100% homegrown

[Farside]

So I got through most of the seed and realised I had placed them at 1.5 inch spacing, so I did the rest at 2 inch spacing once I discovered my error.

The tape at the bottom of this picture has seeds at 2 inch spacing compared to the ones above it that have 1.5 inch spacings.

 

[Farside]

Last year, I noticed that different barley varieties mature at different rates.

My Golden Promise is the first to mature, followed a few weeks later by Hana, and then a few weeks later again by Chevalier. In fact, the Chevalier was still a little green when the frosts returned in the fall.

This year, I'm planting a month early. Barley is supposed to be frost hardy, and the soil temperature is between 5 and 8 degrees C (around 45F).

I planted some Hana and all the Chevalier just before a rain system came on, and was patting myself on the back when a second system followed through and dumped 2 inches of snow. Luckily my planting is small and I covered the ground with cardboard for a few days. Time will tell if anything will survive.

I'm also experimenting with plant adaptation. Last year, my Hana and Golden Promise produced two distinct crops even though the seed was all planted out at the same time. I harvested roughly half of the crop about 3 weeks earlier than the rest, and I kept the harvests separate.

I'm going to plant these apart and see if there is a difference this year in their growth habit. I know plants will adapt to local conditions over time, and I'm hoping that this is the beginning of this behaviour. We get about 90 days of frost free growing season, and if I want barley that isn't weathered at harvest then I need it mature well before September.

So the snow didn't harm the barley, and even though we're getting frosts every morning, my Hana, Chevalier, and Golden Promise are all up and busy growing. What I've noticed is that although the Chevalier was about 3 days slower for the seedlings to emerge, it's growing considerably faster now that it's up. What will be interesting is finding out when the plants fully catch up, and maybe even pass the Hana, which was planted at the same time.

Edit: So we're expecting some overnight wet snow on May 12. All the barley is now in advanced emergence and I'm not too sure if I'll cover it or just leave it be. We're expecting about 1/2 an inch, and it will thaw as soon as it hits the ground (the ambient temperature won't go below freezing) and I'm thinking that it may actually be less harmful than a hard frost. If I cover the crop, I'm worried about damaging the young plants with the weight of the cover. What to do...

Edit: Well, it did snow and I covered the plants with a coconut fibre erosion control matting. It seemed to do the trick. But now, a week later we have had more snow overnight and the plants were uncovered. I'm going to see how they go, and maybe cover them this evening as we're expecting the sky to clear, which means a hard frost. The air temps have been just on or a bit above zero, but when the cloud cover goes, it will drop another 5 degrees.

 

[Farside]

Well, I'm learning a lesson in the importance of seed spacing and why a seed drill is such a great innovation (at least for me who can't broadcast seed to save myself).

My Chevalier is in its second season. Last year I used very old seed from the gene bank and it was pretty weak and lethargic. I've grown to expect this from very old seed, and so this year I was looking forward to seeing how this variety really grows. I went to the effort (as I described here) to space the seed into a seed tape matrix using a correct spacing as advised by the various Ag departments in North America.

I planted it a week later than the other barley, but it's still been exposed to two dumps of snow, and numerous frosts. Right now, the plants are at least 3 times bigger than any of my other barley, and couldn't be more healthy.

On the other hand, the Hana and Golden promise is looking a bit sickly. They are planted in new beds, in different parts of the garden, with composted manure applied to them. They're both looking like they are suffering from Nitrogen deficiency, which might be a lack of Nitrogen, or a lack of their ability to uptake the Nitrogen due to the amount of rain we've had this spring. Yes, it's been cool and wet here. My spinach is growing great, and it usually just bolts and I was about to give up growing it at this end of the season. That's a good indicator of wet conditions and even temperatures.

Looking at my Hana and golden promise, it's obvious that I broadcasted way too densely and unevenly, which is probably making the matter worse. will they survive my ham fisted effort? Probably. I might lose some yield, but I'm learning some important lessons.

I've been learning more about how soil biology interacts with plants and I think I now have a good handle on why my barley is turning yellow. Too much water displaces air in the soil. This causes the biology in the soil that converts nitrogen to a plant available form to die, and anaerobic organisms to take their place. These produce toxic by-products which can make the matter worse. The situation will slowly remedy itself as the moisture content in the soil drops provided the soil is healthy. Since these are new beds I would say that the soil is probably not in optimum condition, and so I think I'll give it a big dose of soil organisms shortly.

