remember that you need to cut off the “prickly raw materials” carefully, because juniper grows slowly and its thickets are poorly restored.
What to do with the branches after harvesting?
An attic space is a good place to store harvested branches, or a heap of hay is even better. A balcony or even a mezzanine is suitable for storing workpieces in urban conditions. In this case, the brooms will need to be pre-wrapped in paper bags.
Drying brooms
Drying brooms on the roof of the barn is also allowed. This is done in the following sequence:
- meadow hay is spread over the roof;
- birch branches are laid out on the hay with small gaps;
- a layer of hay is laid out on top of the branches;
- Every day (some experts advise increasing this period to 2-3 days) the branches turn over. This is done over the course of a month.
Most often, dried pieces are tied in pairs to a rope and stored in this position. You don’t have to knit brooms right away, but combine the branches into small sheaves. The sheaves are wrapped in hay and stored in the attic. Before going to the bathhouse, the required number of branches is pulled from the sheaf and tied into a broom.
The process of preparing branches, knitting and drying in detail
Well, having learned a little about the variety of raw materials for homemade “massagers,” let’s move directly to the answer to the main question - how to properly make brooms for a bath?
The general time for collecting raw materials, regardless of the chosen type of tree (be it birch, oak, maple, linden, etc.), is when the leaf has already matured. In other words, the season for harvesting branches is from early July to mid-August. Collecting raw materials at this time is completely justified, because the leaves of the trees are already becoming large, but they still have enough essential oil glands.
The general rules for choosing a tree for collecting raw materials boil down to the fact that you need to look for young trees/shrubs with straight flexible branches, at a distance of at least 3-4 kilometers from a residential area.
Proper harvesting of birch branches
So, in this article we decided to describe how to correctly collect branches for birch brooms so that they turn out to be of high quality and as useful as possible.
Despite the fact that we will be talking about a specific type of raw material, these collection instructions, in principle, apply to other trees/shrubs:
- Firstly, it is better to break branches for brooms in the first half of the day, immediately after the dew has disappeared.
- Secondly, you need to skillfully select trees. As a rule, these are tall curly and weeping birches, whose branches fall in braids, and the leaves are porous, slightly rough. The branches we need can be characterized as follows: flexible, unbreakable, thin, without knots, 40-50 centimeters long.
Important! Many folk knitters recommend, on the contrary, choosing young birch trees that have never bloomed, explaining this by the fact that they have the most delicate leaves. Of course, we cannot disagree. However, you still need to look at these sheets and even try with your tongue: if the upper side is rough, then you can safely look for another tree. The leaves should be velvety on top.
Leaves are what you need!
- Thirdly, when cutting raw materials, do not use “whips”. Branches for a bath broom must have 2-3 forks, so to speak, for thickness and splendor. It is also desirable that the leaves on them are small or medium.
Attention! To prevent trees from suffering, cut only a few branches from each.
Raw materials for creating bath “massagers”
Knitting brooms
How to make a bath broom correctly - where to start knitting it?
Below is a step-by-step technology for this simple, but requiring special skills and abilities:
- Having prepared a sufficient armful of birch branches, you can start knitting. For one product, enough raw materials are taken so that the handle is no more than 5 centimeters thick. Agree, it will be inconvenient to use a thick and heavy broom.
- The branches are cleared of knots and leaves where the handle will be. As for its length, there are no special rules. You just need to leave the handle long enough to make it comfortable to hold and use the broom.
- When collecting twigs in a broom, the thicker ones are placed in the middle, and thinner ones around them - this way the product will be very durable and can be used 2-3 times.
Knitting brooms is not difficult!
- Then you need to shake and turn over the branches collected in one bunch several times to make sure that the half-finished broom is even, dense, fluffy and beautiful.
- The knitting technique itself is simple and consists of several steps. We need to fasten the collected branches with strong synthetic twine:
- The first knitting is located closer to the end of the handle of the product and is not tightened very tightly. Then the broom is divided into two equal parts, which are twisted 360º (both!). The clamp will be strong. And if the first knitting is made too tight, then there will not be enough strength to twist the broom, or the branches will simply break.
