Growing some barley this year

[StMarcos]

Planted a bit late. With some luck I'll be able to get a crop of corn in there when the barley is out! About 500ft^2 of organic conlon 2-row. I think I calculated I could get 35lbs or so. Who knows. It will be fun in any case. The soil is sandy loam with nearly zero organic content. I didn't amend anything. I've malted barley and wheat before, but never that much. Maybe I'll turn it all into some specialty malt like that bloke from Palo Alto did last year.

 

[StMarcos]

Oh yeah, I planted about double the recommended rate, as I wasn't sure of the viability of two-year-old seed. Seems to be nearly 100%! Went through and thinned the whole lot with scissors today. Hopefully gophers won't raid the patch.

 

[daksin]

Cool project- good luck! How do you calculate yields?

 

[StMarcos]

Looked up various numbers, then figured 80% of the low end. Not too fancy of a calculation. I'm shooting blind with soil fertility, planted late, and not counting on pests. On the plus side, I can hand weed and monitor things very closely. Plus I'm not counting the pathways, so plenty of sun should get around.

 

[StMarcos]

Some pics from Jun 8th. Had shown some N deficiency so I watered with some bat guano tea. Didn't get very tall.

 

[StMarcos]

July 10th. Most of the kernels were very hard and dry so I harvested it. A very few were quite green, as I had thinned the patch by cutting some out, but being a grass, it grew back and seeded out later. It was pretty easy to harvest with a good pair of hand shears into a bucket lined with an old pillowcase. I then smacked the case with the side of a hatchet for a couple of minutes. This got most of the grain out. I got a little more out in the winnowing station by rubbing the straw/chaff between my hands.

 

[StMarcos]

Winnowing was pretty easy. Could have used a stronger fan though. At first I tried pouring between two buckets, but it proved easier to just pour it straight onto the tarp. 16lbs in the bucket, which is probably 2/3 of it. Not sure of the average moisture content. Guess it's supposed to rest for a month or two before malting.

 

[DerrangedPOJO]

awesome!!!! I am going to grow my own barley next year. Trying to learn to malt currently so i can do my own!!

 

[jungatheart]

I'm curious about how much seed it takes to make so much grain.

Do you know how many pounds of seed grain you planted?

 

[StMarcos]

I planted over a pound, thinking that the viability would not be great with the few-year-old seed. However I reckon the viability was ~98%, so I had overplanted. I should have used the recommended 1lb/500ft^2. Works out to 1 seed every inch in a row, with rows 6'' apart.

 

[mikescooling]

WOW!! you are on the way to making the best beer ever, going old school!!