Anyone grown wheat?

[Andy Hamilton]

I thought that it might be a good idea to grow some wheat this year. If you have then I have a few questions...

Where can you get good seed?
Have I missed the date for planting?
How long does it take to grow?
Does it need watering or feeding?
In short I know nothing about growing wheat and want to give it a go. A quick google come up with nothing, so I would think that if any budding authors are out there an article would be very useful.

Cheers

[Wombat]

G'DAY mate,

I grew some years ago - I will put something together and send it in!

Nev

[Andy Hamilton]

Brilliant cheers mate. Would be good to make my own loaf from wheat that I have grown.

[Muddypause]

I wonder what the acreage of wheat/loaf of bread ratio is?

I've always fancied having a go at working a traditional scythe. http://www.fellpony.f9.co.uk/country/ha ... ytime2.htm

Before the invention of mechanical mowers and harvesters, a field of corn would be cut by a line of men with scythes. They had to set off one at a time so that the swinging blade of one mower didn't get tangled with the feet of the man next to him. Hence the song "One man went to mow... Two men went to mow... etc"

[Wombat]

G'DAy Stew,

I have had a minor go on a scythe with weeds, teaching myself - taint as easy as it looks!

Nev

[hay331]

Hi there

I have a recipe for bread using sprouted wheatberries if you would like it. Is this the place to post recipes?
My hubby and I did a stint of growing wheatgrass indoors and juicing it. VERY energy boosting even if it didn't taste too grand!. Unfortunately, because it was very time consuming (we were drinking every day) it fell by the wayside. We ordered a big bag of organic wheatberries from our local healthfood store. It lasts for ages when growing grass for juice or sprouting and works out cheaper than buying "junk food". we hope to get back to making the juice again but perhaps just once or twice a week would be more realistic for us.

[rhyddid]

[hay331]

Hi rhyddid
Interesting to see you are in South Wales, what area? One of my daughters (I have 3 daughters and 1 son) is studying at Glamorgan Uni in the Vale of Glamorgan. One of my other daughters and son will be going to join her in September.
The recipe I have is for a bread machine but would adapt to hand making I'm sure! This is for the large size (1kg) loaf. The measurements are in cups. If you are using a machine put the ingredients in, in the order specified in the instructions.

1 cup water
11/2 tbs butter
1/2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup sprouted wheatberries
3 cups breadflour (I use 1/2 wholewheat, 1/2 white)
2 1/2 tsp dried yeast

Enjoy!

[hay331]

Hi Andy
I just realised that as my daughter (Wendy) recently started work at an organic farm there might be someone there that can answer your questions about growing wheat.
My brother in law is a farmer and they do grow wheat but commercial amounts and probably sprayed too. He should know the growing/sowing cycle though.
Wendy is working again on Friday so I'll see what I can find out and post at the weekend if you haven't got your info by then.

[rhyddid]

[Andy Hamilton]

Cheers for asking hay. All this talk of glamorgan, my girlfriend went there and my psychology tutor also used to teach there small world

In fact my girlfriend used to live in Treforest and I think my mum might have even lived in Ponty at some point, there is also some vauge memory that my great grandad owned a shop around that area some time between the wars.

[hay331]

Treforest is a lovely area and my daughter visits Pontypridd every week for the farmers market, indeed a small world!

No one at the organic farm knows about wheat so I asked my B in law. Winter wheat is sown Sep/Nov and takes around a year. Spring wheat is sown around March time and is ready Sep/Oct.
Winter wheat is more popular with commercial growers because of bigger yields. It is prone to all kinds of nasties, the worst one being Septoria (not sure of spelling) which is a fungus. He says the organic growers he knows have to buy the best disease resistant strain they can find.
There is something called a flag leave located at the bottom of plant that MUST be kept clean of nasties (he was adamant about this) other wise the grain doesn't grow properly.
At first he said yields are around 3-5 ton per acre then said no where near that if it wasn't sprayed

I checked where I got my bulk bags of wheat-grains for (wheat grass juice and sprouts) and they came from Doves Organic Farm so maybe they would be able to tell you more http://www.dovesfarm-organic.co.uk/index.htm

Hope this helps.

[Andy Hamilton]

all does help hay thanks ;)

Looks like I shall wait for the winter wheat.