Winter Wheat Update

Wyomingheart asked how our wheat is doing.

So far, so good. I say that because last year we lost our winter wheat to lodging. That’s when the plants fall down, for often mysterious reasons. In our case, heavy rains flattened it, but it can’t be cut lying on the ground, so the crop is pretty much a waste. We salvaged what we could by harvesting it for hay, but it meant no homegrown wheat last year.

We don’t plant a lot. This patch is roughly 30′ x 62′, with enough room to expand it about 5 more feet both ways. Depending on how this harvest goes, it should be enough for our needs until next year.

It just finished flowering, and the plants range from 2 to 3 feet in height. In some places, the stand is thick, in others it’s pretty patchy.

In the above photo, what you see on the ground is wood chip mulch. I wouldn’t ordinarily mulch wheat, so this is where I should tell you about another of our soil building experiments. (See the end of this post for links to the others.)

The whole area used to be our garden, but we (I) found it too large to manage mostly by myself, so we divided it into a canning and kitchen garden at the top and a grain growing patch at the bottom.

This new arrangement invited another soil-building experiment, but this one was different from the others. And unconventional. But like the others, I started by digging a soil sample for the record.

Then my experiment.

First, Dan mowed it short with the mulching mower. Then I started laying down waste boards and planks from Dan’s sawmilling. Many of the cuts are too thin or irregular to use for other projects, so they are basically waste wood. I laid them down on the ground and covered them with subsoil from my hugelkulture swale bed digging project. That was topped with wood chip mulch.

I seeded it for green manure, even though I didn’t think much could grow through the wood chips. That was autumn of 2018 and last summer I got scanty growth.

Last fall, I broadcast wheat and clover seed and Dan scythed what growth there was there. That was  left as mulch and green manure. Almost none of the clover came up, but I’m pleased with the wheat we’ve got. It will likely be ready to harvest for grain in June.

I also want to show you the heritage wheat I planted last fall.

It’s a landrace wheat from northern Jordan and Southern Syria called Hourani. It was advertised as being of excellent quality and lodge resistant!

Unfortunately, germination was extremely poor, probably close to only 10%. Even so, I’ll collect and treasure what I get! The goal is to eventually switch to this type instead of commercial wheat seed.

So that’s my wheat report. Here are the soil-building links I promised.

Soil Building Experiment #1
Soil Building Experiment #2: Pastures
Soil Building Experiment #3: Hay Growing
I recently posted some results, here → Pasture Soil Building Update