A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

I would never have guessed that this could work; I assumed that rice we can buy on the shelf has had enough processing to render it no longer viable as a growable seed. Sort of fascinating that you got such a unique and pretty type of rice to grow that way, even if you got no further seeds.

I've an eye for that Utrecht Blue wheat, in the photos I've seen it's so striking and beautiful. I'm still tempted to grow it, but as a celiac that would probably be a lapse in judgement. Then again, it's not like I plan to cook it, more like stick it in a vase. I dunno, there is just so many interesting things to try it sort of falls lower on the list I guess.

After my little amaranth experiment this summer I'm tempted to try other varieties. It was such an impressive plant and so many people asked me for seeds for it, being that they were growing in the front yard. I wouldn't eat the seed heads, but the flowery tops are eye candy. There is a pastel pink one I'd like to try, 'Flamingo'. I wonder if they can cross pollinate? Being a grain, and thus wind pollinated, I'd think yes?

It works like this. White rice WON'T grow, since it's been polished (had all of the germ stripped off of it) and is basically now just the starchy endosperm. But non polished rices, like brown rice still have all of their germ, and so are viable. You don't actually NEED the hull to be there to get them to grow (though the process of removing it does tend to break a lot of grains, so most people would leave it on planting stock).

I'm not sure if all grains are wind pollinated, but all GRASSES are. Amaranth, while considered a grain nutritionally, is not a grass, so I don't know if it is wind pollinated.

One warning if you do ever try and grow forbidden rice (or cook it). WEAR OLD CLOTHES. All of those anthocyanins mean that the water you soak it in basically turns into DYE, and anything you splash with it is basically going to be purple FOREVER. We had the famous "Black Death Paella" incident, which looked like blueberry pie filling (and stained the enamel pot we cooked it in so bad we had to throw it out. Or the turtleneck back in college after I opened the jar I had been soaking while I was back home for the holidays (which was the worse possible time to get it stained, as the airline has just lost my luggage with all of my clothes, so I didn't really have anything to change into.)*

As someone who has grown for the vase, I should warn you that getting vase-worthy grain is sort of dependent on your pest issues. The heads have to be full and clean for it to look good, and that's not the case with everything (see my comments about the shot wheat).

From my own experience, both the black and gold emmer wheats from Kusa grow very nicely as display heads (Salt Spring has both). In general, durum wheats make better display wheats than bread wheats (since they have that classic "boxy" shape with the long, flat topped beard, while a lot of moderns bread wheats are sort of sloppy looking). Bearded generally look better than beardless. In the case of barley, six row generally look better than two row (there was a beautiful squat six row I used to have in college, looked like a papyrus head in shape).

"Club" wheat (T.a, compactum) CAN have a very cute, "chubby" look to it, but it depends on the variety. You do NOT want the Mt. Pima club Native Seeds carries (it's beard is very messy and irregular). If you can get stuff from the OSSI up there in Canada, the Rocky Mountain Grex they offer might have some potential if selected (club wheats were popular in parts of the West in older times, but have mostly been supplanted by modern hybrids now which have "standard" heads.

Poulard wheat (T.a. polonicum) can be interesting (looks like a bunch of oat heads combined into a wheat head) rivet wheat (T.a. turgitum) can look like a bunch of wheat heads all bunched together (but tends not to have particularly well formed ones, so you wind up with a blob).

 

[Zeedman]

After my little amaranth experiment this summer I'm tempted to try other varieties. It was such an impressive plant and so many people asked me for seeds for it, being that they were growing in the front yard. I wouldn't eat the seed heads, but the flowery tops are eye candy. There is a pastel pink one I'd like to try, 'Flamingo'. I wonder if they can cross pollinate? Being a grain, and thus wind pollinated, I'd think yes?

Yes. Wind (or less likely insects) can cause crossing between different varieties.

One of the biggest potential problems with growing grains is keeping birds & rodents from harvesting before you do. Here, since my neighbors on both sides have bird feeders, I would have to cover the ripening heads with netting. Maybe get a pet falcon to police the garden.

