fifelee
Well-Known Member
We have clay soil as well and generally calculate a foot of soil holds 2" water. More organic mater will hold more. The top foot will evaporate quicker so I wouldn't count on a full 2"there.
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
Great! That is extremely helpful.
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
Good on ya! Post your updates here -- will be so psyched to see how it's going.
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
I really need to figure out when my barley will be ready to harvest. I need an estimate to tell the corn people, because they need the field soon.
The answer depends on accurately assigning a stage to the developing grain heads. The information available on barley plant development is not great, and the info on kernel development is even worse, crappy even! Most extension websites will list the stages of growth but assume you already know what they mean. I'm looking at you, Minnesota!
Anyway, here's roughly what happens after heads emerge. Once the whole head is out, kernels begin flowering from the center of the head outward toward the bottom and top. Then, the grain grows from a small embryo at the bottom of the kernel to a full-length grain. This time of growth covers the stages from "watery ripe" to "milk"
Why those names? The defining feature of watery and milk stages is that when you crush the grain, a bunch of liquid comes out. The liquid is supposed to be clear in the beginning, and then become milky, hence the names. I noticed this change in liquid color, but I thought the grain growth was more significant.
Now, when I crush grains from my most advanced tillers, out comes a soft wet clump of starch, much like the jelly in the bottom of a bubble tea.
You can see that nasty-looking (but delicous -- you bet I ate it) thing, covered in a generous amount of milky liquid.
Despite the copious fluid, I believe this constitutes the transition from a "milk" stage to a "dough" stage, because the stuff is becoming solid. Can anyone else comment on the kernel stage based on that photo?
Here's another clue: the grains are becoming plump.
They still crush with a fingernail, but it's a huge change from the soft planty feel the heads have had until now. Getting plump seems to be the way to distinguish late from early soft dough kernels.
Here's yet another way to measure: GDD since heading. I noticed lots of awns appearing in an entry dated March 8. Since that date, there have been 563 GDD. It took Merit's kernels on the main stem (most advanced tiller), about the same amount of GDD, 537, to reach late soft dough stage.
Please set me straight if you know better, but I'm going to proceed assuming that I'm in late soft dough.
Now to predict the future: I can harvest once kernels reach physiological maturity, right after late hard, not soft, dough stage. Merit kernels were at late hard dough at 1028 GDD after heading. I will hit this mark, according to weather.com's GDD predictor, on May 10. The next week, Merit was at the "kernel hard" stage of ripening, which is after the point when it's ok to harvest. This took 1284 GDD since heading, and I should reach that mark on May 22.
Friends, this is joyous news! If I'm right, at least some of the tillers will bear maltable grains between May 10 and May 22. The corn people need the field by "mid-May" so I'm calling May 22 close enough. Yes!
Now, it's a little more complicated than that, because most farmers stop irrigating sometime before the harvest. This, paradoxically, speeds maturity. Lynn Gallagher, malting barley breeder at UC Davis, explains:
To sum up, there is a tradeoff between yield and maturity date, and this tradeoff is controlled by available water. The U Idaho blog, for example, recommends stopping irrigation back in the early soft dough stage.
What to do? Well, it would not be worth the risk to try to increase yield by continuing to irrigate, only to end up with a bunch of underdeveloped and unmaltable grains come mid-May. There is still 9-11" of moist soil, which in my loamy clay is probably less than 2" of water (thanks Ryan). It will be highs of 60's to 70's for the next week, so if those temps continue, I can expect my plants in soft dough to use .1-.13" of water per day. That means there is 17 days of water in the field -- less if evaporation is higher in the top foot of soil as Ryan suggested, and more if the plants begin to use less water as they enter hard dough.
17 days of water in the ground -- I frankly have no idea what to do with that number. But I can at least say that I won't run out of water in the next week. Decision: I won't resume irrigation for now (it was already off because of last week's rain), and I'll see how the plants respond as the water is depleted. I really need those late tillers to die, so I'll be watching them carefully over the next week.
There we go. Feeling a bit more in control.
The answer depends on accurately assigning a stage to the developing grain heads. The information available on barley plant development is not great, and the info on kernel development is even worse, crappy even! Most extension websites will list the stages of growth but assume you already know what they mean. I'm looking at you, Minnesota!
Anyway, here's roughly what happens after heads emerge. Once the whole head is out, kernels begin flowering from the center of the head outward toward the bottom and top. Then, the grain grows from a small embryo at the bottom of the kernel to a full-length grain. This time of growth covers the stages from "watery ripe" to "milk"
Why those names? The defining feature of watery and milk stages is that when you crush the grain, a bunch of liquid comes out. The liquid is supposed to be clear in the beginning, and then become milky, hence the names. I noticed this change in liquid color, but I thought the grain growth was more significant.
Now, when I crush grains from my most advanced tillers, out comes a soft wet clump of starch, much like the jelly in the bottom of a bubble tea.
You can see that nasty-looking (but delicous -- you bet I ate it) thing, covered in a generous amount of milky liquid.
Despite the copious fluid, I believe this constitutes the transition from a "milk" stage to a "dough" stage, because the stuff is becoming solid. Can anyone else comment on the kernel stage based on that photo?
Here's another clue: the grains are becoming plump.
They still crush with a fingernail, but it's a huge change from the soft planty feel the heads have had until now. Getting plump seems to be the way to distinguish late from early soft dough kernels.
Here's yet another way to measure: GDD since heading. I noticed lots of awns appearing in an entry dated March 8. Since that date, there have been 563 GDD. It took Merit's kernels on the main stem (most advanced tiller), about the same amount of GDD, 537, to reach late soft dough stage.
Please set me straight if you know better, but I'm going to proceed assuming that I'm in late soft dough.
Now to predict the future: I can harvest once kernels reach physiological maturity, right after late hard, not soft, dough stage. Merit kernels were at late hard dough at 1028 GDD after heading. I will hit this mark, according to weather.com's GDD predictor, on May 10. The next week, Merit was at the "kernel hard" stage of ripening, which is after the point when it's ok to harvest. This took 1284 GDD since heading, and I should reach that mark on May 22.
