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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 19, 2013 12:11:09 GMT -5
Where did he mention ergot? I can't find it... hopefully I didn't miss anything important... I don't like this new format. So, ergot, smut, and bunt? Would the smut be related to the corn smut? If so, shouldn't there be some related deformity of the plant? There does not appear to be any deformity, not yet at least. Bunt I've never heard of before, I'll be looking that one up. Yea, $15 is pretty affordable... I don't think I'm $15 worth of curious though... Steve! You just want me to get into trouble, don't you! Meanwhile, I snipped of 4 more affected heads this morning. I'm wondering if it's spreading or does it come from the sheaf covered? Meaning that the already exposed heads are not infected nor will they become infected?
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jun 19, 2013 13:42:17 GMT -5
Where did he mention ergot? I can't find it... hopefully I didn't miss anything important... I don't like this new format. So, ergot, smut, and bunt? Would the smut be related to the corn smut? If so, shouldn't there be some related deformity of the plant? There does not appear to be any deformity, not yet at least. Bunt I've never heard of before, I'll be looking that one up. Yea, $15 is pretty affordable... I don't think I'm $15 worth of curious though... Steve! You just want me to get into trouble, don't you! Meanwhile, I snipped of 4 more affected heads this morning. I'm wondering if it's spreading or does it come from the sheaf covered? Meaning that the already exposed heads are not infected nor will they become infected? I guess he didn't actually mention it in the text, he just hyperlinked to a site describing ergot. The blue text? I put a link in my last post about bunt and smut as well. Loose smut isn't closely related to corn smut I believe, but they are parasitic fungi that end up releasing black spores so they have similar common names.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jul 19, 2013 19:24:08 GMT -5
FINALLY managed to get a sample of that wheat from the highway looks quite a bit like the stuff Joeseph found (really thick stems) maybe its the same variety I think the patch may have become permanent by now it's been there for 2-3 years.. And it's beginning to send out satellite patches too.
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Post by steev on Jul 19, 2013 22:11:01 GMT -5
Looks healthy; threshable, or do you have to pop each seed with your thumbnail? I've got too many of those already; have I mentioned Einkorn? Geez, people used to have to work so hard for their bread; could be why they turned to brewing.
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Post by steev on Jul 19, 2013 23:16:32 GMT -5
Wiz sent me a couple varieties of ancient wheat, so good of her, but, Lord! these things have got to be hell to thresh. I'd feel cruel driving an ox around enough to get grain out of this stuff to use. Of course I'll grow it on; I can't be accused of being practical enough not to, but really, grain farming was clearly a bitch at its beginning. One wonders what kept people going. Tough stock, us.
Think I'd rather go hang out at the waterhole, while the women and kids screw around with this stuff, waiting for some thirsty critter to come by, so I can claim to be a great hunter.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jul 20, 2013 6:14:00 GMT -5
No, it threshed free (though like a lot of fully bearded wheats, the awns are very very prickly and stick to everything). I did about half the heads, according to my threshing standards (since I don't really have the space to grow enough wheat to eat meaningfully, what I do grow/collect tend to be kept intact, in vases, as decoration. So I usually only thresh those heads that are already wrecked, or where the stalk has broken so high up that they won't sit well in a vase). The wheat does look healthy, though a part of me thinks it probably would have looked even healthier a few weeks ago, when it was still upright and fully golden. Oh well, if I have a problem I can always grow the threshed seed out next year on my own land, where I don't have to worry about cops stopping me to ask why I'm walking along the side of the highway with a pair of scissors (I'd look even more supicios if I went whole hog collecting, then I'd probably be walking around with an actual sickle (I did some time volunteering on our local 17th century Dutch restoration, so I actually do know how to use one OK (as well a having a memory of very vivid reminder of what can happen if you use one wrong)and an arrow quiver (what I have decided is an ideal vessel for carrying small amount of wheat with the stalks cut long). But I can sympathize with your ancient grain rant, the wheats I grew from seed this year were two emmers and an eikorn (the kusa ones)I'm not planning to thresh them (well maybe the eikorn, the bugs did a job on it so it looks a little too manky to be pretty) but I did have to pop the kernels out of the original spikelets to plant them, and yes it does take time. Next year I'm doing shot wheat which will probably have it's own threshing problem (since shot wheat grains are almost spherical, if you not careful when your threshing, the grains can simply roll out of the basket. Guess I'll need to find one with high sides.)
