Oct. 18--SEBRING -- The 15-foot tall plants with browning leaves and rust-colored flower stalks swaying in the breeze almost seemed like something out of "Jack The Beanstalk."

If you haven't seen them around Highlands County, there's a good reason why. They are not from these parts.

Last spring, Larry Harbinson planted them in a portion of a 2 1/2-acre test plot in the boonies of Highlands County where the county's inmate farm is located.

Wednesday, the sweet sorghum crops loomed over him as he bent over to slice off a stalk. He cut a little piece and offered it for tasting. It was sweet with tons of fiber that you have to spit out, and a lingering plant taste.

As manager of the inmate farm, Harbinson usually grows okra, zucchini and squash.

But these days, he's a part of an unusual project that's testing the viability of growing crops foreign to citrus country. Crops with foreign-sounding names like jatropha and switchgrass, crops that won't end up on your plate but whose byproducts may fill your gas tank one day and perhaps provide local orange growers an alternative should citrus continue to be ravaged by diseases.

What's also driving this experimental planting project, spearheaded by the Highlands County Extension Service, are two proposed ethanol plants expected to break ground next year in the county and the general expectation among some circles that production of biofuels like ethanol and biodiesels can only grow.

Verenium and British Petroleum have announced plans to build a cellulosic biofuels plant in southeast Highlands County, called Vercipia. A second plant that will use sweet sorghum is also on the table to break ground next year.

Should that happen, demand for energy crops like sweet sorghum and jatropha will rise, and Highlands County with its open landmass and agricultural base stands to gain.

At least that's the premise that's driving the extension service's experimental growing operation.

So far, extension service director John Alleyne is excited about what he's seen come out of the ground.

Anyone who does any gardening in Highlands County will tell you the biggest challenge they face: Keeping plants and flowers happy in the county's sandy soil that drains water and nutrients like a sieve.

Sweet sorghum, for instance, thrives in clay loams.

Would it grow here and serve its purpose?

The answer is yes, Alleyne said. To a layman, a 15-foot tall plant cannot have growth problems but what Alleyne is also concerned with is the sugar content in the stalk.

Ethanol from sweet sorghum is made by fermenting the sugar. If the sugar content in the crop is not good enough, the viability of using it is under question.