- For the second knitting, you need to cut a piece of twine as long as possible and tie it above the bottom one as tightly as possible. There is no need to trim the ends of the synthetic twine; they will later serve to connect two brooms into a pair.
Visual knitting technology
- Now all that remains is to carefully trim the ends of the branches to the required length using a sharp ax on the stump. You can move on to drying!
Drying and storing brooms
During drying
First of all, we warn you - you cannot dry them in the sun or use various artificial drying methods. The brooms dry out on their own, the main thing is to properly organize a place for them to do this.
It should be in the shade (for example, a barn, garage, attic, haystack, etc.) with moderate humidity. An increased concentration of moisture can cause mold to appear on the leaves, and then the brooms will have to be thrown away.
It is best when the products take the shape of a fan rather than a panicle. To achieve this result, fresh brooms are laid out on the floor and turned over every day. When they dry (not dry!) you will need to stack them on top of each other, periodically changing places - this way they will gradually flatten.
It is important not to dry them out! After drying, all the leaves on the broom should have a concentrated matte green color, and the aroma of balsam birch oil should emanate from the broom itself. After steaming the product, this pleasant smell will sharply intensify, which will have a beneficial effect on the health of the entire body.
For your information! After drying the products, the second knitting may become loose and will need to be re-tied.
After about a week, the finished brooms can be stacked tightly in a dry, dark and well-ventilated area. And to prevent them from getting dusty, you can wrap them in cellophane or paper, but not tightly, so that there is little air access.
Storage of dried products
A good option for storing bath whisks is in a haystack. In winter, you can also store simply prepared branches in the form of one sheaf, and, as necessary, knit healing “massagers” from them. In wallpaper cases, the leaves are preserved better.
Parking brooms
You also need to know how to steam a broom!
So we learned how to make bath brooms. However, there remains one more important nuance, without which the competent preparation of a “massager” for the steam room cannot be considered complete - this is its preparation directly for use.
The easiest way to steam a broom is as follows: lower it into a bowl of cold water for 3-4 minutes, then into warm water for the same amount of time, and finally into a tub of hot water (not boiling water!). At the same time, it is important to cover the tub with something so that our broom “steams.” But you can tell when to take it out by its delicious aroma!
Advice! Do not throw out the remaining water from steaming - it will be useful for watering hot stones or the walls of the sauna stove, thanks to which the entire steam room will be filled with wonderful natural smells.
How to prepare branches
When the main bath wealth has been collected, you can begin the sacrament of building a broom. Choose a convenient place in the shade, prepare a knife, scissors, axe, twine or other rope for tying the broom.
Knitting a broom is not a delicate job, but if you do everything somehow, in a hurry, then the broom will turn out appropriate. Therefore, be patient and rest assured that this activity will give you only positive emotions.
When inspecting the branches again, you should cut off all the lower unnecessary foliage. Make a broom only for yourself, whatever will be convenient for you in the steam room, and build it that way. When cleaning the branches, evaluate their suitability for use in a sauna; some of them, upon careful examination, may not be suitable for sauna loads.
Conclusion
The steam should be light and the broom should be fragrant!
Having steamed to your heart's content in the sauna for the rest of the day, you feel a surge of vigor, health and strength. And if the broom was also knitted with your own hands, with due diligence and accuracy, then the bath procedures will be a real pleasure! The video in this article is ready to share information on these issues, watch it!
What should a broom be like?
Vacuum cleaners appeared in human everyday life relatively recently, with the beginning of the development of technological progress, but it was the broom that was and remains to this day the very assistant that makes it easy to keep the floor clean.
History of the floor broom
A traditional broom is a bunch of branches or twigs, used for cleaning apartments and houses, and sometimes even local areas. Although the device for sweeping streets is usually called a broom, it is still the closest relative of an ordinary broom. Previously, these bundles of twigs were also used for cleaning wardrobe items, spraying flowers or linen - the broom was simply dipped in water, and housewives fanned with it what needed to be moistened.
