anyone tried growing grains?

[hooligal]

Has anyone tried to grow a grain crop yet (small scale). I realize they're a pain in the rump to harvest, thresh, etc. I'd like to experiment before it's too expensive to buy at the Natural Foods market.

I have Greek Amaranth grwoing gangbusters right now, but I'm not sure if it'll set its seeds in a warm climate. I'm particularly interested in hulless oats, quinoa, hulless barley and amaranth. I'm guessing it'll take some magic combination of greenhousing to control water & elevation. Hopefully I won't have to take the mature plants on an overnight field trip to Mauna Kea to trick them into a 'frost' []

I'm heading off the UH Hilo AG web site to see if they have tried any grains. But if you've had personal experience, positive or disastrous, I'd love to get a nudge in a productive direction.

[StillHope]

I am interested too.Anyone tried buckwheat?

[hooligal]

Oh yeah! I forgot about buckwheat!

I found this UH Ag research paper:
http://ahualoa.net/chickens/

Looks like controlling moisture is a big issue. I'm itching to get a small greenhouse up so we can control water exposure.

I'm finding a lot of resources for "sprouting" grain seed. I can't find small quantities of threshing grain though. Off to research whether 'sprouting barley' is the same as threshing barley... just harvested really early ! I can't wait to ask a grain farmer this one & have them laugh their patootie off at my ignorance.

[csgray]

Amaranth was a sacred plant to one of the indigenous populations in Mexico and central America (Aztecs I think) which was then outlawed by the Spanish. My point is it ought to grow somewhere here on this island since we've got every climate zone except glaciers. We grew red Amaranth, Amaranth Dreadicus (which looked like dreadlocks) and Elephant head Amaranth in our yard in Oregon's Willamette valley, where we could go years without a killing frost, so it doesn't need super cold weather. It reseeded itself all over the yard and was pretty easy to hand harvest and separate the seeds from the chaff (that's what threshing is).

I grew up in Southern Indiana and buckwheat was grown by several of our neighbors; as I remember it was planted in spring after frost danger was past and harvested well before the first frost. These were relatively small fields, a couple of acres instead of hundreds, and I think the buckwheat wasn't sold but was used on the farm as feed and for personal kitchen use. I seem to remember one neighbor pastured their turkeys in the buckwheat field after harvest until they went to market before Thanksgiving. These were somewhat diversified family farms where they grew soybeans, corn, and hogs for cash, and vegetables, fruit, hay, chickens, and cows for personal needs and to sell or trade to neighbors.

Traditional grain growing and harvesting methods all over the world tend to be small scale, non mechanized and labor intensive. I would look for information on traditional methods in the areas where the grains were the staple crops, before the industrial revolution changed how and where grains were grown and processed, as well as what was grown. Please share your results, I bet a lot of us are thinking about grain growing now that good whole grain bread is costing around $4 a loaf.

Carol

[StillHope]

So anyone growing grains? It's awfully quiet in this thread..

[hooligal]

Well, our amaranth is still going gangbusters. I finally successfully sprouted (easy part) and transplanted (hard part) winter red wheat and quinoa without them rotting in the ground. It took five tries, but I finally figured out the right way to do it. Woot!

The wheat and quinoa seeds came from the organic bulk bins at Pahoa Natural foods (along with garbanzo, black bean & adzuki bean)...should be interesting to see if the actually produce.

I found a small scale heirloom grain supplier in Canada. I'm emailing back & forth with HI Ag Plant Quarantine to make sure the 5 grain seeds I want to bring in are not invasive or banned. I don't want to go down in history as the jerk who brought in <random grain> & is mentioned in the same breath as coquis or albezia. I'll let you know what I find out.

[Hotzcatz]

You can also get some grains at the feed store for reasonable prices although I haven't a clue if it is hybrid or not.

The dairy is starting to grow feed corn on a large scale, we can watch and see how they do.

[hooligal]

Cool beans. I've discovered that grains come in feed-grade, till-in grade (don't harvest & till in to enrich the soil for next years crop), human-food grade and ornamental. I just sent my Genus Species list to HI Ag Plant Division for the final OK. It may require that I take the unopened seeds to a field office for them to look at. Fine by me. Hopefully I'll hear back today, as the Ag folks have been super responsive.

For anyone who's interested, here's what I'm ordering if HI Ag gives the OK. I'm leaving the exact choice of sub-species up to the seed guy in Canada. I've asked him to choose the variety of each species that'll do best in hot & humid, but are also very easy to thresh. THreshing difficulty knocked a lot of his available wheats off my list.

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa)
Hulless Oats (Avena sativa nuda)
Millet (Panicum miliaceum)
Hulless Barley (Hordeum vulgare)
Red Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum)
Club Wheat (Triticum compactum)
Durum Wheat (Triticum durum)

The winter wheat and quinoa I started (from the bulk food bins at Natural Foods Market) really took off last night. I feel like a proud mama!

[hooligal]

It's Showtime! Just got the OK from HI Dept of Ag for the list of grains in my last post.

"All seeds, whether planted for food, ornamental, or other uses, are regulated by the Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture but most of these are just subject to inspection upon arrival. Our lists, however; contain specific species that have been reviewed by the Board of Agriculture and have been determined to be pests or hosts of pests. These may be imported only under permit and under certain conditions. There are plants that are allowed for importation, under current rules, that may have invasive tendencies (weedy). These plants, including all of your food-grain seeds, are not specifically restricted by rule and may be imported. "

[StillHope]

Does anyone know what could be thee smallest buckwheat "field" for 1-2 people supply?
Hooligal,what size is your land?
If you plan extra buckweat,I can be your permanent buyer if you are not too far from KSVE.