My barley field is not looking good

[Beerstein]

I need some help. I have a vacation home out in the Oregon high desert. I'm attempting to grow some barley as an experiment. Before planting I limed the soil. The barley is well fertilized. The soil is sandy loam, but nothing has really ever been grown here, so I'm not sure what state the soil is in.

It's going this bleached yellow. Am I watering it too much?

I planted this on memorial day. Looks pretty pathetic for two months.

 

[hotbeer]

There probably is an agriculture extension service associated with whatever is the big agricultural university there in Oregon. They'll give you a lot of info if you just ask them.

Usually their websites are loaded with all sorts of information and stuff that even a home gardener can use. And they do answer emails... At least they do here.

 

[nanobrau]

I've grown barley in poor soil as well, but have always had it grow well. What zone are you in? Planting on Memorial Day seems to be months too late since barley likes to be planted near the end of winter.

 

[Beerstein]

This locale is zone 6a.

Due to a number of unfortunate events, memorial day was the earliest I could get out here.

I've got some questions off to my extension office.

 

[grampamark]

As the resident grain farmer here I suppose I should offer an observation.

It appears that the OP has planted far too many seeds per square foot. The plants are too close together and appear to be forming sod. The available nutrients are probably insufficient for the number of plants. The yellowing is often a sign of nutrient, especially nitrogen, deficiency.

When we plant cereals on a commercial scale it is usually to a population of 750K-1MM plants per acre. There are 43,560 sq. ft. in an acre so a population of a million per would be 23 seeds per sq ft. We plant in rows which are 12” apart; the seeds in the bottom of the furrow in each row are, typically, 1-1/2-2” apart. The space between the rows encouarages a process known as “tillering”. Each seed can produce from 1-4 additional stems, called tillers, in addition to the main stem. Each stem can produce anywhere from 20-40 kernels.

In this area (along the Canadian border in N Central MT) barley is usually planted at about 50 lbs per acre. In a year with average growing conditions that can produce 60 bushels (3000 lbs) per acre, an increase of 600:1. It doesn’t take a lot of seed to produce a lot of grain.

The only field of barley that we have this year is about 10 miles from my house, so I‘m not going to make a special trip for a picture, but here’s a pic of the wheat field behind my house. This was planted around 25 May and is fully headed and just starting to turn color a bit from green to gold. It will probably be ready for harvest in 3 weeks, or so. This should give some idea of how much space there can be between plants.

 

[Beerstein]

That answers a lot. Thanks. Is there any hope here of rescuing some of it?

 

[grampamark]

You can try thinning the plants out. Trying to remove individual plants from the dense growth that you have will be like picking fly poop out of pepper, though.

i should have asked if you’re sure you planted a spring barley. A fall planted variety planted in the spring would exhibit the kind of development shown in the OP, a lot of leafy growth with no stem development. Barley is a short season crop with maturity typically reached within 90 days or so. Two months from planting your crop should be at the stage of the wheat I pictured.

 

[Beerstein]

I asked the vendor about the cultivar and type of barley, but they could not tell me. That was probably a warning sign right there.

 

[grampamark]

I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a spring planted fall barley. If that’s the case it won’t produce seed. Fall varieties require a period of cold dormancy in order for pollination to occur (cereals are self pollinating; insects won’t help). Without flowering and pollination, seed won’t be produced.

 

[Beerstein]

Well, I planted this as a learning experience not reallY expecting to get a harvest….And Im learning!

Where is a good mail order place to buy a few pounds of seed? I already checked my local farmer co op and they dont sell seeds.

 

[nanobrau]

I bought Pinnacle barley from Johnny's Selected Seeds a couple years ago. It looks like their stock has changed since, but supposedly they stock malting varieties.

 

[RM-MN]

Where is a good mail order place to buy a few pounds of seed? I already checked my local farmer co op and they dont sell seeds.

The normal difference between feed barley and seed barley is the removal of unwanted material from the feed barley (Partial answer). If you can get a few pounds of feed barley and manually clean it using a fan to remove the light material from the barley, then a screen to remove the small weed seeds, you get barley that is fit to plant. If you don't screen to remove the weed seeds, you can manually remove the weeds as they sprout for a small space. Of course this isn't practical for a large field.