Broom for sweeping the floor
Typically, twigs of shrubs or stems of herbaceous plants up to 50 cm long are used to make a broom. They are secured to a short or long handle using special strands, twine, soft branches of trees and shrubs or wire.
On a note! From Old Church Slavonic, Czech and Slovenian languages, broom is translated as “bun”. This is reported in the etymological dictionary of M. Vasmer.
Now a broom can be made from both natural and synthetic materials. Previously, their creation was carried out by people called brooms. Currently, there are large-scale industrial productions - brooms go on sale from conveyors, have become mass products, and their production has certain standards regulated by the document OST 56-31-91.
OST 56-31-91. Sorghum brooms. Technical conditions. Downloadable file (click the link to open the PDF in a new window).
OST 56-31-91
On the territory of Russia, the broom also had cultural significance. Residents believed that a brownie lived in the “crown” of the broom, and in general this object was associated with evil spirits. However, at the same time, it was also considered a talisman for the home, a person’s wealth, and was used for fortune telling.
On a note! The broom is still important in some regions. And in the village of Semeno-Alexandrovka, Voronezh region, residents create not simple devices for cleaning the floor, but real works of art, distinguished by their special beauty. The individual rods are tied here using willow twigs.
Nowadays, a broom is considered a common household tool used for cleaning the floor. It is ideal for cleaning the base from large particles of debris that can clog the vacuum cleaner and cause it to fail. As a rule, a broom is used at one of the stages of major cleaning - first they walk across the floor with it, then they pick up a vacuum cleaner, then comes the final stage of cleaning - washing the floor with a rag.
The broom is still used today
A good broom should be durable and neat in appearance. It is not recommended to use it for a long time - it is usually thrown away approximately 10-12 months after purchase. The fact is that if it is made from natural raw materials, the branches dry out and begin to crumble over time. Thus, during cleaning, the broom itself produces more garbage than it is useful.
Where to buy ready-made and how much does it cost?
The ability to make sorghum broom yourself may only be needed by residents of remote villages who live on subsistence farming and practice barter exchange, or simply out of interest. Citizens purchase this equipment at a hardware store, supermarket, or order it online.
The cost of a simple sorghum broom varies from 50 to 150 rubles. depending on the type of raw materials and the quality of the firmware. Sorghum panicles with long wooden handles are more expensive - up to 1,500 rubles.
Interior designers are happy to use natural materials, including sorghum, to create their objects. Therefore, on sale you can find real works of broom art made from selected sorghum of the highest quality on carved handles made of precious wood.
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What are floor brooms made of?
Throughout its centuries-old history, the broom has remained virtually unchanged in appearance - only the materials from which it is made have changed. You can make this cleaning device out of almost anything. Basically, brooms are made from stems and branches of bushes and herbs, and twigs. Most often they are created from a special plant - sorghum, but we will talk about it a little lower.
To create brooms, the stems of a plant such as chiliga or wild acacia can be used. It has quite strong and flexible shoots. But such a broom is not suitable for cleaning the house because of its density and roughness.
One of the modern broom options
Brooms are also knitted from common wolfberry, a shrub popularly called “wolf berry.” By the way, this is the plant that produces the popular goji berries. But a soft broom can be made from St. John's wort, wormwood, and oregano. If you sweep the floor with such a product, the house will smell fragrant, and moths and other insects will not appear. Spiders could be expelled from a home by sweeping it with a broom made of reed stems. In villages they still use brooms made from nettles and linden branches.
The Slavs often used millet stems to create brooms. But now such products have practically sunk into oblivion - they have been replaced by softer brooms made from broom sorghum.
You can even make good money making brooms
How to decorate?