Ground squirrels can be destructive too, they will pull the stalks down to get the seeds... and in my experience, do so just before the stage at which we would harvest.

 

[Branching Out]

We only have regular squirrels around here, but after hearing so many of you mention ground squirrels I finally had to look them up. If I have this right they are fifteen pound rodents with bushy tails that burrow in your gardens?? That doesn't sound very nice at all.

 

[digitS']

@Branching Out ,

I think you are describing the weight of Marmots and Groundhogs.

We have Columbian ground squirrels here, as does much of eastern British Columbia. "An average adult weighs more than a pound." LINK They aren't nearly as heavy as the marmots that are also residents. The ground squirrels will lay bare the areas around their burrows. And, they will eat most anything that might be growing in a vegetable garden.

Steve

 

[heirloomgal]

Yes. Wind (or less likely insects) can cause crossing between different varieties.

One of the biggest potential problems with growing grains is keeping birds & rodents from harvesting before you do. Here, since my neighbors on both sides have bird feeders, I would have to cover the ripening heads with netting. Maybe get a pet falcon to police the garden.

Ground squirrels can be destructive too, they will pull the stalks down to get the seeds... and in my experience, do so just before the stage at which we would harvest.

I had a small experience with this when I grew the Dragon's Claw millet; I couldn't believe the little birds that flitted around in among the low growing plants. It didn't occur to me, having no experience with grains besides corn and sorghum (which birds here don't seem to care about), that they were eating the seeds. I realized the pirating too late and my crop was all but gone. Never grew that millet again, but I suspect it's the same little brown birds that will steal drying lettuce seeds as well.

 

[heirloomgal]

Slowly persevering in shelling my way through the dried bags of pea pods.

Taking so much longer that I anticipated. I admit I find seed harvesting & shelling of all kinds deeply satisfactory and peas are no exception to that, but.... they aren't quite as fun to do as the beans. This was a year where I regrew a few peas from stocks I had that had gotten low, and yet again the peas showed me how much better they do when grown in the same garden. My best yields, regardless of height etc, were from my own saved pea seeds, not new-to-me varieties. It's actually shocking how well home saved pea seeds yield compared to new trials. I do so appreciate this quality in the ever so charming little pea.

The storage beefsteak tomatoes are still holding up, odd as that is. They look like perfectly ripe beefsteaks and yet they just hold and hold. Got all the beans in jars, and labelled. Finally cut the drying heads of Siam Queen basil. Coriander plants are upturned in a bucket in the dry room because they're almost dry, if not done. Critters were stealing them and eating them in the garden so I pulled them up. If they had been squirrelling them away it wouldn't have been so offensive, but they were turning them to crumb dust under the walking boards. Given how cold it's going to be tonight I took the runner bean pods and last few other bean pods in from the dry room. It really is wintertime now. The dog doesn't even like it out there anymore.

Time to start dreaming of next year's garden rows. I've already got Scarlet Kale, Portuguese Tronchuda Kale, some new herbs, Texas Plume Vintage Rose celosia, Oklahoma Salmon zinnias, Egyptian Walking onions.... swirling in my imagination.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

We only have regular squirrels around here, but after hearing so many of you mention ground squirrels I finally had to look them up. If I have this right they are fifteen pound rodents with bushy tails that burrow in your gardens?? That doesn't sound very nice at all.

Ground squirrels have literally run tunnels around the foundation of the house , out buildings and barn. Trees and shrubs the garden looks like swisscheese. I have tried a number of ways to catch them that did not work all summer. I finally purchases a Squirrelinator trap. Caught both the ground squirrels the little terrors in 2 days .

More info on Belding ground squirrels…

Belding’s ground squirrel

On our trip to southeastern Oregon’s high desert last week, we were astounded at the number of mammal species we encountered in just four days – pronghorns, deer, marmots, voles, squirr…

wonderingaroundoregon.wordpress.com

Here they are in the trap.

M