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Post by blueadzuki on Oct 18, 2013 13:57:57 GMT -5
Small update
I manged to collect a little more feral wheat in an odd way yesterday. I'm not sure if i mentioned it when I talked about the other, but there was actually a third patch I had seen, in, of all places, the middle of town (well the middle of a bit of town that ran along a highway. By the side of the road, there was a house with a gone to seed terraced garden that I could see had quite a bit of wheat mixed into the other assorted weeds. Problem was, I couldn't think of any way to get there (or more accurately, a way to park there that could be explained away should a police car be passing by). Fast forward to yesterday, when I went over to that area to drop off my main computer at the repair shop (it's been giving me trouble for months). As I pulled into the spot I suddenly said "This area looks familiar" and I suddenly realized I had parked EXACTLY in front of the house! (silver lining, I guess) The drawback is that, looking it over nearly all the wheat is too young to harvest (as it looked ripe earlier in the year, I assume that somehow, that wheat matured shattered (or was mown down) those seeds re-germinated, and that I what I saw. So I was only able to grab three ears (and two of those are really green, so how good the seed is will need to be seen once they are dry enough to thresh). One of the weirder things I noticed is that the wheat on one side of the stairs is different from on the other side. On one side (where it is thicker) the wheat is a blocky, beardless type (typical of what usually shows up along our roads). On the other side where it is much sparser, the wheat is a heavily bearded type that seems to be a modern bread type with the irregular rows typical of that (though a much shorter one than the highway sample, both in plant height and head length. Even odder, one of the heads is actually a compund head, with small side bunches to the ear. I've seen that before in pictures of really OLD wheat strains (it's very common for turgidumtype (aka cone or rivet wheat)) but odd in modern ones. I'm assuming it's just a random mutation (since I doubt that any random farm out here is growing rivet wheat still, it has't been a part of major agriculture since about 1600.)But assuming any of the seed is good (it's one of the still green ears) it will be interesting to see if it is passed on to the next generation.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jun 30, 2014 15:10:05 GMT -5
Got my first feral "wheat" today, from a small patch about a block below the local high school.
However, now that I have it there is a surprise. It isn't heat at all, it's barley! Six rowed, fully bearded, non-naked barley. I have NO idea where that could have come from. People who grow barley for people generall grow naked, and people who grow it for animals generally grow beardless. I'm wondering if someone is growing for brewers somewhere; as that is what most bearded non naked barley is used for as far as I know.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 4, 2014 12:41:43 GMT -5
I grew Enikorn wheat in one of my fields a few years ago. I am no longer using that field, and neither is anyone else. When I drove past it yesterday I observed one Enikorn wheat clump growing. There was also a large patch of feral wheat descended from the feral wheats that I collected in the valley some years ago.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 11, 2014 9:12:33 GMT -5
Do you think it will start to increase now Joseph? Or will it die out? It would be pretty awesome if it starts to increase.
Not connected with wheat... but I found Carolina gold rice in a grocery yesterday. I bought it, couldn't see through the bag. It won't sprout as it's been stripped "as all good rice should be" ::spoken with sarcasm:: Still... There's hope if it's actually in a store.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 11, 2014 10:10:42 GMT -5
mnjrutherford: The people that bought the field were intending to build on it so I expect the wheat to die out if they follow through...
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 11, 2014 15:06:44 GMT -5
Ah right... I conveniently overlooked that bit of information didn't I. That is really sad.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jul 14, 2014 14:37:33 GMT -5
Secured sample of second patch of feral grain today (under a road sign about a block from the first) adn this one IS wheat. Looks like a bread type probably moderns. Long head, beardless (or nearly so), hard and red Probably spring too, since it's maturing now, but I don't try and make that guess on grain I don't grow myself (many years the grain friendly weather is long enough here that even the feral stuff can pull off two seasons here. Either that, or a lot of the patches get seed of two or more types, some spring and some winter, in thier straw accidents.
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