Growing Wheat, How??

Alright, here it goes:
I (meaning mom) have decided to grow wheat in my meadow next year. I have a small area 20x20 that is all fenced in, and "deer proof". I have a large tractor mount rototiller that I am going to use, but here is where I need the help,
I am fully capable of tillage, but I don't know how to seed, maintain, and then harvest. I don't have a seed drill, so I will be using my hands.
1. Mom has 5 gallon buckets of wheat that are 4-5 years old, can I use this for seed? It isn't rancid, if you soak the seed in water almost all of them sprout?
2. Can I just broadcast seed with my hands, and then ruff it up with a hand rake?
3. What do I need to do to the Wheat between seeding and harvest?
4. How do I harvest the crop, and then seperate it from the chaff?

I have an old hand sickle thing. You can hold it with two hands, and then "swipe" it through grass and it will cut it down at ground level. If I do this, and then gather it all up, do I just take it into the shop on the concreet floor and beat it with a stick until all of the seed is off? Or What?

If you guys could give me some tips I would really apperciate it!

My first question is, the seed you have is it spring wheat or winter wheat. Around here, (Ohio) you like to sow wheat the end of September to say the 15th of October. It is soft winter wheat. Spring wheat I don't have a clue.

Most wheat is planted in the Fall and harvested in late spring so your a bit late

To check germination.....count out 100 seeds. Put them on a damp cloth, fold it over. Keep a heat lamp on it for 10-20 days. Keep the cloth damp. Count the number that sprout. That"s your germination percentage. Wheat can be spring or winter, various kinds, Durum, hard red spring, etc. More than I know- had winter wheat only once, decades ago. Always raised oats and barley as a cover for alfalfa, for several decades.

Here everything is spring wheat, hard red.

You really need to know they type of wheat, spring or winter. Would be totally pointless to plant a winter wheat in spring.

Then if we can presume your mom wants to Use it for food/ flour, it will really help you to know if it is soft, hard, red, etc. that all work up different into different sorts of products....

If it is a spring wheat of a type you want, plant it early. Wheat is a cool season plant, and needs to do most of its growing before you get to the warm days of summer. You will have real poor quality if you wait and plant it late. Up here in MN, you plant a spring wheat as soon as you can get out on the fields, doesn't mater if some frost is in the ground yet, or if snow is coming. Need it out there early. Don't know where you live, but you need to get the wheat up and growing very early in the season.

Harvest is on you, don't think there is an easy way for a small amount.

Paul

If it is only an area 20x20, think of it as a garden bed.

You could broadcast the seed by hand (my grandfather used to do that for the new variety seed that he was 'bulking up') and rake it in (but it will end up very uneven) OR you could use a stick to make rows and sow the seed into the rows.

It needs to be reasonable soil. It may need N,P,K etc fertiliser depending on location, and it needs moisture.

You can easily harvest a little area like that with a sickle.

Wheat is easy to grow even in a desert country like Australia. I grow several thousand acres a year, and this is essentially gardening on a big scale.

As usual, paul is right on re advice....especially the comment about end use- makes a big difference in what you want for seed. Same for seeding- I"m 90 miles north of paul, and wheat is always first in the ground....as soon as you can work up a seedbed, and don"t worry about frost. Oats, barley- they"re not quite as tolerant, but them getting snowed on is not unheard of. BTDT.

Could I mow it with a sickle mower on a tractor? I figure if I mow it with the sickle, then it will be evenly laid out when I go to collect it.

How do I go about determining what kind of wheat I have? Can any kind of seed be planted in the spring, or does it HAVE to be spring wheat?

How much seed will it take? 1 gallon for a 10 x 10 area or what?

I am in Northern ID, very close to the Canadian border. We usually have snow on the ground into early May, and then lots and lots of mud until June. I should be able to have it in before June, probably more like early to mid May, would that be alright?
Thanks, Bryce

It is just for flour. We have multiple hand grinders, and I grind all of our own wheat, however we are working to become totally self sufficient, and this is about to be one of the last steps! If I were to take a picture of the grain, and then showed it to you guys, would you be able to I.D. it? Bryce

I'm not real sure that you want to raise wheat garden style. which is what it sounds like your wanting to do. I just think you'd be better off raising something else if your gonna go to the trouble. winter wheat needs to be planted in the fall for the next years harvest. spring wheat needs planted in the spring and I don't know what kind of seed you have. wheat is actually no trouble to raise, but there is the issue of having a way to drill it and harvest it.