If anyone is interested in this sort of thing, here is a video by one of the worlds leading experts in soil biology:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtl09VZiSU[/ame]

Oh, I forgot to mention that I ran out of space in my garden to plant the later maturing Hana and Golden Promise. So last week I went and did a bit of "gorilla gardening" and planted it at a site that was recently excavated as part of a road upgrading project in my neighbourhood. The workers planted rye as an erosion control, and I also planted some hard red wheat as a deer diversion, and my Khorasan durum to keep them all company. So I have something like an artificial landrace going on

 

[signpost]

Wow, this thread is awesome. I jumped headlong into trying to grow some barley this year. I wish I had seen this thread before I tried it.

Regardless, I've already learned a lot from my own experience. That plus all of the information in this thread (and a couple others) is going to have me a lot more prepared the next time around.

 

[Farside]

Well, this year I had very mixed results.
I had trouble finding space for my Hana, Golden Promise, and heritage wheats, so I broke new ground for them. Even then, I didn't have enough ground and I over seeded significantly.

The plants came up, but within a few weeks were looking sickly and weak. I added some blood and bone to boot their nitrogen supply, and it helped a bit, but my yields are terrible, and the grains very small. I am just gutted.

On the other hand, the Chevallier that I placed onto seed tape was planted in my garden where no fertilizer is used. That stuff grew to over 5ft high and has huge, plump grains.

Here are some photos...

 

[drummstikk]

What a difference soil and seeding rate make.

Sorry for the mixed results. I can't help seeing a silver lining, though -- you learned a great deal from the variation and then shared it with the community. There are so few of us right now, and with every variable-yield harvest, we're building the home growing community!

The healthy plants look really great!

And BTW, I think if you have one grain of home-grown in your beer, it counts! I still haven't achieved the thread title of 100% homegrown. The fields I was using are unavailable these days. Maybe someday when I retire to a farm...

 

[signpost]

I've definitely learned a lot from my attempts this summer. I'm planning on doing seed tape next year to get the spacing right.

 

[drummstikk]

seed tape next year

Sounds like a good idea. Barley definitely has an optimal range for spacing. Let us know how it goes!

Could be a lot less expensive than shelling for a plate seeder! If it works out, I think I would do the same in my next planting.

 

[Farside]

I made my tape with 2-ply toilet paper.

I separated the plys and glued the seeds onto one of the plys. I then placed the ply I put aside over the top so that the seeds were sandwiched between them.

Normally this isn't necessary, but barley seeds are starting to get big enough that the glue might not hold and the seeds might fall off during handling.

The glue I used was 1 1/2 tsp of corn starch dissolved in a little cold water, and then 1 litre of boiling water mixed in. Once it cools, you are left with a goopy mixture you can apply with a squeeze bottle. You can add less water if you want it thicker, but then it becomes more difficult to dispense. It's worth experimenting at home with some barley from the bulk store.

It took me about an hour to make enough tape to cover about 1 square meter. At the time I thought it was a complete waste of time, and even now I wouldn't do it on a large scale. But it's fantastic for experimenting or growing out.

I'll be using a hand seed drill for anything more than 100g of seed. Something like this:
https://www.veseys.com/ca/en/store/tools/seedersand/earthway?gclid=CI-_-tWVwscCFQenaQodkzEBow

 

[Farside]

So I made a handheld screener with some cardboard boxes and stainless mesh (I think was 8 mesh or 10) that has the hole diameter used for grading malt barley.

Nowadays they use slotted screens but mesh is 1/10th of the price.

 

[Farside]

Here is my harvest.
The two on the left are Hana and Golden Promise, while the one on the right is Chevalier. There is more there than the other two put together.

This is what I planted this spring:
Hana - 225 grams
Golden Promise - 195 grams
Chevalier - 26 grams

This is what I harvested:
Hana - 95 grams
Golden Promise - 95 grams
Chevalier - 430 grams!

There is a lesson in there somewhere...

