Grains in the garden.

[Wifezilla]

Someone on BYC gave me a HUGE bag of native grass seeds and I also bought some red clover seeds. I plan on growing plots of these to supplement my duck's feed.

If you have the room it makes sense to give it a try.

 

[old fashioned]

Yes, I'm still with ya and understand what you're saying.
I too am "experimenting" with what I can grow or not here, beyond basic veggies including saving my own seeds from year to year. I've had plenty of success with most standard veggie seeds (tomato, pepper, beans, squash, cukes, etc) and this year is the first time I've actually tried to save corn seeds-not sure why it's taken me so long to do it, but better late than never. I'm still working on those biennial seed producers, this year I'm trying cabbage-we'll see if it works. I've tried carrots several times and can get the seeds okay. It's just planting those saved seeds, I've only gotten white carrot roots. I've read somewhere that even the op's will go back to "wild". But I keep trying.
And this year I tried growing dry beans. We usually like Great Northerns, Navy, Red and Pinto(haven't tried this one yet) beans. These seeds I got from store bought bags of cook & eat beans. But nearly every one grew, produced LOTS of pods full of beans. I only grew a few for trial and didn't save them for growing again (maybe next year).
Now I'd like to try grains, but will keep doing my research.
Thanks for the info, and best of luck to ya.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Cool. Or should I say cool beans?

Not only is it fun and cost saving to save your own seeds, but honestly I think you will get higher quality seeds more frequently. From what I've read about the seeds they sell to home gardeners . . . . Anyway, my best carrots were my volunteer carrots this year.

I haven't had a problem with carrot seeds reverting. But maybe you have wild carrot in your area and the bees are cross pollinating for you?

Which dry beans did you have the best luck with? I am a fool for black beans, but didn't have much luck with them. So now I'm growing the yin yang beans. They are beautiful, as well as edible . . . and halfway to being the black beans I love so much! LOL

Keep up the research . . . maybe we should have our own thread for this? Well, you can pm me anytime with this sort of discussion.

 

[Farmfresh]

I have grown a 10 foot by 10 foot patch of winter wheat in my garden patch before. (Of course that was BEFORE I was diagnosed as Celiac and allergic to wheat! )

I just wanted to see if I could do it and it turned out GREAT! I simply sowed grains that were sold as whole grains for sprouting at my local health food store. They have a grinder there as well so people can fresh grind their own flour so the wheat was not very expensive. I planted in late fall on my old potato plot.

The wheat grew all winter. I hand cut it and "shocked" it to dry in my detached garage and then hand threshed it into my wheel barrow. I used the straw for my animals and garden mulch. I hand winnowed the grain in the front yard on a windy day and ended with 10 pounds of grain for the 3 pounds I planted which was good enough for me. I had the harvest in in plenty of time to plant beans on the space for a fall crop as well.

This fall I am growing oats. I planted them for a ground cover and green manure crop if they produce so much the better.

 

[Farmfresh]

By the way ... the oats I am growing are simply whole oats purchased at my local feed store. I use them to sprout for the chickens in winter and so I know they spout great. The came up like gang busters in the fall garden, following my sweet corn, and are now about 10 inches high and thick and green.

 

[homesteader]

Old fashioned one place you might try for wheat, rye, barley and so on is a health food store. These should be non GMO and organic seed though you will need to know if they are winter or spring type seed. I know here in Michigan almost all the regular grain seed you might get from commercial places is hybrid and or GMO.
Plus you can buy just what you need in amounts.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

That got me thinking . . . so I looked on-line for a source.

This website is a great site for lots of stuff, but here is a page where you can find organic seed suppliers for your area.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Also . . . the poultry feed I buy is certified organic and it is whole grain. It sprouts in my garden, if it is dropped. That is another possible source, especially if your feed is locally grown.

 

[old fashioned]

Great, and thanks to all for the info. Now ya all got me a little worried, since I've been giving my chickens some of their grain treats (feed store and organic from grocery store) and just tossing it on the ground in the garden to encourage them to do my digging. I figure with what they've missed, maybe half of that might sprout and grow by next season I should have enough to feed 50 chickens or make several lbs of flour-maybe both. LOL Oh well, we shall see.

By the way, I do have something growing in the yard that the stalks look very much like either oats or barley with the long "hairs"(? not sure what else to call it?) attached to the "kernals". Does wheat have these so called hairs? I've tried to clean a few, but I'm not sure what I'd be looking for in the natural state. Though it's possible its still just a weed. Darn it!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

It could be wheat or barley. Try a google image search.