I do have the option of a three point seed drill from the neighbors farm. I have never used it, and it has been a while since they have used it, but it is still in working order, and it has the seed bed packers built into it. I am not that worried about harvesting it, I think that I can handle it, I just need a few tips and helpful pointers as to what to do! Thanks, Bryce

Spring wheat is all we grow in my part of Sask. and I seed anywhere from May 1 to June 1 with good results. Needs close to 100 days from planting to maturity. Or you can cut it a little on the immature side and let it ripen in the swath or sheaf before threshing. It has to be good and dry when you thresh it or it will spoil in storage. I don't think you will have a lot of bushels to deal with though if it is only a small plot the size you describe.

Might want to check out nasco catelog the have stuff in there for small operations

20x20 is 1/100 th of an acre. If you got a yield of 60 bpa that would be .6 of a bushel.
Is this what you are after? Why not grow something profitable and buy some flour?

Winter wheat can be planted in the EARLY spring and still make a crop. The seed needs to get down to a certain temperature for a period of time to make a head. This is called vernalization. (sp?) I suppose different varieties can take different temperatures, but it seems like some of those were only 32 degrees for 24 hours after the seed had swelled before germination. Doesn't even need to be growing out of the ground.

It sounds like an interesting experiment. How much rain do you get in your part of Idaho? The map I looked at showed that some areas get over 30 inches, while other get less than 20. The less rainfall, the greater your challenge will be. Since you'll be broadcasting the seed, you need to be careful you don't plant more seed than your rainfall will support. As others have said, use a variety that does well in your area; no reason to buy commercial seed, but it does need to be cleaned to remove as much weed seed as possible. Maybe you can buy a little leftover seed from a local farmer. Wheat is pretty much a hands-off crop, as long as you eliminated weed seed from the soil prior to planting it shouldn't need much attention.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Gene Logsdon wrote a very good book "Small Scale Grain Raising" that could help you.

Bryce I am going to assume you are Bible reading individual. Do you remember reading about winnowing and shocking? Well what you are getting into is just that--the way growing wheat has been done for thousands of years. Yes the boys a right--is it spring or winter wheat.
So SOWING--Of course you can sow by hand. There is a technique, scoop up a handful and with a sweeping motion allow the seed to flow off you fingers, the trick is to get a smooth distribution of seed. Then drag a board or rack over the area to get the seed under the surface-NOT TOO DEEP.
FERTILIZER--repeat this same action with fertilizer except you do not need to get it under the surface it will work just fine laying on the surface; it's just not as efficient. You'll probably need to do this a couple of times spaced about 3-4 weeks apart.
NEXT--WATER--either start praying or find a hose and sprinkler. You don't need to soak it just water it couple times a week.
WATCH--watch it grow, don't get anxious God will do the work.
HARVEST--The scikle you have will harvest it just fine, in fact for the plot you are growing it's probably the ideal tool. Use a file to put a nice edge in the blade, it doens't need to be razor sharp but sharp enough to cut as you sweep it through the wheat. Wear gloves or have tough skin cause your looking at blisters and you will have tired shoulders.
SHOCKING--Sweep up a bunch of the wheat and tie the bundle together, in the middle. Then stand it up on end to dry some more.
WINNOWING--Prepare a hard surface outside that has no grass or weeds growing--the winnowing floor. Spread the wheat out on this floor and walk on it, jump on it, beat it with a stick--you are kncking off the wheat. Then with a nice breeze blowing, using a pitch fork, throw the wheat straight up. The breeze will carry the chaff (the stems and husks) off the floor and the heavier wheat will fall back on the floor for you to sweep up. Do not pile the wheat too deep because you need to work it against the hard surface.

If you have done this right you should finish with 7 5 gallon buckets of wheat for every 5 gallon of seed. Going to do it agai? Save one bucket for next time. Keep it dry and cool. If you have a lid for the bucket put it on.

Good luck you'll learn a lot.

Gordo pointed out that on that sized plot it just isn't going to yield enough to make it worth while.

You would get more bang for your buck with potatos, especially sweet potatos.

And unless you know what that seed is, it is just bird seed.
Can't tell by looking at it, maybe a PHd wheat breeder could, but most folks can't.

Seeding rate here is a bushel and half per acre. So say 90 lbs on 43,560 square feet. You have 400 square feet, so you would need .8 lb.

I have sown a lot of wheat for food plots or cover crops on pond dams, etc. I use one of the little hand, crank seeders. Walk it on, then set the disk straight and shallow and disk it in to cover. Alway works for me.