 

[Farside]

Now I find this interesting. Agriculture texts recommend a seeding rate of 25 to 30 plants per square foot for dry land planting.

A 3 inch spacing achieves close to that at 23 per square foot.

I sowed at a 2 inch spacing which is 46 per square foot.

Next season I'll be sowing on a larger scale. Do I go with the ag department recommend density or my experimental density?

 

[fourfarthing]

This thread is awesome. I read everything front to back and am very proud of this amount of crazy in this community and hope to emulate it someday.

 

[drummstikk]

Now I find this interesting. Agriculture texts recommend a seeding rate of 25 to 30 plants per square foot for dry land planting.

A 3 inch spacing achieves close to that at 23 per square foot.

I sowed at a 2 inch spacing which is 46 per square foot.

Next season I'll be sowing on a larger scale. Do I go with the ag department recommend density or my experimental density?

Hey Farside,

If you were irrigating and fertilizing, I'd say the seeding rate isn't critically important, because the plants can tiller to some extent to fill their space. (My first crop was somewhat under-seeded, for example, but I still got a yield close to a commercial yield.)

But if you're dryland farming, I would follow the recommended seeding rate as closely as possible.

It seems irrigated farming is overly-optimized for hobbyists like us -- most of the recommendations are designed to squeeze out a few extra percent yield. Could make you beau coups $ on 100,000 acres, but doesn't matter for us. I was obsessed with things like this in earlier posts, then realized that irrigated farming is easy.

But dryland farming, I bet, is more of a challenge, and the recommendations more critical. There's a reason the ancient civilizations all sprung up around rivers (Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, etc.), because dry farming is freaking hard! Hit as many recommendations as you can, I would say.

 

[lurker18]

That looks like a great idea, but you are WAAAYYY to dense on the seeding there. Unless you have a very low germination rate, you are going to overcrowd the seeds and they are going to fight with each other for everything. Look at modern farming, the seeds are planted in a single row with only one or two seed pairings, and the seeds are place about 1-2 inches apart in the rows, with the rows being anywhere from 7-13 inches apart. You have to remember that cereal grains tiller, they produce more than one growing stem off of each seed, with them being as crowded as that is, there probably won't be much tillering going on.

 

[spunk]

I bought white sonora wheat and winter rye. Small amounts anyone use these. I plan to feed rabbits greens and use the rye to add nutrients to my garden green manure idea. May or may not let rye go toa seed. Just wondered if anyone any experience with either of those grains

 

[drummstikk]

white sonora wheat and winter rye

Winter crops often have a vernalization requirement. You can learn about it for each grain to make sure your winter will meet the requirements.

If you decide to use those grains for a higher calling than rabbit food, do let them go to seed and completely dry on the stalk. You can malt just about any grain. Don't let anyone tell you you need malting varieties.

Finally, plan to use some rice hulls in the mash since wheat and rye hulls fall off during threshing.

Good luck!

 

[drummstikk]

you are WAAAYYY to dense on the seeding there

Is it too high for dry land farming? The question was not about conventional farming (cultivation and irrigation).

I would almost always follow guidelines for something like seeding rate. Professional agriculture researchers know more than we do.

 

[lurker18]

Winter crops often have a vernalization requirement. You can learn about it for each grain to make sure your winter will meet the requirements.

If you decide to use those grains for a higher calling than rabbit food, do let them go to seed and completely dry on the stalk. You can malt just about any grain. Don't let anyone tell you you need malting varieties.

Finally, plan to use some rice hulls in the mash since wheat and rye hulls fall off during threshing.

Good luck!

True, you can malt anything that contains starch. At work we worked on peas as a base, but it was total crap. If you are going to go to the effort to grow and malt you own, wait better part of a year to do all of this, why wouldn't you start with something that has been designed for what you intend. Yes, all barley varieties will malt, but the ones designed for malting will give much superior end results.

 

[lurker18]

Is it too high for dry land farming? The question was not about conventional farming (cultivation and irrigation).

I would almost always follow guidelines for something like seeding rate. Professional agriculture researchers know more than we do.

As mentioned before, 25 plants per square foot is what you are looking for. You need to remember that not every seed you plant will grow, so you have to include for germination loss. On commercial seed (the stuff farmers grow) that is typically 95% plus, so 5% of the seeds you plant will not grow. I would start with that and work from there.