Friends, this is joyous news! If I'm right, at least some of the tillers will bear maltable grains between May 10 and May 22. The corn people need the field by "mid-May" so I'm calling May 22 close enough. Yes!
Now, it's a little more complicated than that, because most farmers stop irrigating sometime before the harvest. This, paradoxically, speeds maturity. Lynn Gallagher, malting barley breeder at UC Davis, explains:
As the late tillers die a certain percentage of the
photosynthate is re-mobilized and sent to stronger, earlier tillers. C14
studies have been done on this about 30 years ago. It is only natural that
when the water is cut off the late developing tillers die. Sometimes as
many as 50% of the total tiller number per plant may die and produce
nothing. If the planting density is optimal late tillers may not develop
because of shading. Usually but not always the maitre brin (MB) is the
strongest tiller - that is the main stem. T1 thru Tn usually become less
productive than MB.
photosynthate is re-mobilized and sent to stronger, earlier tillers. C14
studies have been done on this about 30 years ago. It is only natural that
when the water is cut off the late developing tillers die. Sometimes as
many as 50% of the total tiller number per plant may die and produce
nothing. If the planting density is optimal late tillers may not develop
because of shading. Usually but not always the maitre brin (MB) is the
strongest tiller - that is the main stem. T1 thru Tn usually become less
productive than MB.
To sum up, there is a tradeoff between yield and maturity date, and this tradeoff is controlled by available water. The U Idaho blog, for example, recommends stopping irrigation back in the early soft dough stage.
What to do? Well, it would not be worth the risk to try to increase yield by continuing to irrigate, only to end up with a bunch of underdeveloped and unmaltable grains come mid-May. There is still 9-11" of moist soil, which in my loamy clay is probably less than 2" of water (thanks Ryan). It will be highs of 60's to 70's for the next week, so if those temps continue, I can expect my plants in soft dough to use .1-.13" of water per day. That means there is 17 days of water in the field -- less if evaporation is higher in the top foot of soil as Ryan suggested, and more if the plants begin to use less water as they enter hard dough.
17 days of water in the ground -- I frankly have no idea what to do with that number. But I can at least say that I won't run out of water in the next week. Decision: I won't resume irrigation for now (it was already off because of last week's rain), and I'll see how the plants respond as the water is depleted. I really need those late tillers to die, so I'll be watching them carefully over the next week.
There we go. Feeling a bit more in control.
jgln
Well-Known Member
Ever watch the TV show on RFTV called Ag Phd? Pretty cool show if you are into this stuff. Two farmers who are brothers host the show and talk about all aspects of farming crops. They even have a quiz called "Weed of the Week" where you try and guess the weed. lol
fifelee
Well-Known Member
Sorry I haven't replied quicker. Been farming myself. We will be planting a about five hundred acres of barley this year. Will try it post some pictures.
Drumm, You have a better grasp on the plants life cycle then me (I've never even used the GDD data) so I bet you are better then me at figuring out when to harvest. I just bit a few kernels and if they crunch we pull out the combine.
Sounds like you have a good plan and enough water in the ground. If someone else needs the field then I would hold of on watering (maybe give it a quick shot if you have a really hot day). You can kill the green tillers with Roundup a week or so before harvest. Another way to get the crop off a few days sooner would be to cut the crop off and lay it in shallow piles in another area to ripen. Of course do this after the majority of the kernels reach the hard stage. Watch the weather as rain on your piles is bad. Great thread as always. Looking forward to the pictures of your harvest.
Drumm, You have a better grasp on the plants life cycle then me (I've never even used the GDD data) so I bet you are better then me at figuring out when to harvest. I just bit a few kernels and if they crunch we pull out the combine.
Sounds like you have a good plan and enough water in the ground. If someone else needs the field then I would hold of on watering (maybe give it a quick shot if you have a really hot day). You can kill the green tillers with Roundup a week or so before harvest. Another way to get the crop off a few days sooner would be to cut the crop off and lay it in shallow piles in another area to ripen. Of course do this after the majority of the kernels reach the hard stage. Watch the weather as rain on your piles is bad. Great thread as always. Looking forward to the pictures of your harvest.
fifelee
Well-Known Member
Yes the Hefty Brothers. Those guys have helped me become a better farmer. This last conference they held in our are must have had 1000 farmers attend. Never seen so many pickup trucks in my life.
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
Haha, this show is amazing! Thanks for the tip, jgln. Watching it, I've never felt so nerdy and so ...rugged at the same time. I probably could have just watched through these archives instead of pestering you poor folks all season.
Ryan, thanks! 500 acres -- that's a whole lot of beer!! Definitely looking forward to your pics.
Ryan, thanks! 500 acres -- that's a whole lot of beer!! Definitely looking forward to your pics.
jgln
Well-Known Member
I don't farm, just a big garden, but watching that show makes you realize it is not just throwing some seeds in the ground. They way they talk about fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides...makes my head spin. Crack me up how they disagree.
jgln
Well-Known Member
Yeah, neat network. I am not into country music, horses, cattle but I love growing stuff and have an interest in farming and they have that. They have a show called "Corn College" that is all about growing corn....that's it, growing corn. Never thought there was that much too it, I grow corn just fine...most of the time. But I guess that is the point, if your income depends on it you better make sure it grows.
jgln
Well-Known Member
I have winter wheat in the garden as a cover crop, nice because a couple tills and it dies. I am going to leave a strip grow to maturity, nothing else the chickens will enjoy it. Getting ready to plow under the rest in preparation for tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
The non-barley part of the farm was plowed under to prepare for corn:
This gave me a chance to see some of the plants I haven't been able to get to for about a month now. (You can see the old net fence, designed to deter guinea fowl, completely grown into by the stand. Oops!)
