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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2022 7:45:37 GMT -6
The wheat patch looks sore. It's a trial plot and I am inclined to neglect these, see how they hold up. Half the plot died from extended drought in winter. Curious, some heads are tall and mighty, nearly shoulder height but others are shorter and maturing at the same rate. Some are lodged from possum damage and many heads were burnt from cold.
I imagine the wheat fields locally, those big ones that are either exported or sent to local mills for processing into feed or bakery foodstuffs. Speculation permits thinking these lower quality heads would end up in feed mills, but the bigger acres are planted by those with superior knowledge in wheat growing. They time it so, plant the seed precise and have modified the soil where possible. Then, they kill it at prime seed head.
This tiny plot seems ominous, maybe a warning but in all what's important, is there is wheat. Wheat is being harvested right now, in fact, since the soils have dried and partially firmed up.
I'll be growing several beds of wheat this winter. I have fertilizer for this winter. The large acreages? Not much, if at all.
Those beds do not yet exist. Long summer for us.
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Post by june on May 30, 2022 9:20:03 GMT -6
Bon, what kind of wheat are you growing? Are you familiar with the ancient wheat, Einkorn? It is very low gluten and high nutrition (and tastes delicious). It is difficult to harvest and thrash because the grain does not easily separate from the husk. I think a rice huller might work (?) but don't have resources to grow wheat. I buy whole Einkorn berries from a grower in Idaho and grind my own flour fresh. The cheapest I've found is 48 lbs. (postpaid) for $135...so quite expensive and that was the last time I bought three months ago--so no idea what it costs now. I would be interested to buy if anyone local ever figures out how to grow and thrash.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2022 10:22:27 GMT -6
Current plot is hard red winter (HRW). I have hard white winter (HWW) in storage in #10 cans from LDS store that are around twelve years old. I popped a can 2 years ago and they germinated just fine. I recently purchased whole grain Kamut. As I type this I cannot remember the details other than my goal was to have pasta wheat available to grow. I couldn't find pasta wheat berries online via the normal avenues, so I made the substitution with an imported variety via Amazon.
I bet the Eikorn would grow well here. This is only my second time growing and I've never harvested. I don't have much space and I'm still insecure growing it, save the soil and location where wheat can usually thrive. Stuff some of those berries you have in the freezer.
A side note; I've been thinking about you the last couple of days. Not sure why, but my arthritis is at an all time high and focused primarily in my hips and knees. I'm relegated to sit and crawl in the dirt and using a military shovel to dig out the bermuda. LOL It helps knowing I'm not alone.
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Post by june on May 30, 2022 10:36:56 GMT -6
They say 'misery loves company'--so with our combined aches and pains, we should be pretty happy! LOL
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 30, 2022 20:42:03 GMT -6
Bon, what kind of wheat are you growing? Are you familiar with the ancient wheat, Einkorn? It is very low gluten and high nutrition (and tastes delicious). It is difficult to harvest and thrash because the grain does not easily separate from the husk. I think a rice huller might work (?) but don't have resources to grow wheat. I buy whole Einkorn berries from a grower in Idaho and grind my own flour fresh. The cheapest I've found is 48 lbs. (postpaid) for $135...so quite expensive and that was the last time I bought three months ago--so no idea what it costs now. I would be interested to buy if anyone local ever figures out how to grow and thrash. June, our family has eaten einkorn for a number of years, though we have been moving away from it lately because of cost. We still have wheat berries in the freezer, though, and I sprouted some today to make tabbouleh for our dinner. (It was a victory to have parsley, onion, a few tomatoes, and three small cucumbers from the garden for it.) I used to get einkorn from Jovial Foods when they would have a sale, and I think the normal price at that time was below what you mention for your grower from Idaho. Their wheat is grown in Italy and imported, though. I, like you, haven’t bought any in recent months, so I don’t know what the pricing is like these days, but I just wanted to mention it so that you would be aware of another supplier.
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Post by june on May 31, 2022 5:55:45 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum, I am familiar with 'Jovial' and have purchased from them. I shop around. Everything goes up every time I look. 'Postpaid' is a real draw for me. I hate to pay postage, so sometimes I pay a little more for a product just to get it 'postpaid'.
At the risk of letting everybody know that I am a complete fool--I MAY have a little patch of Einkorn...I planted Einkorn seeds in March (not in the fall) from my bread making wheat...this doesn't look at all like some other random volunteer conventional wheat that came up from my past mulching straw, so a while back I thought it was weeds (cheat grass or something) and I pulled part of it up to plant some corn...decided I better wait and see what it is before I pull it all up. The moral to the story is--if you plant wheat, then it MIGHT be wheat. Better wait and see.
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 31, 2022 7:10:19 GMT -6
I know what you mean about everything going up, June. I just looked at Jovial’s website, and while their prices were never low, they are significantly higher now. We used to buy in bulk from them when they had discounts, and now it seems to be impossible to do. They started with quantity limits during 2020, but those have remained. That makes it more difficult to get to the limit that triggers free shipping unless you want several different products. That’s why we’ve started incorporating more regular wheat into our diets. I have to be careful with that, though, as I don’t tolerate it as well as I do einkorn.
