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Post by steev on Jan 20, 2016 20:46:44 GMT -5
Can't say; I don't garden without boots, too many stickers.
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Post by flowerweaver on Jan 21, 2016 14:49:50 GMT -5
Yeah, steev stickers attack my feet, too, but they only bite once; I wear Chacos because I can quickly wash the fire ants off since they bite multiple times. I keep buckets of water around to step into. By the time one discovers them in their boots it's too late. And soggy socks are no fun.
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Post by reed on Jan 28, 2016 8:06:37 GMT -5
This is the plant that I think might be rye. This is a patch on the state property that they burn off each spring. It gets about 6 feet or so tall here. It grows other places too, sometimes just a clump or two and sometimes a whole field of it. It doesn't get as tall or thick in non burned areas. There were not any seeds to collect when I went to get this photo. In fall the area is swarming with little birds. I also wonder what that other plant in the foreground is with the ball shaped seed heads. It is also common. Here is a close up of the seed head on that other plant. Anyone know what it is?
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 28, 2016 11:44:03 GMT -5
I've seen it before. I know it's a legume. The name "prarire mimosa" keeps popping up in my head, but I'm not sure about that.
and that stuff looks more like s=Sicilian Ryegrass than rye. Too thin (unless the heads are missing)
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Post by reed on Jan 29, 2016 8:42:12 GMT -5
Yep, I think prairie mimosa is what that one plant is. I looked it up and came up with this. www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=DEIL Says it is good forage plant, high in protein. Wonder if it's good to eat, seeds would be easy to collect. I think I'll go get some and plant around the edges of the yard. I think the seed heads are missing on the rye looking plant, I'll have to watch it closer next year and see what it looks like as it matures and before the birds get to it.
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Post by farmermike on Jan 31, 2016 18:34:22 GMT -5
This winter is pretty much my first foray into growing small grains. Yesterday I planted a couple of test rows of Pima Club wheat and Burbank Hulless barley. I'm mainly looking for varieties that will be easy to thresh and eat as whole grains (like wheat berries or pearled barley).
I also have rows of Baart wheat, Forerunner triticale, and Winter Cereal rye that were planted in late November. The rye and triticale are surviving, but have been mowed to the ground by Golden Crowned sparrows. The Baart has gone untouched by them--for unknown reasons.
I've always been a little intimidated by growing small grains due to the economic reasons stated earlier in this thread, but the temptation of growing a crop that can be primarily watered by the winter rain (except in the worst drought years) is too much to overlook any longer. I'm hoping that my grains will dry up and ripen in May, when the soil does, just like the wild foxtail barley and oats growing out in the hills.
Does anyone know if these small plots (25-50 plants each) are large enough populations to do a seed increase, or will I need to worry about inbreeding depression? Eventually, once I have identified some easy-threshing varieties that I like, I will probably start mixing them into landraces, and continue to select for drought tolerance and thresh-ability.
Any other easy threshing varieties you can recommend?
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Post by raymondo on Feb 1, 2016 3:43:23 GMT -5
Barley is predominantly self-pollinating so inbreeding depression is probably not an issue. Old rye cultivars are more than likely self-incompatible so inbreeding depression might be a problem with these. Modern cultivars have some level of self-compatibilty so inbreeding depression would be less of an issue. I don't know about wheat.
For rye, once it is mixed into a landrace, vigour should return.
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Post by reed on Feb 1, 2016 6:31:01 GMT -5
How about oats, is inbreeding an issue with them?
I don't even know when and how to plant small grain or how long it takes to mature, it's all new to me. I was thinking I would just plant some early this spring and see what happens, should I just work up a spot and rake in some seeds. How cold tolerant is it? Could I go ahead and plant some now?
I was gifted a bag of oats, enough that I cooked a 1/4 cup, added a little honey and cream and man they were good.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 3, 2016 1:32:50 GMT -5
I have tried almost every kind of grain. Oats, rice, wheat, barley, millet, sorghum, and flax. All are a pita when when it's time to harvest. None of the equipment for small scale grain harvesting is readily available in the US, at a reasonable price. I will say that the wheat we harvested, threshed, ground and made into pasta was some of the best pasta we have ever eaten. That said, it took hours and hours to harvest, thresh and grind. Did I mention that barley and wheat are both itchy? Oh yeah man, scritchity scratch. Corn is yes, so much easier, and also itchy. But, I have never been able to make pasta out of corn. No one even close to me grows anything but sweet corn. My favorite is flour corn.
