Pulsegleaner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2014
- Messages
- 3,539
- Reaction score
- 6,938
- Points
- 306
- Location
- Lower Hudson Valley, New York
Hi,
This might not be the right section to post this (though there doesn't seem to be a field crops/grains section). It may not even be the right FORUM to try, since I am aware that most of the people here are gardners/ small scale, not crop farmers. But I am willing to try, in the hope that at least SOME of you do grow grain, and can give me the help I need
Last year, I bought a large number of packets of species wheat (i.e. wheats that are species other than the standard avestium) to try and plant out (common wheat usually doesn't do all that well for me, so I've been trying the other species on the grounds some of them are probably tougher. Plus since all of the wheat winds up in vases anyway [I don't have the space to grow on the scale I'd need to grind] it gives me some variation in shapes and more pleasing forms (modern bread wheat is kind of ugly)).
Here is my issue, when I got the seeds, they did NOT come with any growing instructions and more importantly with any indication as to which were winter sown and which spring. So I have no clue as when to plant them. Since all of them came from Prairie Garden seeds in Saskatchewan, I want to assume they are all winter (since it seems to me that Canada's growing season is probably too short for any spring sown wheat, unless it grows very fast) But I am not sure. I have tried to contact them several times, but have gotten not response back. And a web search has not yielded any results.
I already have some evidence that the above guess may not be correct. This previous year I sowed a packet of sprat barley (Horedum zeocriton) and it was a disaster. No heads ever showed up, which might indicate a winter sown crop. but then it was also the first plant to keel over as soon as the frost showed up (so, unless it has a massive root system, it obviously isn't designed to be winter sown (given it is a succulent, it would be odd for it to be.)
I suppose I could hedge my bets and plant half of each packet now, half in the spring. But I already have trouble getting pollination with the tiny amounts I use (especially after the birds have stolen a lot of the seed) and I'm more than a little worried that, if I do that, I'll cut the population down so low that getting any grain back AT ALL will be impossible.
So here is my species list. If anyone out there has any experience growing ANY of these, please let me know.
isphanicum
jacubzineri
petropavlovsky
timopheevi
vavilovii
zhukovsky
This might not be the right section to post this (though there doesn't seem to be a field crops/grains section). It may not even be the right FORUM to try, since I am aware that most of the people here are gardners/ small scale, not crop farmers. But I am willing to try, in the hope that at least SOME of you do grow grain, and can give me the help I need
Last year, I bought a large number of packets of species wheat (i.e. wheats that are species other than the standard avestium) to try and plant out (common wheat usually doesn't do all that well for me, so I've been trying the other species on the grounds some of them are probably tougher. Plus since all of the wheat winds up in vases anyway [I don't have the space to grow on the scale I'd need to grind] it gives me some variation in shapes and more pleasing forms (modern bread wheat is kind of ugly)).
Here is my issue, when I got the seeds, they did NOT come with any growing instructions and more importantly with any indication as to which were winter sown and which spring. So I have no clue as when to plant them. Since all of them came from Prairie Garden seeds in Saskatchewan, I want to assume they are all winter (since it seems to me that Canada's growing season is probably too short for any spring sown wheat, unless it grows very fast) But I am not sure. I have tried to contact them several times, but have gotten not response back. And a web search has not yielded any results.
I already have some evidence that the above guess may not be correct. This previous year I sowed a packet of sprat barley (Horedum zeocriton) and it was a disaster. No heads ever showed up, which might indicate a winter sown crop. but then it was also the first plant to keel over as soon as the frost showed up (so, unless it has a massive root system, it obviously isn't designed to be winter sown (given it is a succulent, it would be odd for it to be.)
I suppose I could hedge my bets and plant half of each packet now, half in the spring. But I already have trouble getting pollination with the tiny amounts I use (especially after the birds have stolen a lot of the seed) and I'm more than a little worried that, if I do that, I'll cut the population down so low that getting any grain back AT ALL will be impossible.
So here is my species list. If anyone out there has any experience growing ANY of these, please let me know.
isphanicum
jacubzineri
petropavlovsky
timopheevi
vavilovii
zhukovsky