Often decorative elements are used as talismans. What, for example, is the meaning of the broom amulet? It’s not enough to make a handmade talisman for your home and hang it on the wall; it’s also important to supplement it with meaningful elements. They can be real, store-bought items, or they can be stylizations created independently from scrap materials. The most convenient way is to sculpt them from a suitable material and paint them. Plasticine will not work, since the amulet whisk often becomes an interior decoration in the kitchen, and it can be hot there, and the plasticine will leak. The easiest way is to sculpt the necessary decor from salt dough without running around shopping for creative materials. The broom handle and its edge can be decorated with patterned braid of a suitable color.
What is a house broom made of?
Natural raw materials have always been in price. It is environmentally friendly and does not pose a health hazard. That is why natural brooms made from broom sorghum are still used. It is also sometimes called economic.
Sorghum is an annual plant native to hot Africa. However, now it grows in India, America, Europe, Asian countries and Russia. This plant is drought-resistant, is not afraid of lack of moisture, is generally unpretentious in care, and loves warmth. Sorghum has a strong stem that is excellent for broom production.
Sorghum (lat. Sorghum)
To make brooms, only mature branches of this plant are used - a kind of panicles. In a temperate climate, they still do not have time to grow, so most of the brooms, one might say, come from the south. The highest quality products are obtained from stems that end their life and dry out on the root. Also, the best raw materials have reddish panicles and red or brown grains. Some growers even leave them on the branches to prove the quality of their product.
On a note! Not only brooms are made from sorghum. The plant is excellent for making paper, starch, and silage. In terms of nutritional properties, it is no worse than corn.
Sorghum can be used for more than just making brooms
From a business perspective, sorghum is a profitable investment. It grows well, and from 1 hectare of land you can get up to 4 thousand brooms. However, this plant is very fond of pests, which adversely affects the harvest as a whole. Sorghum can ripen to the desired state already cut, which is used by broom producers in the northern regions.
What are brooms for sweeping made of nowadays? Cleaning brushes
Brooms will never go away from everyday use due to the fact that there is a certain number of floor coverings that require careful handling. These are laminate, parquet, some types of tiles (for example, vinyl), etc. In no case should they be cleaned using brute force. And a broom comes in handy here.
Nowadays brooms are also made from polymers. They may have an antistatic brush and a long plastic handle. They are convenient to work with, and such brooms are also good at collecting dirt from the floor covering. Synthetic products can be used to clean any surfaces, they do not scratch anything, do not generate dust (to avoid the dusting effect when cleaning with a regular broom, you have to wet it), they allow you to reach hard-to-reach places and sweep them well.
This is what a modern broom looks like
Synthetic brooms are used for cleaning both residential premises and local areas. They are purchased by enterprises for cleaning production areas. Their main advantage is durability compared to conventional brooms and lack of fragility.
Most often, synthetic brooms are called brushes - they just look exactly like brushes, bearing little resemblance to a standard and familiar broom. They are usually made of PVC. Their cost is greatly influenced by the quality of the raw materials, the length of the handle and bristles of the brush itself, strength and manufacturer brand.
Soft synthetic floor brush
By the way, in modern artificial brooms the length of the sweeping part (broom) has become much shorter than in their predecessor - the traditional broom. But the handle has become longer and can have a variety of configurations. These brooms are lightweight and easy to clean/storage; they can be treated and disinfected with various chemical compounds.
Table. Types of brushes.
Rectangular, with long handle
Laminate brush
Expenses
Now let's look at the production of brooms from a financial point of view. Land rent is the main expense item. In order to harvest a normal sorghum crop, you need about 20 hectares. If this is a lease from the state, then on average it will cost about 3 thousand rubles (for 1 year).
It is worth noting that renting plots from private companies will be much more expensive. Taking land from the state is much more profitable. Next comes the purchase of grain. One kilogram of sorghum costs approximately 35 rubles. For the entire rented area, you will have to harvest at least 1.5 quintals of sorghum. In terms of finances, it will cost 5-5.5 thousand rubles.
Renting agricultural equipment for weeding, sowing and harvesting will cost 20 thousand rubles (for 1 year). Well, storage space plays an important role. This is perhaps the most expensive “pleasure” for such a business. Its monthly rent will be 30 thousand rubles (if we take an area of 500 square meters). It will cost 360 thousand rubles per year. To purchase threads for the first batch of brooms (5 thousand units) you will have to shell out another 10 thousand rubles.
