Wheat Farmer Steve

[cwhit590]

Cool. Thanks for the info Steve!

I think next year I will be growing more flowers/everlastings and fewer veggies. My fam just can't keep up with all the produce! I'd like to see if I could possibly sell fresh flowers at a farmers market or *maybe* to a florist....we'll see what next year brings.

I was looking at the millet too...I liked the one called 'Highlander' - kinda cone-shaped heads on drooping stalks....but I'm wondering, do the wild birds go after that stuff before you can harvest it??? They look like the millet sprays we used to feed our pet birds!

 

[digitS']

That is exactly what it is as I understand it, C.

It is the spray millet that you can buy at the pet shop. Not the millet in birdseed but the long sprays that you can hang in the cage.

You have to keep a close eye on it. One year, I didn't. It seemed to take just about 1 week for the finches to "harvest" about 75% of my millet. As soon as you see evidence that they are eating it, you've got to go thru and cut whatever looks good to you. You can keep coming back over the next few days to get the late-maturing stems.

Birds are like children, they are God's way of telling you that you aren't in complete control out there in the real world.

Steve

 

[cwhit590]

Birds are like children, they are God's way of telling you that you aren't in complete control out there in the real world.

Steve

Amen! I wonder if the hornworms in the tomatoes count too....



So with the millet, do you harvest and dry it just like the wheat? Do you have to harvest before it gets completely dry? And you save your own seed for that as well?

Do the birds/critters bother the wheat at all in the field?

And.....how much seed did you start off with? I'd almost just like to try a packet of the wheat, but 100 seeds doesn't sound like much. Did you start small and work your way up from there over the years?

 

[Reinbeau]

Do you eat your wheat, Steve? There were two great articles in the Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener's newspapers, all about growing and harvesting wheat. I wish I had more room....wait a minute, I do[i/] up in Maine, I wonder if I could grow it up there (or is it deer food??)

Anyhoo, here are links to the two articles titled "Is There A Place For Wheat In Your Garden?":

Part I: Types of Wheat, Weed Control and Planting

Part II: Harvesting and Propagating Wheat

The discussion on harvesting was very interesting to me:

Whether or not you companion another crop with wheat, you need to know when the grain is ready to harvest. Once the heads form, you must watch the development of the maturing seed, which goes through four stages: the milk stage (think corn-on-the-cob), when the kernel can be squished like a bug with your thumbnail; the soft dough stage, when the kernel can be squished but is not milky; the hard dough stage, when the thumbnail can dent the kernel with some pressure; and lastly the flint stage, when the kernel is brittle-hard, as you would grind it for flour.

Heres the hitch: Even though the flint stage is how you store and use wheat, for best quality the crop should be reaped at the hard dough stage. Hold that thought; well come back to it.

The quality of the nutrition is heightened by proper harvesting. The combine method relies on the wheat being fully (really overly) mature, and the resulting wheat is "relatively 'trashy'and indigestible compared with the stook-cured wheat". Again, food quality goes by the wayside for expedience. Learn something new every day!

 

[digitS']

Interesting, Reinbeau! But don't stress on the growing of wheat. More so that corn or anything else, wheat was the crop of the pioneers. If they could scratch up the ground enuf to kill the native grass and weeds, they could sow and harvest wheat.

No, I don't grow wheat for my own bread and noodles . There are several hundred acres just down the road from me in white spring wheat. Years ago, I was running those combines (and snacking on the wheat in the bin .)

So with the millet, do you harvest and dry it just like the wheat? yes

Do you have to harvest before it gets completely dry? yes

And you save your own seed for that as well? yes

Do the birds/critters bother the wheat at all in the field? a tiny bit from the birds, critters like grasshoppers and aphids damage the plants

Did you start small and work your way up from there over the years? yes, again!

Steve

 

[obsessed]

Cool can you post pics of your bouquets?

 

[Reinbeau]

The biggest problem for me would be irrigation, Steve, we don't live up there, and we're on a shallow well - how much rain would I have to hope for to avoid having to irrigate? I do have neighbors who could keep an eye on a sprinkler on a timer.....

 

[digitS']

There is lots of dryland spring wheat around here.

precipitation in inches
May: 1.6
June: 1.2
July: .8
August: .7

Looks doable for most anywhere but in true desert. I don't know what happens in the monsoon parts of the world.



Steve

 

[cwhit590]

Interesting, Reinbeau! But don't stress on the growing of wheat. More so that corn or anything else, wheat was the crop of the pioneers. If they could scratch up the ground enuf to kill the native grass and weeds, they could sow and harvest wheat.

No, I don't grow wheat for my own bread and noodles . There are several hundred acres just down the road from me in white spring wheat. Years ago, I was running those combines (and snacking on the wheat in the bin .)

So with the millet, do you harvest and dry it just like the wheat? yes

Do you have to harvest before it gets completely dry? yes

And you save your own seed for that as well? yes

Do the birds/critters bother the wheat at all in the field? a tiny bit from the birds, critters like grasshoppers and aphids damage the plants

Did you start small and work your way up from there over the years? yes, again!

Steve

Thank you Steve!

...ok I feel enlightened now....

 

[digitS']

Cool can you post pics of your bouquets?

O', there isn't a bouquet here and it was several years ago that the picture was taken.

The wreath is my wife's work. It is made out of strawflowers, nigella and gomphrena. You can see bunches of the wheat and millet.

Along in September or October, there may be a bouquet to take a picture of around here .

S'