In this part of the field, I was glad to see a bunch of late unfilled tillers with yellow flag leaves, indicating that they're on their way to being aborted by the plant:
This is the intended result of stopping irrigation. The late tillers die so all the photosynthates are redirected to the most advanced heads. As a result, they mature faster. Or so the story goes. It turns out that a good part of my field, the part that has been behind all season long, is still in late milk / early soft dough stage! That stage is usually too early to stop watering. Over the past week, I watched the soil moisture level drop from 9-11" to 6-8", down to 4-6" on Monday after a blistering weekend, (80's!) so I gave just that half of the field a dousing (10 minutes from the heads) on Monday.
I probably should have held off, because today they're getting soaked with rain! So much for the strategy of letting the more advanced plants dry out. Nature will do what it wants.
Anyway, there is a sign that some plants (in the other, more advanced half of the field, naturally), are nearing maturity.
Here's a closer look:
Glumes are the little hairs at the base of each grain. When they completely loose their green color, that is a sign that the tiller is physiologically mature. These guys are beginning to turn yellow. It's unclear to me what the glumes are for, besides telling when your grain is mature!
The other sign of physiological maturity is loss of color in the peduncle, which is the stem that the head grows on. This hasn't happened yet in any of the plants. But, the grains are clearly in hard dough stage now:
It's beginning to look like an actual grain.
Now that the barley is all by itself, you can see the extreme shading this area has on the west side (the far side of the photo) -- direct sunlight was over by 3pm during most of the winter. Despite the light limitation, development has stayed on schedule!
This gave me a chance to see some of the plants I haven't been able to get to for about a month now. (You can see the old net fence, designed to deter guinea fowl, completely grown into by the stand. Oops!)
In this part of the field, I was glad to see a bunch of late unfilled tillers with yellow flag leaves, indicating that they're on their way to being aborted by the plant:
This is the intended result of stopping irrigation. The late tillers die so all the photosynthates are redirected to the most advanced heads. As a result, they mature faster. Or so the story goes. It turns out that a good part of my field, the part that has been behind all season long, is still in late milk / early soft dough stage! That stage is usually too early to stop watering. Over the past week, I watched the soil moisture level drop from 9-11" to 6-8", down to 4-6" on Monday after a blistering weekend, (80's!) so I gave just that half of the field a dousing (10 minutes from the heads) on Monday.
I probably should have held off, because today they're getting soaked with rain! So much for the strategy of letting the more advanced plants dry out. Nature will do what it wants.
Anyway, there is a sign that some plants (in the other, more advanced half of the field, naturally), are nearing maturity.
Here's a closer look:
Glumes are the little hairs at the base of each grain. When they completely loose their green color, that is a sign that the tiller is physiologically mature. These guys are beginning to turn yellow. It's unclear to me what the glumes are for, besides telling when your grain is mature!
The other sign of physiological maturity is loss of color in the peduncle, which is the stem that the head grows on. This hasn't happened yet in any of the plants. But, the grains are clearly in hard dough stage now:
It's beginning to look like an actual grain.
Now that the barley is all by itself, you can see the extreme shading this area has on the west side (the far side of the photo) -- direct sunlight was over by 3pm during most of the winter. Despite the light limitation, development has stayed on schedule!
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
That's a gorgeous spot you've been able to line up. This is a really, really cool thread.
Indianhead_Brewer
Well-Known Member
Thanks for sharing this great adventure! Considering the premium on ag acreage in California this is quite a feat you are pulling off. I hope the weather cooperates for the very short remainder of your growing season. I'll let you in on a little secret....you probably have a better feel for what is going on with your crop than most barley/winter wheat farmers I know in California. Most of them are on a set it and forget it schedule. Keep up the good work on behalf of local beer! 
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
Thanks again for the kind words guys!
Haha, actually I was hoping that if I have the chance to do this again, I could be more on a set it and forget it schedule! But I really haven't known what was going on most of the time this year, so the help I've gotten from HBT has been completely necessary for the crop's success.
Other sources of seed -- yes, the National Plant Germplasm System will send you 5g of just about any seed in the world. That's where I got the bere barley seed from. It expands very quickly -- the first season you'll just have enough for a corner of your garden, but then next year you'll have enough for 120 sq. feet or so. That's where I'm at with the bere -- I expect to get enough seed for a few thousand sq. feet next year.
There are also heirloom seed companies on the web that sometimes carry barley seeds, like Sustainable Seed Co. If you find any more, post them here, because I'd like to know.
Most of them are on a set it and forget it schedule. Keep up the good work on behalf of local beer!
Haha, actually I was hoping that if I have the chance to do this again, I could be more on a set it and forget it schedule! But I really haven't known what was going on most of the time this year, so the help I've gotten from HBT has been completely necessary for the crop's success.
Other sources of seed -- yes, the National Plant Germplasm System will send you 5g of just about any seed in the world. That's where I got the bere barley seed from. It expands very quickly -- the first season you'll just have enough for a corner of your garden, but then next year you'll have enough for 120 sq. feet or so. That's where I'm at with the bere -- I expect to get enough seed for a few thousand sq. feet next year.
There are also heirloom seed companies on the web that sometimes carry barley seeds, like Sustainable Seed Co. If you find any more, post them here, because I'd like to know.
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
This is coming along quite nicely... I wish I had the time I do this. I've got plenty of land and water but just not the time...
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
You know, I think I could get away with spending a lot less time on it. Next year's plan: Fertilize, till, plant by November 1, set irrigation timer, check for disease every two weeks, turn off irrigation right around now, harvest at end of May.
I've been a little obsessed with it, and I think it's actually a lot easier than I may be making it seem. I think that's just what we do around here. For example, if you had never brewed a beer before, but just read HBT threads all day, you'd think brewing was the most complicated endeavor, requiring careful study and months of preparation to get right. Of course it's pretty easy to brew a beer. I think growing barley is similar -- endlessly detailed if you want it to be, but throw those seeds in the ground, keep them wet, and you're going to get some grain.
