Sowing wild oats ... for the times we live in.

[CelticRambler]

This is something I'd considered before we started living in these cereally challenged times, but got distracted by other things ... Anyway, while I was procrastinating, it looks like one stray seed from a nearby field found its way into my garden, so I might have a cheap source of seed for next year. Or do I?



First of all, can anyone confirm that these are oats I'm looking at? And is it possible to know what variety they might be without having a label?

Most importantly, though, what's the best time to pick the seed for saving till planting time?

[765489]

Have oats been grown locally CR ? Looks like wild oats to me. When I was younger myself and brother used to pull them out of fields of wheat for a local grain farmer. They are a serious pest of wheat crops.

Anyway, yes they are oats. You won't know till later when the grain develops if they are wild or not. The grain will be darkish if wild.

The grain will harden when reaching harvest time. At the moment if you squeeze one of them you will probably get a milky substance oozing out of it.

[765489]

Would love to plant Sweet Sorghum sometime but not sure if we have the correct climate here in Ireland to grow successfully.

https://www.motherearthnews.com/homeste ... z13fmzkon/

[CelticRambler]

Have oats been grown locally CR ? Looks like wild oats to me. When I was younger myself and brother used to pull them out of fields of wheat for a local grain farmer. They are a serious pest of wheat crops.

Anyway, yes they are oats. You won't know till later when the grain develops if they are wild or not. The grain will be darkish if wild.

The grain will harden when reaching harvest time. At the moment if you squeeze one of them you will probably get a milky substance oozing out of it.

Will try milking one tomorrow; at the moment, the grains are a golden orange colour.

I've never noticed any fields of oats in the immediate vicinity. It's usually wheat (we have lots of that blown in and growing in odd corners), sunflowers, maize and rapeseed, or grass for haylage/silage. But it's possible there was a field of it around that I didn't notice.

My biggest concern is that the grains will ripen, fall and be eaten by all the little critters in the garden before I can get to them!

[isha]

When we had our cockatiel, Horus, now sadly flown to the Elysian fields, we used to get the odd cereal plants, including what at least looked like occasional oat plants, growing up unexpectedly from dropped seeds after cleaning out his cage. Not to be too impertinent Celtic, but perhaps you have a bird around the place?

[CelticRambler]

Yah, there may be a bird or two flying around ...

How this one plant got there doesn't bother me so much - it was a nice surprise to find it (and especially to find/recognise it before I ran the digger over it - it's right on the edge of an arc of ground I'm preparing for a new driveway); how to keep it and multiply it is the priority now. Ideally, I'd like enough grain to sow a 12-m strip in one of my new veg beds in future years.

[765489]

Just looking at the photo again, is the grain hardening up in it ?

Your giving yourself unnecessary hardship in this (although maybe you like the hardship)

What i would do is source some seed from either a local farmer or seed outlet. There are specific varieties that have been cultivated that will have built up resistance to both Crown Rust and Mildew. Also the yields off the plant will be more consistent.

For Winter oats, especially if you have drought like conditions in April in your area ? You don't want to be putting it in Spring when there is no rain going to come to start off the germination process. I'd sow in late September early October in rows about 7 to 8 inches apart and sow it heavy. About 1/2 an inch deep. Make sure you roll it (important) or if you haven't a roller, walk up and down the seed rows (in dry conditions) so the seed has contact with the soil.

In late spring you can run the head of a rake through it to get rid of the small weed seedlings between the rows. You will also need to apply some sort of orangic fertiliser in late spring as the crop starts to develop. Grass is a hungry crop.

And you will also have to post some photos of your progression and a bag of Celtic Rambler's Organic Oatflakes

[CelticRambler]

Welcome advice, especially regarding planting time. In any case, I think the decision might have been made for me: critters of unknown identity appear to have been extracting a lot of the grain from inside the husks while it's still on the stalk.

As were now into the festival season, I'll make a point of raising the topic when in discussion with my fellow-dancing smallholders over the coming weeks and months, and see if any of them have a kilo or two of seed to spare.

[CelticRambler]

Quick update on this, while I think of it.

When they were over in June, the Brother (& HisMissus) figured out where the farmed oats had been sown: right across the road. Like about 5m from my front door (and from there all the way down to the stream ...) No surprise then that one of the grains managed to find itself 15m to the north.

