Growing Wheat, UPDATE 2.

Alright, so I have been watering and peeking at my wheat seeds every day. About 4 days ago (maybe more) they all started to get this little white soggy/sticky thing on one end of the seed. A couple of days later, two of the seeds have actual roots.

Now it has been a couple of days since the two seeds put out roots, the others haven't done anything??? What did I do wrong? Bryce

A batch of seed depending on how and under what environmental conditions it was stored can lose 10% of germination per year. So if seeds are 5 years old they could have lost 40-50% of their germination. Then only half the seed planted will come up. That's why farmers don't plant seed corn that is over a year old.

Beans are real fragile, they don't store long.

Corn can go several years, 4-5. But it needs to be stored right.

Wheat can store pretty long too, but it needs to be cared for properly.

If I remember your seed was in 5 gallon buckets.

The stuff on the bottom of the bucket might be real moist and fuzzy and poor.

The top inch might be real dried out, sun bleached, got humidity and swelled and shrunk.

Perhaps the upper middle of the pail was stored about right and is pretty good.

So, what wheat did you grab, a bit off the top, a bit off the bottom, or a sample all the way through?

When a seed gets wet it swells up, dead or alive it will swell up.

A weak seed will try to put out the stem, but is too poor and weak to get anywhere and dies with a bit of a bump out there.

A strong seed will hang on a long time, if too cold it will be swollen up, possibly a bit of a bump on it, but will keep trying to grow for an amazing long time.

Weak seed might come up in a warm environment, but be too weak to come up in cold soil; put 100 seed on the window sill in a sprout pan and put 100 seeds in a sprout pan in the fridge. Both should come up, but the fridge stuff will be much slower, and mybe not as many, or is weak almost none will come up.

As I recall you didnt count the seeds, so we can't work out a percentage.

Also as I recall, you didnt put a layer of dirt/sawdust on top, but just layered between paper and keep misting it. That doesn't do good seed to soil contact, and it doesn't keep a constant temp and moist but not soaking moisture on the seed. So, I'm not really sure we can tell for sure if the seed is bad or you used a poor method to try to sprout the seed? I don't believe the way you did it will really tell us anything, since there was no light dirt pressure on the seed, and your misting of paper allowed the seed to get drenched and dried instead of the natural constant moist that a soil layer would have.

Don't mean to be hard on you, I like your project, so just telling it like it is, so we all can learn something?

Paul

No, not hard at all! Thats what I need is a straight "do this" kind of an answer.

The buckets of wheat are dried, and then put in the 5 gallon buckets. (we buy the wheat in bags) Mom has these little packets that she puts in the buckets that absorb the Oxygen and makes the buckets air tight. HOWEVER, the bucket that I took out of has been open for a couple of months and is about half full? (plus when ever I am grinding grain, while waiting for the hopper to empty I find it very entertaining to play in the bucket...)

I will count out 100 seeds today and put them on a porcelain plate with some dirt on both sides of them. Should I open a new bucket, or is this stuff going to be ok?

Mom won't go for dirt and seeds on a plate in her fridge, so that means I will put them in the window some where. Would our green house be better? It gets kind of cool at night (40's) and during the day it warms up to 80's if it is sunny, plus there would be LOTS of sun for the seeds to absorb!

How much dirt do I need to use? 1/2 inch then seeds then another 1/2 inch?

How often should I water? With these seeds, I was just misting them every time I went by (real accurate.... )

What is a warm environment? Next to the wood stove, or 60-70's?

Thank you very much for your help Paul, I will wait to hear back from you before I try something! Bryce

That's why warm season grass seed is sold PLS= Pure Live Seed.

Think you are on the right. Track there.

Try that seed that is open, sounds like it is actually stored pretty good.

I'd do the half inch of dirt, a paper towel, the seeds, a paper towel, and a 1/2 to inch of dirt.

Water it like it gets a rain, so the surface will dry off, so the rest stays kinda moist but certainly not soaking sitting in standing water. You know when you dig in the dirt in spring, it comes up moist but not a mud ball.

The greenhouse might kinda be what the wheat will get out in nature, cool at night, warmer in the day, so that sounds good.

Let it be a week, don't let it dry out but you don't want it soaking wet probably don't need to water it much after the start.

Others might have other ways that work too, this is how I would try it. You know how the old folk stuff is, different ways to skin a cat so not wrong if others have a different way.

We can come across kinda short sometimes in these black and white words even when we are typing with a smile on our face, or have different ideas and look like we are bickering. And this miserably cold winter has so many of us just like long tailed cats in a room full of rockers, on edge! So I want to be sure we are good and fun and encouraging and helping you, not a bunch of old grumbling dufases.

Paul

Just to add, the two pieces of paper towel should be the soft absorbent type, and are there so in a week you can peel them apart and see your seeds.

They should be kinda flimsy paper towels, so the seed will feel Ike it is in the moist dirt around it, and can grow right through it.