I've been a little obsessed with it, and I think it's actually a lot easier than I may be making it seem. I think that's just what we do around here. For example, if you had never brewed a beer before, but just read HBT threads all day, you'd think brewing was the most complicated endeavor, requiring careful study and months of preparation to get right. Of course it's pretty easy to brew a beer. I think growing barley is similar -- endlessly detailed if you want it to be, but throw those seeds in the ground, keep them wet, and you're going to get some grain.
jgln
Well-Known Member
When I plant wheat as my cover crop in my garden I till the ground (tractor w/tiller attached), broadcast seed, then come back with the tiller set to just turn the top 1" or so over (I don't measure, just guess) and it works perfectly. I know not everyone has a tractor and tiller though.
PCFloyd
Member
I'm so happy I stumbled upon this thread. What a great way to spend some time on a Monday night. I've been getting into 'garden mode' and just reading through your trials and triumphs is really inspiring. Keep up all the good work bro. Much love. :rockin:
COLObrewer
Well-Known Member
Awesome, I can't wait for harvest and threshing to commence, if I were closer I would volunteer. Keep those pics coming drummstikk.
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! I recently stumbled upon the blog of Jean-Francois Dyment, who has already pulled off making beer with 100% homegrown malt. I've learned a lot from his malting techniques; check out his blog!
Well, harvest is just one week away on Monday May 21, and the field is indeed cooperating,
for the most part. Some patches of green remain.
Those green guys have one last week to get their act together.
The slow end of the field has even more unripe plants, though they're all in at least the hard dough stage. Maturity comes right after hard dough, and maturity is what I really care about. The hallmark of maturity is no green color in the glumes (small spiky hairs on the head -- see prev. post) or the peduncle (the 'stem' of the grain head). You can see from the photos that some heads aren't there yet. But, about half the plants on the slow side are past maturity and in the kernel hard stage. Kernel hard arrives when the mature grain is dry enough that it is difficult to divide with your fingernail.
All the plants on the faster side of the field, except the very edges, are at kernel hard or later. They're ready to go any day. The last developmental stage that follows kernel hard is harvest ripe. Harvest ripe stage comes when you cannot dent the grain with your fingernail. These last two stages (kernel hard and harvest ripe) are funny to me, because the plant is dead at this point. It's straw. So it doesn't matter if you go through these stages with the plant in the ground or in a cut swath. They are there to help you count down the waiting time until you can reliably thresh. It's looking like I'll need to let my grains do some drying in swaths after harvesting, but before I thresh. There's no way the slow end will make it to harvest ripe before Monday!
Of course, I found something to worry about:
What is going on with exposed grains like this one? The exposed grains tend to be smaller as well.
And what is up with deformed heads like this one,
These deformed heads seem to be more likely to have exposed grains in them. Also, the deformed heads contain weird fused seeds, like the triplet above, and the twins here:
I'm looking through common diseases to see if one matches these heads. Any guesses?
In other news, 2nd year hops are doing well, between 3 and 6 feet tall. Crowns from Great Lakes Hops are off to a slow start still, but they had a nasty transition to full sun, so they may take longer to take off. I tested out a thresher made by Almaco. It breaks and skins a few kernels out of each handfull, which isn't perfect, but I think it is going to be a lifesaver when it comes time to thresh the field in bulk!
* * *
Finally, I'm pretty excited to say that Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan from Almanac will come to help out with the harvest on Monday! Each of their beers contains a locally-farmed ingredient, and if the crop turns out (hey, a lot could still go wrong), they want me to malt the whole field as a crystal malt for a draft-only wet hop beer, to be released this Fall.
As Jesse describes it, the plan is to brew an all-California beer. Great Western makes a California-grown base malt, and there are more than a few hop farms in Northern California. But, there are no California-grown commercial specialty malts, so that's where the field comes in. I don't know how the yield will turn out, but Almanac does things on the scale of 25 barrels. I only need to produce 5-10% of the grist for a batch that size... so what I'm saying is, there's a chance!
Anyway, before that can happen, I need to know what's going on with those weirdo heads. Any thoughts?
Well, harvest is just one week away on Monday May 21, and the field is indeed cooperating,
for the most part. Some patches of green remain.
Those green guys have one last week to get their act together.
The slow end of the field has even more unripe plants, though they're all in at least the hard dough stage. Maturity comes right after hard dough, and maturity is what I really care about. The hallmark of maturity is no green color in the glumes (small spiky hairs on the head -- see prev. post) or the peduncle (the 'stem' of the grain head). You can see from the photos that some heads aren't there yet. But, about half the plants on the slow side are past maturity and in the kernel hard stage. Kernel hard arrives when the mature grain is dry enough that it is difficult to divide with your fingernail.
All the plants on the faster side of the field, except the very edges, are at kernel hard or later. They're ready to go any day. The last developmental stage that follows kernel hard is harvest ripe. Harvest ripe stage comes when you cannot dent the grain with your fingernail. These last two stages (kernel hard and harvest ripe) are funny to me, because the plant is dead at this point. It's straw. So it doesn't matter if you go through these stages with the plant in the ground or in a cut swath. They are there to help you count down the waiting time until you can reliably thresh. It's looking like I'll need to let my grains do some drying in swaths after harvesting, but before I thresh. There's no way the slow end will make it to harvest ripe before Monday!
Of course, I found something to worry about:
What is going on with exposed grains like this one? The exposed grains tend to be smaller as well.
And what is up with deformed heads like this one,
These deformed heads seem to be more likely to have exposed grains in them. Also, the deformed heads contain weird fused seeds, like the triplet above, and the twins here:
I'm looking through common diseases to see if one matches these heads. Any guesses?
In other news, 2nd year hops are doing well, between 3 and 6 feet tall. Crowns from Great Lakes Hops are off to a slow start still, but they had a nasty transition to full sun, so they may take longer to take off. I tested out a thresher made by Almaco. It breaks and skins a few kernels out of each handfull, which isn't perfect, but I think it is going to be a lifesaver when it comes time to thresh the field in bulk!