Gene

I would plant a regular garden for this year, sow the wheat this fall like it should be, than when it is harvested next summer plant a second crop(turnips?). If you plant wheat this spring be prepared to plant a garden in case the wheat fails. You could also mix in some other seed(radishes?) that would be harvested before the wheat matures(lettuce might be better as the heads are on top of the ground).
Armand

I actually did this one year with a good sized plot of shell beans. Only thing I would comment on is that in the winnowing step I would RAKE the stems and big stuff out of the grain before winnowing as you would have to do it in a tornado to get rid of the straw. Second, instead of tossing it up in the wind and getting the chaff out I have used two options. ONE is to find a cheap fanning mill on Craigs or TWO is to get out your old box style window fan and set it up on high. Pour the grain across the draft from one bucket into a second. This works extremely well and costs you nothing. Don't worry about yield, making money, or (for that matter) even succeeding. When I did it I just wanted to see how it was originally done and learn something about the field to oven process. It is a good thing. That was many years ago that I did that. I learned a lot. Mostly I learned to appreciate what a wonderful thing a combine truly is.

Have at it and have fun!

Well, water isn't a problem, the chicken coop is 10 feet away and we have it completely plumbed. We have a HUGE garden that we already grow everything in, carrots, potatoes, beans, 5 berries, flowers, lettuce and a lot more. (which is also right next to where I am planting) We don't however have a way to produce wheat, or grain for that matter. I am at least going to try it, my only fertilizer will be Horse Manure. I will put it out very heavy before the rototiller, and that will be it for the year. Last year we had a small crop of Barley IN the manure pile... I think only about 15 plants, but the only think I can figure is that it must have been fed to the horse, and then the manure was given to us!

I used my sickle a lot around the house, mainly just foolin around in some grass, but I put a nice edge on it, and it works good.

When I am drying the grain, I need to leave it outside right? When it comes time to thresh it, could I do it on the concrete floor in the shop? I would lay a trap down on top of it, but it would be nice and hard!

Thanks again for the info, Bryce

To see if your seed is any good you can do a germination test. Line a plate with paper towels, put 100 seeds on top of the paper towels, then put more paper towels on top of the seeds, put enough water on it to make it moist and put it in a window sill that will expose it to the sun. Keep it moist for a few days and the seeds will sprout. If they dont sprout after a week your seed is no good. Be sure to keep it moist. I find using lots of paper towels helps to keep it moist. If you only get 50 or 60% germination you can adjust your seeding rate accordingly. The only way I know to find out if it is winter or spring wheat is to plant it, if it heads out this year, its spring wheat, if it doesnt, its winter wheat, and it should grow back and head out next year. Have fun.

For 20x20,mow it by hand.The tractor running over will shell it all out.You want it in the'bin',not ground into the dirt.Harvest a little green.As was said,make bundles,'shock' them(Heads up in the air,butts down on ground),let them cure for week-10 days and then thresh. the Take those buckets of wheat you already have and grind them for flour.Unless it's treated seed,then about all you can do is plant or throw away.If you need wheat for household use,buy some 'combine run' from a local farmer neghbor.Those buckets are just livestock feed.You need to know what you have-spring or winter?Winter wheat must be frozen before it gets to joint stage,otherwise it will not produce/head out.Spring wheat will winter kill during winter.Winter wheat is fall planted,Sept/Oct is best.Your proposed May/June planting date is WAY too late.We planted spring wheat in Feb/Mar.Maybe first of April if we have a really cold spring,but thats pushing it..A small coffee can of seed is PLENTY of seed for your garden spot.Couple of handfuls should be enough.Planting rates vary with region,Anywhere from 30 to 100 lbs per acre depending on annual precip. here,we can plant 100+ lbs because of irrigation and heavy fertilization. The dry wheatlands can only go about 30.Go ahead and try it! nothing to lose,plenty of experience to gain.Might get a crop,might get 'skunked'.Good luck! keep us informed.

You must me right around Coeur d' Alene somewhere? That type spring climate is why you need winter wheat only. Plant late Sept-early Oct. Hand spread a little fertilizer on it in the spring when you are sure you have a good stand of wheat abt a foot tall. Ask your local supplier to tell you what type fert to use for your area/type soil. Depending type seed, harvest in August. 20x20 just use corn knive or elect hedge trimmer and cut off right below heads when heads are JUST starting to curl.You don't need all that straw to hinder your threshing operation. Ripe heads will be curled over. Lay them all out in sun to dry and then use any method that works for ya to beat them up to release seed so you can catch it effectively. Like one said, you are only looking at around a bushel of product here.