The dirt above will keep light out so the seed will grow through the dark and act normally. In just a paper towel the light that filters through might affect the seed, I don't know on wheat exactly but some seeds act different if in light or in total dark as to how they sprout or not.

So we are trying to make just normal regular field conditions as the seed woud find out in your field, but easier for us to peel it apart and see what happens with the paper towels.

Paul

Alright, sounds good! Mom and I talked a little more (dad listened) She said that I can plant the meadow if I want to, that would be about 1/2 to 3/4 of an acre. I could get a plow and disc in there if wanted to, but would I still be better off to rototill? We stay wet until June, and I have a bad feeling that I am going to have a mud fest trying to get it in... What is the right time to plant wheat?

I can still water it in this spot, and it is big enough that I can borrow the neighbors seed drill, but will the deer eat it? They have lots of woods and grass every where else, and my buddy says that they won't even think about it until it is ready to harvest, and I figure by then, I can hold them off for a few days if I need to before harvesting??

I realize that it would be quite a chore to harvest by hand, but I am 15, bored, and living in the woods FAR away from any friends, so I have got the time!

What do you think, sound like a plan? Bryce

Wheat isn't too fussy, you can still hand scatter a half acre of wheat and scratch it in the ground, a rake by hand or a bed spring/ piece of chain link fence behind the tractor.

1/2 acre would use about 60 lbs (around (2) 5 gallon pails) of seed. Can go a tad heavier with older seed or just scattering the seeds....

You don't need the tractor stuff. But its fun to use and you might want that so no problem.

Here in my world, wheat needs to be planted as soon as possible, I've dragged the drill over the edge of snow a time or two. That's a little extreme, but it wants to grow and develop in the cool part of spring, it does not like the heat of summer -at all- and will be poorer if you plant it late. Back when we grew it, getting stuck in the cold mud or planting over a corner of frost and snow gave us a better crop than waiting until everything was warm and dry...... Even if we messed up a little in the mud, getting it planted early was better.

I realize a half acre it won't matter really which way you go, just saying how it is if you want to grow 100 acres and make the best crop, we might as well try for that. Once spring comes do what works and have fun and see what you get, but we might as well tell you the best way to start with.

Heck last year I planted oats in the second week of May, way way way too late for small grains in my location, but its what worked here for last year.... There is ideal, and there is what we end up actually doing. ended up yielding 80 bu light test weigh oats, which isn't really bad for here. Don't let us try to fool you that we always do it the proper way.

Paul

After you get them planted put the plate in a plastic bag and seal it up so it doesent dry out till the seeds have sprouted.Set plate so the sun shines on it and makes it warm and the seeds should sprout you dont need a 100 20 would be enough.

I just went up and looked at the neighbors seeder, it is a 6 foot Brillion drop seeder. It is three point, and it has two boxes? It has a set of seed packers, then the drop box, then another set of packers. Would my 2n pick that up?

Attached is a picture of what their seeder appears to be.

I just feel that a machine that is designed to do the job would do it better than a 15 year old kid wandering around a miniature field with a bucket! What do you think? I think I could probably do O.K. seeding by hand. I have a big spike tooth section and wooden drag beam that I could pull over it to dig the seed in a little???

Would using the seeder make a better stand of Wheat, or would it not matter?
Bryce

Yea, that style is a very nice machine, it would do an excellent job.

Paul

Alright cool. I am going to look into if the deer are going to the the wheat. I have a bad feeling they are, so I think at the moment I am just going to plan on my smaller patch in the "safe" zone, however I think that I am still going to use the seeder, because I think it will do a better job. Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it! Bryce

Deer are a worse problem in soybeans and corn they like the tender plants early and the grain late.

Wheat can take a bit of early grazing, then other stuff comes in the deer like.

I'd take a chance with the deer.

Paul

Won't they just munch it all away on 1/2 an acre though? I could go either way, small or big.

Small would be easier, less tillage, hand planting, easy harvest, however, it will only take 1 1/2 pounds of seed to plant, sooo I probably wouldn't get that much out of it.

Big runs the risk of the deer, but between 12guage, fire crackers, and 4-wheelers, I think I should be able to control them. I would also have the option of a plow and disc, but due to how wet we are late into the spring, I think that the rototiller would still be better??

Paul, if you see this post, shoot me an e-mail so that we can keep in touch over it, if you wouldn't mind! Bryce

this is just my opinion but what i would do is go to your coop or seed store and buy a bag of hard red spring wheat of a known variety that will do well in your area.should cost around $25. then keep the seed off of that crop for the next year.
as far as seeding it for an acre I would broadcast it by hand if you had your ground ready the fall before you could be out there planting by hand and have the job all done before you could even think about mucking it up with the tractor.
plant your spring grains as early as possible I have broadcast quite a few crops with the fertilizer spreader behind the tractor then run the disks so they are just contacting the soil enough to cover the seed , or chain harrows. some of my best crops done that way and I do have a real good drill.I do try if at all possible to pull the packer over it both behind the drill and disks or harrows just gives better seed soil contact.