 

[drummstikk]

Yes, all barley varieties will malt, but the ones designed for malting will give much superior end results.

Malting varieties of barley are usually optimized for synchronous germination and steady, synchronous growth of the acrospire. These traits matter quite a bit in commercial malt houses, but they're not very important when you malt grains at home.

Who cares if you lose 5% of your total sugar due to asynchronous growth? I would much rather encourage people to be adventurous and bold in what they chose to play with. Every cereal grain will malt, and if somebody wants to plant a strange variety of rye and try to malt it, then I say go for it!

Even if you're playing with a high protein variety of a cereal grain (usually malting varieties are low protein), the worst that can happen is that you'll get a hazy beer. That's part of the adventure of brewing!

If somebody had told Medieval Germans not to both malting wheat because it wasn't an optimal grain, we wouldn't have Hefeweizen or Weizenbock.

I've malted purple barley and white wheat, brown rice, kamut, and millet, all from the grocery store. None were optimized for malting, but they all germinated roughly synchronously and produced a sugary wort.

 

[lurker18]

Never have I said don't experiment. What I am leaning to is if you are going to spend the time to grow your own, why wouldn't you start with something that has been designed for what you are using it for. Sure you could move your house with a VW Bug, but wouldn't it be better with a truck? There is a whole lot more put into specific malt barley varieties than just the malt. They are designed with specific enzyme packages, have the most available extract, low proteins, and so on. If you have all the space in the world and nothing better to do with it, go ahead and plant anything you want. Sure it will make some sort of malt, but can it convert itself? Will there be any extract at all come from it? If it is a six row feed, will there be a dormancy and it may not germinate when you go to malt it and a whole years production is trashed because nothing germed? All of these things need to be looked at when you are going to grow your own, and like I said, why wouldn't you start with a proven thing.

 

[drummstikk]

Woo hoo! I finally have a back yard. It's not big, only 50 square feet, but it'll do. Oh it'll do.

Removed landscaping stones (who would ever cover up arable land when there's thirsty throats to quench?) and mixed a cubic foot of steer manure into the top layer of soil.

Planted Copeland at 12 seeds / foot, 7.5" rows. There's not much light due to buildings, but the soil is good. A little too much clay, but that seems to be the problem all over the SF Bay Area.

Also planted cascade in a half barrel and golding in the ground.


Long live 100% homegrown!

 

[drummstikk]

5 leaves with 2 tillers on the Conlon.

Leaves of main plant are labeled 1-5
Tillers are T1, T2
Tiller leaves are T1-1, T1-2, etc.

 

[Dixon9717]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1463086135.856194.jpgwhat kind of hops is this????

 

[douglasbarbin]

View attachment 354088what kind of hops is this????

I believe that variety is called "Indica"

 

[dlaramie08]

Come on guys, don't get this thread shut down.

 

[signpost]

Hey, I forgot about this thread. I'm getting ready to plant my Conlon 2-row this weekend. Here are pics of the seed tape I've made:

I have enough to cover a 50 foot long row with three strips running parallel. Last year was a major learning year with tons of stuff not working out well, and I got a total of 2.5 lbs. from the 1 lb. that I sowed (yeah, it was that bad). Anyway, with the seed tape, I'm anticipating a huge bump in production and evenness of quality.

Also, I have some Spartan 2-row growing already in a container in the backyard. Got a small packet of that from the USDA seed bank and I'm just growing it up to do a larger plot next year. Squirrels or birds dug up and stole at least half of what I planted, but the rest seems to be doing alright. Here's a pic from about a week and a half ago (it's grown quite a bit since then):

And, I still need to prep my Norwind 6-row that I grew up from another small USDA packet last year. I'm going to plant this near my new hops that I planted this year. Here's a pic of my trellis, even though I've posted it on other threads already. This pic is old and you can't see the hops growing yet, so I should take new pics soon. But I think it looks cool and I'm super proud of it, so here it is:

 

[signpost]

Here's an updated pic of my Spartan 2-row in the backyard.

View attachment 1463437037173.jpg

 

[signpost]

My Spartan 2-row keeps growing!

View attachment 1464209035437.jpg