Plant by hand, rake the area for that small. Easy and wheat won't care.

As mentioned a 20x20 plot is 1/100 of an acre, so you will use and get about 1/100 of what is normal for an acre of wheat.

Wheat likes some N as the head develops, not too much early on. So you don't really need too much fertilizer or manure.

All in all wheat is the general grain that grows anywhere in any conditions, easy to plant, so you don't need to work too hard at this, it will work out.

Biggest issue is to know what you have, winter or spring wheat, and I don't know a way to figure that out easily. Winter wheat needs that vernalizing with freezing after it sprouts, or you won't get much grain. What is common in your area, spring or winter wheat, it likely is whatever is common around you.

Paul

Relatively few indeed are the moms named "Bryce".

I wonder how your going fit a "large tractor" in. 20x20 fenced in area. Might be easier tilling it with a walk behing rototiller.

Why is everyone wanting to windrow it, or shock it, or worry about carrying it inside to dry, etc.

Shocks went out of style in the 40's when they invented combines. Back then they had to haul it, plant and all to the thresher. Since then they bring the thresher to the field.

Unless you let it get way over dry, it isn't going to shatter that much. Let it dry naturally, standing, to 15 or 16%. Cut it one day, then maybe thresh it out a few days later. The shocking and windrowing is just extra work.

The old Clipper fanning mills are still out there to be found. I have our old Clipper 2B, with all the screens still in our barn. I have seen them in restraunts used for decoration. But they can be had.

Or, if you got into it in a big enough way, buy an old pull type combine. Maybe find an old AC 66 setting in a shed. I know there are two or three in Marbel Hill Mo. in a shed.

Gene

I there is plenty of room for a tractor. We use our little Yanmar to clean out the chicken coop. The area is probably 50 x 50 all fenced in, it is a secondary run for the chickens on nice, bird free days. It also has out little bar and sometimes a few tractors in the area. If you can imagine a square, one whole side of it is just soft fence with T posts that will easily pull out, and at one end of this one side, it has a large gate that goes out to the meadow, so a tractor would be fine.

Thats why I was wondering if I could mow a pass with the sickle mower, then bundle it all up, then back up with the tractor and mow another pass? Bryce

Wheat will dry sufficiently in the field that you can thresh it. However, every day you leave it in the field is one more day you can lose it to hail (or I suppose early snowfall in Idaho). So most grain farmers cut as early as they can without getting docked for moisture. Cutting and shocking allows the grain to dry in the field with less risk of being knocked down by the weather.

You can do a quick moisture test of your wheat by threshing out a head in your hand and popping the the grain in you mouth. If it's slightly crunchy, it's dry enough to harvest.

(quoted from post at 19:42:31 02/16/14) Alright, here it goes:
I (meaning mom) have decided to grow wheat in my meadow next year. I have a small area 20x20 that is all fenced in, and "deer proof". I have a large tractor mount rototiller that I am going to use, but here is where I need the help,
I am fully capable of tillage, but I don't know how to seed, maintain, and then harvest. I don't have a seed drill, so I will be using my hands.
1. Mom has 5 gallon buckets of wheat that are 4-5 years old, can I use this for seed? It isn't rancid, if you soak the seed in water almost all of them sprout?
2. Can I just broadcast seed with my hands, and then ruff it up with a hand rake?
3. What do I need to do to the Wheat between seeding and harvest?
4. How do I harvest the crop, and then seperate it from the chaff?

I have an old hand sickle thing. You can hold it with two hands, and then "swipe" it through grass and it will cut it down at ground level. If I do this, and then gather it all up, do I just take it into the shop on the concreet floor and beat it with a stick until all of the seed is off? Or What?

If you guys could give me some tips I would really apperciate it!

Click to expand...

I guess the worst that could happen is you have a bunch of straw.....
The big problem if you get a crop will be the weeds, especially if you are using horse manure. Pretty hard to separate the seed out unless you have a combine, then by the time you get it adjusted right you will be done
We had a guy in Spokane that came to our school farm a couple of years ago and demonstrated a bicycle powered combine for some African visitors....not sure if he is still around or not.

Hey Gene, do you know where those pull type combines are
located near Marble Hill and if they are for sale? I would really
like to have one in usable condition! E-mail is good!

Thanks, GE