Thursday, February 25, 2016

Wheat

Well, I looks like I'm able to grow wheat here. I had purchased a packet as a trial, just to see what would happen. I planted a few wheat berries here and there, in a variety of places. Full sun. Semi-shade. Light shade. By itself in short rows. And what I think is the most interesting, intermingled with the winter squash. 


What I did was sow the wheat about six feet from the squash plant. Then over time, I allowed the squash vines to run, mingling with the wheat. By the time the vines reached the wheat, the wheat had already grown tall enough to stay above the squash leaves. The thought of being able to produce two crops in the same space is intriguing. 

Early in February all the wheat plants started producing heads. The full sun plants grew the tallest and fullest with the most heads, but all the wheat grew and is now producing. 

Right now I'm not growing enough wheat to do anything with other than to save seed for the next crop. But now that I know that wheat will grow here, I plan to raise it for the livestock. 

2 comments:

  1. In a weekly regional ag paper from Astoria, OR - Capital News - recently, a story reported that research is now developing a "gluten free" variety of wheat - to hopefully produce a tall-stalked version for commercial wheat production. The whole craziness about "gluten free" will evaporate anyway, but there will someday be that oxymoronic "gluten-free wheat" for real!
    Good luck with your experiments! May "amber waves of grain" wave in Hawaii.

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  2. Oops - It is Capital Press - that offers up various agriculture kine information. Fr'instance, the apple growers in Washington state will have exclusive access to the Cosmic Crisp apples, which have been grafted onto rootstocks and are ready for planting out in several orchards. It was known as "WA-38" during development at WSU. They have several more varieties as well.

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