* * *
Finally, I'm pretty excited to say that Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan from Almanac will come to help out with the harvest on Monday! Each of their beers contains a locally-farmed ingredient, and if the crop turns out (hey, a lot could still go wrong), they want me to malt the whole field as a crystal malt for a draft-only wet hop beer, to be released this Fall.
As Jesse describes it, the plan is to brew an all-California beer. Great Western makes a California-grown base malt, and there are more than a few hop farms in Northern California. But, there are no California-grown commercial specialty malts, so that's where the field comes in. I don't know how the yield will turn out, but Almanac does things on the scale of 25 barrels. I only need to produce 5-10% of the grist for a batch that size... so what I'm saying is, there's a chance!
Anyway, before that can happen, I need to know what's going on with those weirdo heads. Any thoughts?
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
You've stopped watering, I take it?
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
That's right. I haven't watered regularly since April 17, though I did give the slower end of the field a few pulses of water to see it through the month once the soil moisture dried up. We also had some rain, and it turns out that the plants themselves can store a huge amount of water once the soil moisture is gone. They seem to just now be drying out.
Indianhead_Brewer
Well-Known Member
Nice progress since I last checked this thread. Looks like everything is drying out nicely. Love those golden awns. Makes me miss California.
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drummstikk
Well-Known Member
Hop flowers are already forming on the last 3-4 nodes of the 2nd year Columbus plant's longest bine! Didn't expect them so early. Does anybody know (or know another thread with the answer) how to change the nutrients you add to hops as they begin flowering? Switch from nitrogen to potassium maybe? I hit each plant with 2.5 g of 15-5-15 water-soluble fertilizer yesterday. Let's hope it just encourages growth but doesn't discourage cone production. I think because it's early in the season it will be fine.
Because I only have a six foot high fence to grow the hops on, I am planning to pinch the tip of any future bines that have reached the top but don't have any flowering nodes. The idea here is that the axillary shoots are more likely to flower than the main shoot, and because the main shoot typically wants to grow higher than six feet, you just want to stop it when it gets to the top, allowing all future resource to go to the side shoots. Is this crazy?
In other news, I practiced harvesting yesterday on one row, mainly to figure out a good technique. I used some barley at the very end of the field that I planted late, that has hardly had a mention on this thread. It's so far behind, I thought it would just be a long-shot bet to get maltable grains, and as you can see, it's still green in the photos below. Most of these plants are in soft/hard dough.
I ended up first cutting the plants and laying them down on the ground in a line:
Then I gathered the plants into groups, made sure they were all pointed the same direction, and removed weeds:
Finally, I combined these little bundles into a big stack, and tied jute cord around the middle. With a little finagling, I was able to prop up the bundle:
The idea here is to allow the plants to dry in the sun and the breeze for a week or two before threshing. The bundle keeps the grains off the ground, away from moisture and mice.
In an hour my buddy and I will harvest the four rows of bere barley. I'll use this for seed next year, so I want to harvest it early and make sure it doesn't get mixed up with any other parts of the crop. Bere is a six row, so if it does get contaminated with Conlon seeds, no big deal -- they will be obvious and easy to remove next year.
Anybody have any thoughts about the deformed heads and conjoined seeds (see prev post). If not, I will just have to make the Papazian decision to RDWHAHB.
OP
OP
drummstikk
Well-Known Member
My buddy brought a handsaw to hack into the Scottish bere barley.
And just like that, the bere is out of the field:
Most of it needed no further drying, so I set up the thresher with a box to collect seeds and a black tarp to check to make sure no seeds ended up in the chaff:
Here's the problem -- this thresher is rough enough to break a few seeds out of every handful of finished product (they can't be malted once they're broken), but it is not thorough enough to remove the awns from every seed. As a result, on the highest setting, the fan will blow these awned seeds out with the chaff onto the grond. The black plastic tarp is very useful for spotting these seeds. I fixed this problem by stopping down the airflow until no seeds are blown out of the machine.
But that creates another problem. When you feed stalks into the machine (this happens whenever you have some heads on long stalks and some on short stalks -- the longer stalks always get fed deep into the thresher in order for the short stalks to be threshed), the long stalks are chopped up into large pieces. They should be blown out along with all of the smaller chaff, but because I had to decrease airflow to the fan, these stalks now end up in the box with my seeds -- half of which still contain awns! You have to turn the machine off after every few handfuls to unclog a mass of stalks and awned seeds from the seed shoot.
Ok, so the thresher sort of doesn't work properly for bere, but there's another problem that's more serious. The opening that receives plants is a 6" x 8' rectangle, but when you grab a handful of plants, the heads are sticking out all over the place, way wider than the mouth of the thresher. To get them all in, you have to guide the heads carefully using both hands, sometimes even sticking your hands a little ways into the hopper. That's a huge problem, because finger-gnawing mutilation awaits anyone foolish enough to let their hand slip down too far. The machine needs a much deeper and wider hopper before it would really be safe to use on large bundles of a grain.
So there you have it -- doesn't work quite right, and I have to constantly be cautious that it doesn't turn my hand into handburger. I decided after an hour to go manual.
I know, it sounds crazy, but with all the guiding, prodding, and stopping to unclog, it ended up not even being that much slower to thresh by hand. You can take a big bundle of grains in one hand and strip off the heads with the other into a plastic garbage pail. Then you bash the heads with a PVC pipe, and stir them around.
Threshing takes a long time. I think this is the very first annoying aspect of the entire experience of growing barley. Threshing is the bottling of farming. I'm sure that if I ever had the pleasure of a good combine, like kegging I would never go back.
I'll certainly try the thresher again for the 2-row Conlon barley when it's time. Seed size and stalk length are different, so there's another chance for ol' Threshy to do good.
