My small patch of malting barley at just about one month old. There has been ample rain and it has grown to between 4 and 6 inches.
Some has been nibbled by squirrels or rabbits, but that should not hurt it at all. Barley should not enter the coldest weather "winter proud" (too long). Some old time farmers would graze sheep on winter barley in late fall to give the sheep a green bite and also reduce the length of the barley to prevent tip die-back and encourage tillering (the barley sending out side shoots, which themselves produce heads of barley).
It has been frosting some nights, but has been in the 60s most days, so the barley plants are still growing. So far, so good. This looks just about the same as the plot did in each of the last two years when I also grew WINTMALT barley here.
Beautiful stuff! hope to start my own spring planted barley, wheat, oats and rye!
ReplyDeleteHow many pounds of barley do you reap from your plot?
ReplyDeleteLance: sorry for the long delay in responding. I need to learn how to use the blog amenities better. To answer your question, I get about 20 pounds of winnowed barley from my roughly 18'x48' plot. I should get more, I think, but there is a swath in the middle that never grows well and there are harvesting inefficiencies.
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