As for the manufacturing itself, purchasing machines instead of regular labor will seem expensive at first glance. But on the other hand, you will have to pay up to 100 thousand rubles for labor costs, that is, the machine will pay for its cost in about 3-6 months of the first work (if we take into account its 10-fold productivity). With manual work, you will never achieve such volumes of production, and therefore profits. The very last point is transportation costs, which will cost you 150-200 thousand rubles.
A broom is a simple tool, but requires preparation
A newly purchased broom needs preparation before it can be used to clean the floor. And it is important to prepare it correctly so that it serves well and for as long as possible. There are no exact instructions for pre-processing a broom, but many use those that grandmothers and mothers shared with them.
Broom for sweeping
A new broom can be filled with boiling water, preferably with the addition of a small amount of salt (at the rate of about 1 teaspoon per 1 liter of water). Although some use only 2 tsp. for a 10-liter bucket - this does not make the procedure any worse. Leave the broom in a bucket of water until the liquid cools completely (at least 3 hours). Next, it is dried (preferably in a pressed state).
Advice! For ease of use, the broom whisk can be trimmed - cut it at a slight angle. Then it will be easier to handle hard-to-reach places and corners.
You also need to properly care for the broom so that it lasts as long as possible and does not deteriorate.
- It is not recommended to store this cleaning tool in an upright position. The best option is to place the broom on a horizontal surface after use. As a last resort, the broom is placed in a corner with the sweeping part up.
- Before using, it is better to soak the broom in a hot salt solution each time.
Three-stitched sorghum brooms
Types of products
Sorghum brooms come in the following types:
- brooms for floors;
- brooms;
- brooms for cleaning clothes;
- sorghum panicles.
Depending on the method of fastening the working surface, there are:
- brooms with a pierced whisk;
- brooms with a tied whisk.
They are also divided by the number of panicle piercings. The most common:
- double-stitched;
- three-stitched;
- six-pierced.
How to knit brooms
Making a broom is not as simple as it seems at first glance. First of all, ripened sorghum is cut and sent for drying. It is usually done in a dry room where there is good air circulation. The drying time of the material is about 10 days. Next, the sorghum stems are cleared of leaves and excess seeds are removed - this is done with a special comb.
Raw materials are sorted by size - length and thickness of the stems. On average, their consumption to create one broom is 20-35 pieces. The length should be about 85 cm. The width of the panicle is 25-40 cm.
The stems of the plant are tightly pulled together using metal and rubber rings and fastened with special pins. Twine, nylon, wire, and willow branches can also be used. Finished brooms are sent from production for sale.
Making a broom with your own hands
You can grow your own broom in your own garden plot. It is enough to buy sorghum seeds, and by autumn you will have the necessary raw materials. Let's get acquainted with the technology of creating a broom at home.
Step 1. To make a broom with your own hands, sorghum stalks are grown in your garden plot. Seeds are planted in the spring.
Sorghum on a personal plot
Step 2. In the fall, when the sorghum is ripe, its stems are cut off. It is easy to recognize the moment of pruning sorghum - the leaves of the plant begin to turn yellow, and the seeds acquire a reddish color.
Cut sorghum stems
Step 3. Large leaves from the sorghum stems are removed - a small panicle remains, which is hung upside down in a dry, ventilated room from the ceiling for proper drying. The drying period is about 10-30 days, but it is better to leave sorghum until spring.
Step 4. Next, the seeds are removed from the sorghum stems - otherwise they will all end up in the room during cleaning. A regular metal bucket will help you cope with the seeds. A sorghum sprig is pushed into the bucket with a broom so that the metal handle of the bucket then rests on its stem. This way the handle is pressed against the bucket and the sorghum is between them. The stem stretches outward, and the seeds all remain in the bucket thanks to the bucket and handle.
