Winter Wheat

The snow has melted here and all the wheat is dead. It was alive during the warm spell we had in February. In March, it got very cold (2 above one night), lots of snow and ice, and the wheat must have already come out of dormancy. Shades of things to come I guess. Since winter wheat must experience winter, I don't know how this could be a good hydroponic plant, so I'm at a loss since I'm sure next winter will be even more of a yoyo than this one. I was really looking forward to grinding a little bit up for some home grown flour and bread.

John

 

Wheat doesn't really need to overwinter. It is capable of surviving winter, but it is not an essential part of its life cycle. The reason farmers grow 'winter' wheat is they can get two crops out of the same field in one year by planting the wheat in late fall and harvesting in May! It is not practical for a farmer to plant wheat in Spring (around April, when the ground can be worked) and then not be able to plant any other crop in the same field later when the wheat is finished. Some farmers do grow wheat this way, but not around here in Kansas wheat country!

Roger

 

I planted some organic red hard winter wheat around 10 jan 99. It light frosted several times in southern California. It really went to town and grew like mad for about 3 weeks. It is now about 2 months later and it is only about 8-9 inches high, hasn't grown much during the last weeks, beginning to lazily lay over, no seeds yet. Been growing it with say 1-2 hr sun light/day. Does it need stress or cutting back, more sun light, or is it doing OK considering the lighting?

Mike