 

[camonick]

The normal difference between feed barley and seed barley is the removal of unwanted material from the feed barley (Partial answer). If you can get a few pounds of feed barley and manually clean it using a fan to remove the light material from the barley, then a screen to remove the small weed seeds, you get barley that is fit to plant. If you don't screen to remove the weed seeds, you can manually remove the weeds as they sprout for a small space. Of course this isn't practical for a large field.

This is possible, but it’s imperative that you know whether it’s winter barley or spring barley like @grampamark stated above. Neither will produce a viable crop if they aren’t planted at the proper time.

 

[camonick]

There’s also a disease that can affect cereal grains called barley yellow dwarf. I agree that the seeding rate is much too thick, but there could be other reasons for the stunted growth. Throwing out random soil adjustments isn’t always productive either. Having an agronomist or nearby grain farmer have a look might be helpful. It’s hard to really tell what’s going on there.

 

[An Ankoù]

Fascinating thread. I now about a million percent more than I ever did about growing barley. Thanks guys.
Out here in sunny France, the fields are full of what I used to think was barley until a cow-man told me it was something called triticale and only used for animal fodder Beautiful golden fields, though, and a joy to watch it being harvested.

 

[camonick]

Fascinating thread. I now about a million percent more than I ever did about growing barley. Thanks guys.
Out here in sunny France, the fields are full of what I used to think was barley until a cow-man told me it was something called triticale and only used for animal fodder Beautiful golden fields, though, and a joy to watch it being harvested.

Triticale is a wheat and rye hybrid and is definitely used as an animal forage. Many farmers/ feedlots around here chop it when it’s still green and ensile it, to be fed through the winter months. They call it haylage.

 

[grampamark]

I drove by our barley field today so I stopped and pulled up a few, random, plants.

The three stalks in the picture are the production of three individual barley kernels. I counted the kernels in the heads and came up with 133 or 44 kernels for each seed planted (the 600:1 increase I referred to earlier is by weight, not individual seeds).

This field was planted about 2 months ago and will probably be ready to harvest around mid August. This is what the OP’s barley should look like at this stage.

 

[day_trippr]

Very cool thread!

 

[jcav]

I am also learning a lot from this thread!

 

[camonick]

I drove by our barley field today so I stopped and pulled up a few, random, plants.

The three stalks in the picture are the production of three individual barley kernels. I counted the kernels in the heads and came up with 133 or 44 kernels for each seed planted (the 600:1 increase I referred to earlier is by weight, not individual seeds).

This field was planted about 2 months ago and will probably be ready to harvest around mid August. This is what the OP’s barley should look like at this stage.

I’m having a hard time getting a clear picture when I try to magnify that photo. Is that 6-row?

 

[NTBeer]

Triticale is a wheat and rye hybrid and is definitely used as an animal forage. Many farmers/ feedlots around here chop it when it’s still green and ensile it, to be fed through the winter months. They call it haylage.

(Quadro)triticale also has been known to feed these delightful beasts.

 

[grampamark]

I’m having a hard time getting a clear picture when I try to magnify that photo. Is that 6-row?

Sorry. My phone takes pretty crappy pics. It’s 2-row, I think the variety is Bearpaw. I’ll have to check with my son on that. He got the seed from a neighbor a couple of years ago.

Here’s a little better pic of the heads.

 

[camonick]

Sorry. My phone takes pretty crappy pics. It’s 2-row, I think the variety is Bearpaw. I’ll have to check with my son on that. He got the seed from a neighbor a couple of years ago.

Here’s a little better pic of the heads.
View attachment 776397

Ah, I see it now.

 

[camonick]

(Quadro)triticale also has been known to feed these delightful beasts.

View attachment 776396

Nice. I was going to mention Tribbles.

 

[Sam_92]

There's a malt house here where I live that sells malted triticale and a distillery that sells a triticale whiskey. I've been itching to get my hands on some but their minimum order is three bags of grain and I haven't been able to afford it yet. I'm very curious what triticale would add to a beer.