Growing Wheat, UPDATE.

Hi all, alright so here is what I did:

1. Started a germination test.I put three damp paper towels on a plate, then some seeds (didn't count, just want to see if they do something) wet them, and the put four damp paper towels on top of them and have them kind of close to the wood stove so they get some warmth.

2. Went outside to fill the wood and came back in to find 3 razzed up cats and my seeds all over he!!s creation.... Cleaned up the mess, and repeated the above process. NOTE, plate is now "cat proof" Been keeping them moist with a mister gun all day.

No, that is not a boy gun for all of you that just snickered.

3. Went outside with a tape and measured the area to get a for-sure I think so of the area I am going to be planting. It is going to be 20 x 30, 600 square feet, maybe a little smaller depending on the fencing I buy. (50 foot roll has to enclose two sides?)

Soooo, how do I calculate how much seed I need? Mom went digging around out in the pantry and found 3 or 4 buckets of "SP Wheat" that she is FOR SURE means that they are indeed spring wheat. So I have the seed, fertilizer, a way to till and plant, and a way to harvest. Now all I need to know is the numbers!

One more thing, when I hit it with the rototiller, how deep and how fine do I want the soil? I would do it with a plow, but I have no way of getting a disc moved around in there!

How am I doing? Bryce

Your more ambitious than I to get a bushel or less of wheat worth $6.

I would go buy a bushel of wheat and grind it.

You have about 1/70 of and acre so 1.2 pounds of seed should plant it.

Good luck

Gary

Yea, I was around 1.56 lbs.

Plan should work as you have it now.

Paul

Oh, wheat doesn't care so much, it wants an inch or so of dirt on it, till it however you want, just so you can get it covered. Its not all that fussy.

Paul

That size plot would get you 38 dozen ears of sweet corn, at $4 dozen. That would buy a lot of flour

That's a bargin, it's $6 bucks a dozen around here, and corn stalks sell for $7 dollars for 15 stalks.,lol

Bryce, if you plant the wheat, keep us posted on how it turns out for you.

Out here the oldtimers used to say to broadcast oats so there were 4 seeds in a draft horse's footprint.I would guess with wheat you might go a little thicker. They also used to say "don't cheat your ground, you only cheat yourself."

Make it a square 25 X 25, for 625 sq. ft., if your limiting factor is 100 feet of perimeter fence. A square gets you maximum area for a given circumference.

Actually a circle gets more inside containment per given amount of fencing, but who the heck wants to build a circular fence!

Planting oats required 3 bushel of seed per acre. Planting wheat required 1 1/4 bushel although nowadays we plant 2 bushel of seed wheat per acre.

I thought about a circle, but sometimes research is interrupted for the most pedestrian reasons: It was the middle of the night, and if I turned on a light to calculate it, I'd probably wake up the grandkids sleeping down the hall.

And you're right about building a circular fence.

What is there now? If it is sod, heaven forbid fescue sod, you are spinning your wheels backwards.

With sod, it should have been sprayed with roundup in early fall to kill the sod, then wait two weeks, then spray it again. Wait two more weeks, then till it (still in the fall or early winter).

If it is still sod you wont get that worked up, and the sod killed in time to plant. You can till and till and not kill that sod out, then the sod will take over.

Gene

It is just meadow grass that hasn't had anything done to it in a long time. However in the spots I have rototilled before, the grass doesn't even try to come back until about 4 months after wards, probably later than that! I figured that I would take 5 or six loader buckets of horse manure over there, and till it all up. If I plant right away, I am sure that the wheat will have plenty of a head start on the grass/weeds before they begin to grow. What do you think? Bryce