I have been working on crops for drought for 20 years. Although I have crops that grow without water, the bugs during drought also intensify. I've had no pests in my wheat, barley or oats. The wild pigs took the rice. Little birdy numnums, effectively devour millet and sorghum. (When they start to land, it's time time harvest).
Of course, everyone else is irrigating so the bugs migrate to the farm with no pesticides. Some tomatoes grow perfectly well without water. I also have some beans and some corn that can go without. (And dozens of other crops).
That said, I have these grains in the freezer, and if it all goes south, I will throw them back in the field. And as always I'm interested in a few of these crops for alternate crops. Flax for linen, linoleum, linseed oil and Leo loves flax seed. Wheat for thatch and grain. Millet for chicken feed, no threshing, just beat the lettle birdie beasties to the harvest and throw the stems whole to the chickens in winter. Some of these grains make great bedding for chickens/pigs. It's really a fascinating alternative to veggies, but do not underestimate the time it takes to harvest and thresh. There's some very cool machines in Japan and Italy for midscale processors. But they are very pricey for a small farmer. Now, where's my cooperative? Steev, what is that clone doing?
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Post by steev on Feb 3, 2016 3:28:57 GMT -5
Think my clones are all stuck in my "20's years", useless as tits on a boar; sorry, but I think we're on our own.
I find "hulless" wheats and barley easily processed enough to be very valuable; the only problem being initial harvesting, small-scale harvesting equipment being ludicrously expensive. Hand-picking for seed-increase and scything for larger harvest are actually quite effective.
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Post by Walk on Feb 3, 2016 9:22:45 GMT -5
But, I have never been able to make pasta out of corn. Have you tried making hominy with corn and serving it with pasta sauce? We do that with our flint corn and it's actually quite tasty. The only gluten-free noodles we've been successful with are made from 100% buckwheat flour. Too much fussing around to have these on a regular basis. The corn is much easier.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 3, 2016 11:07:47 GMT -5
Walk: How long does it take your hominy to soften? Last time I made hominy I declared that I was going to wait to eat it until the kernels were exploding. That occurred after about 10 hours of simmering.
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Post by prairiegarden on Feb 3, 2016 11:52:49 GMT -5
As far as growing small grains for feeding pigs and chickens etc., if you grow grain like oats without the hard awns, why not just throw the whole sheaf in for them and let them figure it out? Gives them something to do and they won't miss much.. for chickens it might not even be necessary to worry about the awns, but I'm not sure about that. Relatively work free bedding/ composting as well..anything that saves work AND works well is worth looking at imo.Although cleaning out pens in the spring IS work for sure.
I've been playing with the idea of a moveable shed and simply rotating each spring then using the abandoned pen area to plant squash and corn and such when animals are moved to range. With three or four rotations the soil should be free of any residual animal worm eggs or parasites by the time the animals get back to them. Have to be careful that the bedding isn't still too hot and burn the seedlings though but it would be a great way to have nice warmed soil in the spring.
People used to pile fresh manure in trenches in cold frames, cover it with a layer of soil and use that for starting seedlings in the spring. It might be a thought to use a light moveable cold frame ( pvc?) over the bedding area to be an equivalent but much larger area, planting in pockets of soil so the rest of it has a chance to mature and cool down before the roots get to it.
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Post by Walk on Feb 3, 2016 15:54:27 GMT -5
Joseph, we usually presoak the corn in the pickling lime water either overnight or at least several hours. We cook our hominy either on the wood stove this time of year or in the solar oven. The flint corn boils for at least an hour, and simmers for a few hours beyond that, leaving it to sit as the fire dies down slowly for a few more hours (our stove is a masonry heater hybrid which we usually fire once a day, usually around 4pm so we can cook supper). I rinse the hominy the next morning. The flint corn takes way more time than flour corn or even dent. Whichever type of corn, I do want it to cook until the kernels "blossom" but not so far that they get mushy.
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Post by steev on Feb 4, 2016 4:02:04 GMT -5
Gotta say, Walk, sounds like you're doing the cook-heat thing in line with my inclinations; kudos.
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