And just like that, the bere is out of the field:
Most of it needed no further drying, so I set up the thresher with a box to collect seeds and a black tarp to check to make sure no seeds ended up in the chaff:
Here's the problem -- this thresher is rough enough to break a few seeds out of every handful of finished product (they can't be malted once they're broken), but it is not thorough enough to remove the awns from every seed. As a result, on the highest setting, the fan will blow these awned seeds out with the chaff onto the grond. The black plastic tarp is very useful for spotting these seeds. I fixed this problem by stopping down the airflow until no seeds are blown out of the machine.
But that creates another problem. When you feed stalks into the machine (this happens whenever you have some heads on long stalks and some on short stalks -- the longer stalks always get fed deep into the thresher in order for the short stalks to be threshed), the long stalks are chopped up into large pieces. They should be blown out along with all of the smaller chaff, but because I had to decrease airflow to the fan, these stalks now end up in the box with my seeds -- half of which still contain awns! You have to turn the machine off after every few handfuls to unclog a mass of stalks and awned seeds from the seed shoot.
Ok, so the thresher sort of doesn't work properly for bere, but there's another problem that's more serious. The opening that receives plants is a 6" x 8' rectangle, but when you grab a handful of plants, the heads are sticking out all over the place, way wider than the mouth of the thresher. To get them all in, you have to guide the heads carefully using both hands, sometimes even sticking your hands a little ways into the hopper. That's a huge problem, because finger-gnawing mutilation awaits anyone foolish enough to let their hand slip down too far. The machine needs a much deeper and wider hopper before it would really be safe to use on large bundles of a grain.
So there you have it -- doesn't work quite right, and I have to constantly be cautious that it doesn't turn my hand into handburger. I decided after an hour to go manual.
I know, it sounds crazy, but with all the guiding, prodding, and stopping to unclog, it ended up not even being that much slower to thresh by hand. You can take a big bundle of grains in one hand and strip off the heads with the other into a plastic garbage pail. Then you bash the heads with a PVC pipe, and stir them around.
Threshing takes a long time. I think this is the very first annoying aspect of the entire experience of growing barley. Threshing is the bottling of farming. I'm sure that if I ever had the pleasure of a good combine, like kegging I would never go back.
I'll certainly try the thresher again for the 2-row Conlon barley when it's time. Seed size and stalk length are different, so there's another chance for ol' Threshy to do good.
fifelee
Well-Known Member
Optimizing a combine is always a pain as well. Then the crop changes in different areas which I guess should be expected in 300 acre fields. Tweaking the combine is a constant job, so I feel your pain. How would the thresher work with just feeding in heads? Doesn't seem like a very big machine to also have to handle stalks?
I asked my father about your deformed heads and his response was, "that just happens". Not much help so I just RDWHAHB is a foo plan.
I asked my father about your deformed heads and his response was, "that just happens". Not much help so I just RDWHAHB is a foo plan.
COLObrewer
Well-Known Member
Hmmm, interesting, could you make a large hopper out of cardboard and duct tape, then set it so the output is optimum (Highest?), then just re-run the chaff a time or two to glean the maximum seeds?
OP
OP
drummstikk
Well-Known Member
Fife, thanks for the tip from your father. I definitely relaxed and had a homebrew after hearing that. Colo, that's a good idea with the hopper and re-running. I will definitely look into it -- it was a royal pain to cut the heads from the Scottish bere. It took about a half hour per row, so I'm looking at 40 hours of work with the manual method, and that's just removing heads. I have not given up on the thresher yet.
These next photos all were taken by Jesse Friedman.
The timing for the harvest was just about right for the primary tillers. They are uniformly straw-colored:
This next photo shows the massive extent of lodging. It definitely made harvesting a pain, and probably reduced yield. My best guess is that planting 6" rows with the appropriate seeding rate, and giving less frequent but deeper irrigation would fix this problem.
My girlfriend worked harder than anyone else yesterday, harvesting a huge amount of plants while the rest of us generally drank beer and posed for photos:
I did a little too, though. Here, I'm removing cut plants from the field and laying them in stacks, with the heads all aligned:
We worked our way down rows, clearing them out one at a time:
A big crew of excellent hard-working friends was crucial for getting the harvest finished:
Once enough rows were cleared out, we began stacking the cut grains in the field,
which sped things up a bit.
Once the grains were all stacked up, we tied them in bundles with jute cord and propped them up in shocks to dry:
Yesterday's harvest was finished by sunset, but I returned this morning to finish bundling and clearing out the shocks:
The rest of the field is being watered intensively to prepare for corn planting, and some of the bundles were in the line of fire. It was a cold and wet morning that transitioned into a blistering day, but it's done!
My buddy and I raked up the field to glean the heads that didn't make it into bundles. You might think this step wasn't worth it, but we got two heaping wheelbarrows full of plants that might have been left behind. Also, check out the collection of shocks in the back.
Nothing to do now but wait for the secondary and tertiary heads to mature and dry out. Thanks to you guys for all the advice and replies that got us here!
These next photos all were taken by Jesse Friedman.
The timing for the harvest was just about right for the primary tillers. They are uniformly straw-colored:
This next photo shows the massive extent of lodging. It definitely made harvesting a pain, and probably reduced yield. My best guess is that planting 6" rows with the appropriate seeding rate, and giving less frequent but deeper irrigation would fix this problem.
My girlfriend worked harder than anyone else yesterday, harvesting a huge amount of plants while the rest of us generally drank beer and posed for photos:
I did a little too, though. Here, I'm removing cut plants from the field and laying them in stacks, with the heads all aligned:
We worked our way down rows, clearing them out one at a time:
A big crew of excellent hard-working friends was crucial for getting the harvest finished:
Once enough rows were cleared out, we began stacking the cut grains in the field,
which sped things up a bit.
Once the grains were all stacked up, we tied them in bundles with jute cord and propped them up in shocks to dry:
Yesterday's harvest was finished by sunset, but I returned this morning to finish bundling and clearing out the shocks:
The rest of the field is being watered intensively to prepare for corn planting, and some of the bundles were in the line of fire. It was a cold and wet morning that transitioned into a blistering day, but it's done!