The combine left plenty of grains on the stalk all around the edges of the field, but between one thing and another, I just couldn't get myself organised enough to collect a bucket-full for sowing so I've placed an order this morning for a kilo of seed, which should arrive by the end of the week.

That'll be a bit later than the Irish recommendation for sowing, but it's within the time-frame for this variety, and here we're still enjoying "early September" conditions - at least for another day - so I'm putting my faith in Mother Nature and hoping I'll have a kilo of oats to harvest around May-June next year.

[KHD]

Will be interesting to see how these turnout.

[CelticRambler]

It will. I'm growing them mainly for their (hopefully) beneficial effect on the soil structure in the new terraced beds, and also to create a wind-break for my spring plantations.

I've been really pleased with how well some "inefficient use of the bed" plants really helped those that were planted behind/underneath them this year. I've known about this strategy for ages, but following the traditional calendar hasn't worked, as a lot of the supposed wind-break and shade-giving plants are slower to get going than those they're supposed to be protecting.

Anyhow, the rest of that train of thought belongs on the "Garden Plans" thread ... where I might post something after the sun goes down tonight.

[CelticRambler]

I'll never be a no-dig gardener - there's just nothing more satisfying than looking back at a well-tilled soil!



The left hand two-thirds of this strip is one of the two where I'll sow the oats, about 15m² here, and 10m² over yonder.

What's most satisfying about this strip though is how well it's come on since I built the bed three years ago from pretty poor, very claggy soil. After a first autumn "at rest", it had a crop of potatoes last year, and was sown with onions this year. I wasn't entirely sure that the rotavator could cope with it (which is why there's a line of footprints on the "upward" side) but in the end, it was workable down to a depth of about 20cm (I didn't try to go lower) and has a lovely crumbly texture. Now I did dig it over by hand - or rather foot - last week to try and get rid of as much bindweed roots as possible, so I'm sure that helped too, but there's no doubt that it's developing into a nice layer of proper topsoil.

Hoping to get the oats sown tomorrow morning.

[KHD]

Nothing like the smell of freshly opened or tilled soil. I'll never be a no till either. The thoughts of looking at cardboard covered ground over the winter does not appeal to me.

Have ya got a hand roller CR? Needs a good rolling afterwards. Bed looks great.

[CelticRambler]

I don't have a roller, no ... but I do have a heavy metal cylinder that came with the house (some kind of water treatment yoke, sounds like it's filled with sand or salt or some other granular material) which was re-purposed for the occasion!



That bed is flatter and smoother than the kitchen floor now!

Until the moles destroy it. I'll be away for a month, so when I come back it'll be to the welcome sign of great germination and a "field of green" ... or awful disappointment, that the bed has been picked clean by every seed-eating bird and insect in the neighbourhood.

With a few hundred onion sets to plant and not a lot of time to prepare another bed, I decided to put them in there on the right. 60 each of red and white varieties, and 120 yellows. I'll almost certainly plant more of them in the spring, but I'm aiming for an earlier harvest next year.

[KHD]

Can I ask what is that feckin contraption you have for rolling the ground ?? Looks like a gas bottle

[CelticRambler]

Can I ask what is that feckin contraption you have for rolling the ground ?? Looks like a gas bottle

You can ask,

but you've already been told!

a heavy metal cylinder that came with the house (some kind of water treatment yoke, sounds like it's filled with sand or salt or some other granular material)

I reckon it weighs at least 50kg. I can easily lift a 40kg bag of lime off the ground and up to chest height, but that thing tests me to the limit.

[KHD]

Oops sorry I didn't see the first line of your post!

[CelticRambler]

That was then:

This is now:


The moles left the rolled bed alone and concentrated their destruction on the onion bed on the right instead but it was nice to come home to "a field of green". Germination rate in this bed seems to be pretty good, probably because I followed KHD's advice closely, other than not sowing the seed in neat lines. In a second bed, sown as an experimental/back-up crop in a different area, it looks like every last seed has been eaten by miscellaneous wildlife, quite possibly one or both of the very fat-looking robins that were hanging around while I was digging up the last of the beans.

[KHD]

Good seed strike there CR.

[isha]

Be careful about being too "prepared"

[CelticRambler]

So should I stop asking family, friends and strangers to give me all of their glass jars with decent lids?

Or just keep clear of the chain-saw wielding chicken-killers?