If that is einkorn growing there, it certainly looks nice. I’ve never been ambitious enough to try sowing a grain crop. I have no idea how much space I would need to make it worthwhile, but I’m quite sure I couldn’t manage it.
The little glimpses of your garden in that picture make me want to see more of it. Any chance you could give us a visual tour?
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2022 9:08:47 GMT -6
Does anyone know if certain weeds are allelopathic to veggie plants when chopping and dropping? I'm getting desperate for mulch. I put cow parsley on the beds and wondered if it was a bad idea.
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2022 11:09:27 GMT -6
31May22
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 31, 2022 13:51:52 GMT -6
Quote: A side note; I've been thinking about you the last couple of days. Not sure why, but my arthritis is at an all time high and focused primarily in my hips and knees. I'm relegated to sit and crawl in the dirt and using a military shovel to dig out the bermuda. LOL It helps knowing I'm not alone.
Bon, your comment above reminds me of myself, crawling along on my hands and knees here, using a 22-ounce straight claw hammer as a weed puller. That thing works great for doing that. I don't know why they don't sell straight claw hammers for that very purpose. You need that extra weight when trying to pop up the larger roots. (Would probably work on Johnson grass?) I just crawl along, swinging that thing at whatever I can reach. Then, I pop the roots loose and throw them in a 5-gallon bucket. Every once in a while, I get up to dump the bucket into a little red wagon. When the wagon gets full, I dump it in my compost heap or else use it to mulch around my berry plants or my pawpaw trees. The process goes on for days on end until I run out of weeds.
By the way, that mulching job in the above photo you provided of your garden looks wonderful! (The only allelopathic weed I can think of off hand is nutsedge). Tomatoes don't like it at all. That, and bermuda grass. I burn all of that stuff that I pull up, for fear of spreading it.
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2022 15:45:50 GMT -6
Thank you, Ron. I might just break out the hammers next time. Line of site: Near dead center, Chicken Tractor, behind that is a blue tarpaulin draped over a pallet that is leaning on a compost bin made of pallets and on the other side of a bin is another pallet leaning up against it. Right behind that last pallet is 60 lbs of bermuda we pulled out of the yard yesterday for a sweet potato bed.
When we pull them out, there are worms which tells me the soil in that area is alive. Bermuda cannot be dumped as is, only a little at a time. I pull a couple handfuls before I dump my 5 gallon kitchen compost in the bin and some carbonaceous materials if I have it. I am short on materials so I make it work.
In the previous picture you see the sunchokes in the back along the fence. That's only a small portion of what is growing. All for compost or mulch.
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2022 17:37:04 GMT -6
I went right out and gave it a try. Thank you my friend!
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 31, 2022 20:27:21 GMT -6
Bon, thanks for the photo and the video. I could hear the roots ripping with that hammer claw, but boy, you have beautiful soil under there. Wow! That looks like it will be a great place for sweet potatoes. When you plant them, will you do cardboard and mulch around them for weed suppression?
The chicken tractor looks gorgeous, too. How is it to move?
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2022 22:57:03 GMT -6
We once owned a bible repair shop/book bindery where we re-bound the damaged books from many of the city and county libraries. The boards you see in the walkway are those we used for book covers until closure ten years ago. They take about 3-7 years to break down fully. This time, I will use wood chips as mulch over those boards in the walkway. They really work well for this.
The garden bed will get mulch if I have some. Otherwise, I may use retail cardboard. Whatever I can find to protect the soil. Once the bermuda is removed, the natural soil is good for stronger plants for an entire season without amendments. I only need to keep it alive and well fed.
The tractor needs a rope, but for now I move it with a dolly which I think is easier.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 1, 2022 10:34:29 GMT -6
Bon,
If you had a hammer with a straight claw, (a ripping hammer) rather than a curved claw hammer, you'd be in weed pulling Heaven!
The ripping claws sink deeper into the soil. I keep a 22-ounce framing hammer with ripping-type claws in my truck all the time. It works really well if you ever get stuck and need to dig out wood or rock debris or if you just need to hack out a flat spot for a jack to fit under the frame better. Plus, I use it almost daily for hacking out weed roots in my garden. It also makes a good bulb planting tool in the Fall of the year for setting out crocus bulbs or whatever. I use it a lot for driving rebar stakes on my tomato cages. framing hammers make really good gardening tools.
Also, do you have a pair of old push mower wheels laying around anywhere? If so, those make a great way to move a chicken tractor. Just mount a pair of them to either end of an old 2x4 using a couple of nails or a lag bolt with washers attached and you have a makeshift axle. Attach the 2x4 to the end of the chicken tractor and all you have to do is raise the opposite end slightly and give it a pull or a push to roll it across your yard.
If you don't have any old wheels, a heavy piece of plastic tacked along the trailing edge will work, (PVC pipe split in half, old 5-gallon bucket cut into strips) just about anything to keep the raw edge of the tractor from digging into the soil as you pull it along.
Your sweet potato bed looks really good! Thanks for posting that video clip. You've inspired me to go hack some more weeds out of my berry patch. I needed that nudge, I've been lazy today.
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