My buddy and I raked up the field to glean the heads that didn't make it into bundles. You might think this step wasn't worth it, but we got two heaping wheelbarrows full of plants that might have been left behind. Also, check out the collection of shocks in the back.
Nothing to do now but wait for the secondary and tertiary heads to mature and dry out. Thanks to you guys for all the advice and replies that got us here!
solbes
Well-Known Member
Wow!!! Those are some great pics. Awesome job on the barley, its a thing of beauty.
And kinda jealous you're getting cone production already on your hops. Here in the northern midwest, my 2nd year hops are only 3 feet tall and starting to put on length.
And kinda jealous you're getting cone production already on your hops. Here in the northern midwest, my 2nd year hops are only 3 feet tall and starting to put on length.
OP
OP
drummstikk
Well-Known Member
Oy, what a week! After an evening of harvesting on Monday and bundling, raking, and fertilizing on Tuesday, the field was roto-tilled by Webb Ranch on Wednesday morning, and then I hoed out rows for the corn people:
and with that, my work is done!
Just for comparison, here's what the field looked like last November:
I think I dug better rows back then.
Well, the timing was last-minute, just like I wanted it to be. The corn kids came in today setting up netting to protect their seeds and seedlings:
I know, right? The pics of harvest day were all Jesse Friedman from Almanac.
While the Conlon is drying, I got all the Scottish bere down to seeds. I cut heads off of plants last week:
In retrospect, it was not the best to put these heads on the ground. The awns are super-catchy, and they pick up sticks and rocks, which remain with the grains, even through winnowing.
It was enough heads to fill up a 100 gallon garbage pail,
and enough straw to fill up a giant wheelbarrow full of hay!
Solo hayride, anyone?
The thresher really had some problems removing the awns from this variety -- it could be the fault of the thresher (fixed concave) or the landrace bere. Anyway, it wasn't working. So I put on my calf-high boots and climbed in the garbage pail! After stomping around while I watched an episode of Modern Family, the chaff was reduced to a free-flowing consistency. I poured the slurry in front of a box fan several times, and I ended up with 8.2 lbs of grain!
8.2 lbs in 4 x 33' rows, spaced at 14" is 2300 lb/acre. Commercial bere yields are 2500-3400 lbs/acre. I'm not too far from the low end of commercial yield -- all right!
You might already guess that the commercial yield for bere is a lot lower than the yields for modern 2-row barleys; they are closer to 4-7k lbs / acre. Now check out the difference in the grains:
The bere (right) is much longer and thinner than Conlon (left). (Conlon is an especially plump modern 2-row, and bere is a pre-industrial 6-row, so this is an extreme comparison.) This makes the ratio of protein to starch a lot higher in bere. My guess is that most barley used to be more like the bere, with skinnier grains. Academic and industrial breeding selected for more starchy grains, but bere never caught that train. Today, maltsters and brewers would never choose to include excess nitrogen in their products -- excess soluble protein can lead to hazing, and excess free amino nitrogen can lead to shorter shelf life and the proliferation of contaminating microbes. Still, I think it's pretty cool to at least have access to the old stuff. After all, the English word for barley used to match the Scotts word bere -- an etymological reminder that bere is a window into beer's past. Sadly, 8 lbs isn't enough to make a bere beer and have any left over for a future crop. This all must be used for seed. But next year...next year.
The Conlon is drying out nicely. Kernels from the slowest portion of the field still yield a bit to a fingernail, so they're not ready to thresh. But my girlfriend wants to get threshing, so I think we'll try some primary tillers from the most advanced bundles this weekend:
On to hops!
More burrs from the precocious columbus bine. I think I misjudged the new nodes in a previous post, because these are definitely the precursors to cones:
I realized I have really been slacking on the hops farming. To be fair, there wasn't much to do. But now that the barley is done, and the hops have a little bit of growth, I have been trying to learn more about how to prune them. It seems the consensus is to have two twines per crown, 3 bines per twine. That's a total of six bines per plant -- everything else gets pruned. All my plants are either transplanted 2nd years or transplanted crowns from Great Lakes Hops, so I'm not going to do the 1st year rhizome technique of letting every single bine grow.
That's the idea at least. Let's just say that in practice, mistakes were made. First mistake: if you see three bines crawling up a twine, don't assume they all have living tips! Sometimes the tips have died (due to transplanting damage in this case), and then if you prune away all the other basal bines, you're left with fewer than the desired six bines per plant. Oops. This mistake isn't so bad, because more basal shoots can grow, and the bine I mistakenly pruned wasn't very far along.
Second mistake: Don't forget to check if the bine you're pruning is an early lateral to a trained bine. I have no idea why my Cluster plant had such an early lateral. But I decided it needed to go, and didn't realize that it was connected to a strong main shoot. I followed the bine down to the ground and cut, instead of clipping the lateral off at the axil like I should have. Of course, I cut the trained bine off, which was already 3-4 feet up the twine. Will be painful watching it turn brown and crispy. This is a terrible mistake to make, because it destroys a lot of good growth. At least nobody likes Cluster.
Ok, enough with the hand-wringing. There is an interesting choice to make when growing with a low trellis. I have a 6' fence. I can either allow my bines to grow horizontally along the fence, or I can encourage them to grow laterally by clipping off apical tips when the bines reach the top.
Most of us would probably think to let the bines grow horizontally, because this is what we've been told to do, mostly because commercial hop yards are set up for 16' or 18' trellises. Well, it turns out you can get decent yields from common hop varietals with a low trellis. The technique involves planting rhizomes just 2-3 feet apart and cutting the apical meristem rather than training it to grow horizontally. Still, the low trellis system never beats a traditional 18' trellis unless you're growing a dwarf hop.
But what about the bushy low-trellis training vs. horizontal low-trellis training? Does anybody know if this low and bushy technique actually produces a better yield than the horizontal growing technique?