Dried sorghum stalks
Removing seeds using a metal bucket
Step 5. It's time to form the broom. First, a smooth working surface of the broom is created. To do this, all sorghum stems are laid carefully on a flat surface. In this case, small branches should be inside the broom, large and powerful stems should be placed outside.
The stems should be laid straight
Laying the branches correctly
Step 6. To make a broom, you will need a rope about 2 m long, which is suspended on some kind of support. A wooden lever is tied to its lower part.
Next you will need a rope
A wooden lever is tied to the bottom of the rope
Step 7. Take a bunch of sorghum, select the place where the first knot will be located, and then make a loop of suspended rope around this place. The rope is fixed by pressing the foot on the lever. The rope is stretched and makes it possible to pull the broom as tightly as possible, which at this time rotates half a turn.
Forming a loop in place of the first knot
Step 8. After this, take a nylon thread and pass it through the middle of the sorghum bundle. At the location of the rope, the thread is wrapped around the future broom. The ends of the thread are tied after winding. After tying, the ends are passed through the middle of the bun again and pulled up. Excess threads are cut off.
The thread is passed through the middle of the bundle
The thread is wrapped around the broom
Step 9. Next, several more windings are made around the sorghum bunch in the same way.
Then you need to make several more such windings
Step 10. Excess stems are cut off using a sharp knife.
Trimming excess stems
Step 11. Next, the broom needs to be stitched. The following device is useful, created from two slats connected to each other by a piece of rubber. One of the strips has two holes, and the other has two bolts. The broom is placed between two slats and tightened with bolts. The panicle straightens out well.
This device will be used
The broom is placed between two slats
The panicle spreads out well
Step 12. The stitching will be done according to the principle of sewing shoes - with two threads and using an awl.
Let's get started with the firmware
Step 13. The broom is pierced with an awl and the thread laid at the bottom of the broom is picked up by it and pulled up. The top thread is pulled into the resulting loop. The lower thread is tightened.
Two threads are used
The thread laid at the bottom of the panicle is picked up by it and pulled up
The lower thread is tightened
Step 14. In the same way, the entire broom panicle is stitched in the selected place. The threads are tied at the end. You can knit a couple of rows for reliability. The ends of the thread are hidden inside the broom.
The entire broom panicle is stitched in the same way.
Step 15. Using the same principle, the place on the panicle located below the retaining slats is stitched. The broom is ready.
The broom is stitched in two places
Prices for brooms for cleaning
How to grow sorghum in the country
Sorghum seeds should be planted only after the soil has warmed to a temperature of 12-15°C to a depth of 10 cm. It is better to sow the crop where annual legumes grew before. Maintaining crop rotation will help improve results.
Sorghum is a very heat-loving plant that does not tolerate frost, including return frost. For this reason, it should be sown in open ground after consistently warm weather has established itself.
The soil is first well weeded or treated in another way, since the sprouts take a long time to emerge and during this time weeds can create significant inconvenience for them. In addition, sorghum does not like dense crops - so the distance between seeds should be at least 2 cm.
The seed is buried 2-4 cm (if the soil is dry or loose, then 7 cm). The distance between the rows can be different - from 25 to 50 cm. After the third true leaf appears on the seedlings, they are thinned out so that the distance between them is about 4-5 cm. Thinning is combined with weeding, which is repeated as soon as the sprouts reach 10 cm in height. height.
Since sorghum is quite drought-resistant, it needs to be watered as the soil dries out. If you grow sorghum exclusively for mating brooms, then it is not necessary to feed it with fertilizers - just following agricultural practices is enough.
It is customary to harvest broom sorghum in two stages. The first is that as soon as the leaves begin to turn yellow, the inflorescences will ripen and the seeds will darken. At this time, the panicles are cut off from the sorghum - material for future brooms. The second harvesting is carried out later, using a haymower.
The pests that attack sorghum include the cereal aphid, and the diseases include bacterial spot and smut diseases of cereal crops. To combat insects, plants are sprayed with insecticides or herbal infusions against aphids, and to combat diseases - with pesticides (Fitolavin).