I want ahead and tried it on two bines. I don't know if I'll have a great comparison since I don't have any duplicate crowns, but there you have it -- an uncontrolled experiment:
I also see brown tips and fringes on some of the older leaves:
Anybody know what's going on here? I am watering at 1/3 gallon per plant 3 days a week. I upped it to 1/2 gallon just in case this is water stress.
and with that, my work is done!
Just for comparison, here's what the field looked like last November:
I think I dug better rows back then.
Well, the timing was last-minute, just like I wanted it to be. The corn kids came in today setting up netting to protect their seeds and seedlings:
I know, right? The pics of harvest day were all Jesse Friedman from Almanac.
While the Conlon is drying, I got all the Scottish bere down to seeds. I cut heads off of plants last week:
In retrospect, it was not the best to put these heads on the ground. The awns are super-catchy, and they pick up sticks and rocks, which remain with the grains, even through winnowing.
It was enough heads to fill up a 100 gallon garbage pail,
and enough straw to fill up a giant wheelbarrow full of hay!
Solo hayride, anyone?
The thresher really had some problems removing the awns from this variety -- it could be the fault of the thresher (fixed concave) or the landrace bere. Anyway, it wasn't working. So I put on my calf-high boots and climbed in the garbage pail! After stomping around while I watched an episode of Modern Family, the chaff was reduced to a free-flowing consistency. I poured the slurry in front of a box fan several times, and I ended up with 8.2 lbs of grain!
8.2 lbs in 4 x 33' rows, spaced at 14" is 2300 lb/acre. Commercial bere yields are 2500-3400 lbs/acre. I'm not too far from the low end of commercial yield -- all right!
You might already guess that the commercial yield for bere is a lot lower than the yields for modern 2-row barleys; they are closer to 4-7k lbs / acre. Now check out the difference in the grains:
The bere (right) is much longer and thinner than Conlon (left). (Conlon is an especially plump modern 2-row, and bere is a pre-industrial 6-row, so this is an extreme comparison.) This makes the ratio of protein to starch a lot higher in bere. My guess is that most barley used to be more like the bere, with skinnier grains. Academic and industrial breeding selected for more starchy grains, but bere never caught that train. Today, maltsters and brewers would never choose to include excess nitrogen in their products -- excess soluble protein can lead to hazing, and excess free amino nitrogen can lead to shorter shelf life and the proliferation of contaminating microbes. Still, I think it's pretty cool to at least have access to the old stuff. After all, the English word for barley used to match the Scotts word bere -- an etymological reminder that bere is a window into beer's past. Sadly, 8 lbs isn't enough to make a bere beer and have any left over for a future crop. This all must be used for seed. But next year...next year.
The Conlon is drying out nicely. Kernels from the slowest portion of the field still yield a bit to a fingernail, so they're not ready to thresh. But my girlfriend wants to get threshing, so I think we'll try some primary tillers from the most advanced bundles this weekend:
On to hops!
More burrs from the precocious columbus bine. I think I misjudged the new nodes in a previous post, because these are definitely the precursors to cones:
I realized I have really been slacking on the hops farming. To be fair, there wasn't much to do. But now that the barley is done, and the hops have a little bit of growth, I have been trying to learn more about how to prune them. It seems the consensus is to have two twines per crown, 3 bines per twine. That's a total of six bines per plant -- everything else gets pruned. All my plants are either transplanted 2nd years or transplanted crowns from Great Lakes Hops, so I'm not going to do the 1st year rhizome technique of letting every single bine grow.
That's the idea at least. Let's just say that in practice, mistakes were made. First mistake: if you see three bines crawling up a twine, don't assume they all have living tips! Sometimes the tips have died (due to transplanting damage in this case), and then if you prune away all the other basal bines, you're left with fewer than the desired six bines per plant. Oops. This mistake isn't so bad, because more basal shoots can grow, and the bine I mistakenly pruned wasn't very far along.
Second mistake: Don't forget to check if the bine you're pruning is an early lateral to a trained bine. I have no idea why my Cluster plant had such an early lateral. But I decided it needed to go, and didn't realize that it was connected to a strong main shoot. I followed the bine down to the ground and cut, instead of clipping the lateral off at the axil like I should have. Of course, I cut the trained bine off, which was already 3-4 feet up the twine. Will be painful watching it turn brown and crispy. This is a terrible mistake to make, because it destroys a lot of good growth. At least nobody likes Cluster.
Ok, enough with the hand-wringing. There is an interesting choice to make when growing with a low trellis. I have a 6' fence. I can either allow my bines to grow horizontally along the fence, or I can encourage them to grow laterally by clipping off apical tips when the bines reach the top.
Most of us would probably think to let the bines grow horizontally, because this is what we've been told to do, mostly because commercial hop yards are set up for 16' or 18' trellises. Well, it turns out you can get decent yields from common hop varietals with a low trellis. The technique involves planting rhizomes just 2-3 feet apart and cutting the apical meristem rather than training it to grow horizontally. Still, the low trellis system never beats a traditional 18' trellis unless you're growing a dwarf hop.
But what about the bushy low-trellis training vs. horizontal low-trellis training? Does anybody know if this low and bushy technique actually produces a better yield than the horizontal growing technique?
I want ahead and tried it on two bines. I don't know if I'll have a great comparison since I don't have any duplicate crowns, but there you have it -- an uncontrolled experiment:
I also see brown tips and fringes on some of the older leaves:
Anybody know what's going on here? I am watering at 1/3 gallon per plant 3 days a week. I upped it to 1/2 gallon just in case this is water stress.
OP
OP
drummstikk
Well-Known Member
Threshing breakthrough: Just take a handful of dried barley and bang it back and forth on the inside of a garbage pail. All the long tillers will be threshed in 15 seconds. Then go through the stalks to find any late short tillers and pull them off by hand. You can work your way through an average-sized sheath in 5-10 minutes with this technique -- much faster than using the machine!
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