Good video. As someone who has grown wheat and learned a bit, have some suggestions for anyone growing wheat. Spacing matters! I did this my first time too, just spreading it and letting it grow. Wheat likes to be about 8-12" apart per plant, I have found 8 inches in row and 12 inches between rows to be a good way to get most out space while not crowding the plants. Trust me you will see the results, the individual plants will be a lot more vigorous and produce lots of tillers. The seed heads will be larger and better quality.
As someone who has raised and bred wheat, I agree that spacing is important. The proper spacing depends a lot on moisture and fertility. Commercial growers will plant 50-100+ lbs per acre in rows 6-12 inches apart, depending on the factors mentioned above.
Do you put a few seeds in one spot? Or is it one seed at a time, each spaced 8 inches apart? I'm looking to start a patch of wheat this year, never tried it before.
@@Munsonelli one seed every 8 inches. As long as you are using quality seed I have had little issue with germination and needing more than one seed per hole
I absolutely love the fact that you follow through.. SO MANY CHANNELS will just be like "Here is me growing wheat, ok its all planted, catch me in the next video to see how it goes" and 3 months later, still nothing. Your videos are a complete package and I greatly appreciate this
I grew up on a Kansas Wheat Farm. When we were kids we loved going out to the field when the heads were brown & pick a couple of heads. We'd pull out the berries and chew them like gum. Every kid needs to experience that! Grow some wheat in a pot and let the kids have fun with it.
I remember when I was around 13 years old, watching a Minecraft tutorial on how to make a wheat farm.. look at me now 11 years later looking at how to grow wheat.. see that Mom and Dad.. those hours of gaming really payed off..
I did this project last year, did 1X1metre plot and used 50grams of wheat seed in it. I planted this in Autumn (Western Australia) and it grew beautifully, 1metre tall and lovely dark green. Seed heads didn't appear til mid-late winter big heads they started to dry into spring and once the heads started to droop over and dry off completely it was ready. Winnowed and cured result was 500grams from the 50grams planted!
@@christianterrill3503 once I collected sheafs in a large bucket, with a pair of sturdy gloves on I kept scrunching the heads till they release all the seed and winnowed it from bucket to bucket till clean. From there I ground small amounts in a bullet blender (no flour mill) to try and keep it cool when grinding. Resulting flour is wholewheat so the bread is quite dense but tastes delicious and sweet!
On the yield of a 1/2lb from 1lb of seed: Kevin mentions that ~40 seeds per square foot was the recommendation, with the Johnny’s seed website recommending ~56 seed/sqft. Yet for the 4*8=32sqft bed Kevin planted in, optimally he would have planted somewhere in the 0.09-0.13 lb range. But Kevin spent the bag. That means Kevin overplanted by almost 10x his space 😂. The lesson is clear to me: plant with space and let your seeds breath!
My first time growing winter wheat I also just broadcast and ended up overplanting. This year I just decided to get a push seeder to make nice neat rows. So far I've used a fraction of the seed as I did year 1 and the wheat plants are really putting on growth and tillering nicely. Don't overseed wheat!
I grew some wheat this year, only about dozen square feet or so. My dogs ate it, my cats ate & slept in it. The rain battered it. I got exactly the same amount of wheat kernals back that I planted at the start of the year.
@@nevaeha4048 I've saved the seed from them.. & will be retrying next year. Hope springs eternal of course, though two years is a long time to wait for a loaf of bread. 😆
It’s great to see just how much effort goes into one loaf of bread! Obviously industrial scale is different but when the lights go out we might need to do this ourselves.
When the lights go out a lot of ppl will be unable to even find their ways out of the city without the maps on their phone...not to mention even ppl who don’t have a garden, but just a balcony, don’t even have soil at Home, since they don’t want to have the responsibility of watering the plants regularly and indoor plants also got out of fashion with the same reasoning...them hunting for food? Unlikely, option 1: they are unable to kill an animal in general, Option 2 : in their Country hunting was forbidden and they therefore never learned it...so many reasons why mankind would not really survive a blackout on a large scale 😹
@@alexandrau6096 Yes, the entitled "I want it & I want it now" group will be shell shocked & will become the marauders kicking in doors for food! Sooo glad I left Florida & moved to the mountains 2 years ago before Covid. I won't even go back for a visit. Loving having a garden & family & friends near by! Just wish I could convince them to stock up more!
I'm starting to grow some ancient grains & oats this coming spring. Also put in wild rice by my pond, hope the ducks & geese don't find them! I may have to build a seawall with netting over it - we'll see! Can't wait to see how well they'll all do in my mountain climate.
Ever grow pineapples? I just harvested my first -- from a container in partial sun! I let it ripen on the plant and it was incredibly sweet and delicious. Another will be ready in a month or two.
@@swissmaid Of course. I'm assuming that down south in Melbourne there is no heavy frost likely to kill other tropical fruits. Things might be different in Hobart. On the other hand, I live in Southern California, in Laguna Hills above the Pacific Coast. Our winters have been frost-free for several years in a row, so what do I know about conditions Down Under? I've never been to your wonderful country. To me "down south" is San Diego. (On the other hand, how did I know about Hobart? I don't know, but I've been this way since I was eight. Consider it a disability. Cheers.
Yes Scott, I have this addiction also! Have about 10 large plants at the moment (not counting pups and slips) take about 4years from top to pineapple fruit here in cooler temperate Perth but they get to a good size, about a kilo!
I have a mini field of Kamut wheat growing in my back yard, which is in Concord, California. I planted it in the late fall, so it went through a fair amount of 30° nights. The berries are well formed at this point (31 March). Naturally when just happened to come across this video, I was thrilled!!! Thank you Kevin Espiritu.
I wonder if SD is the proper climate zone to grow butter. I can’t wait for his next video on that. Curious if he’ll sow the butter seed or transplant. Can’t wait!!!
I've been growing little patches of barley for the past two and a half years. I do it more for fun. My chickens eat the leaves early on, but then I protect it to let it grow out, and then I throw half the seeds to the birds and half into bare patches to be grown again. Winnowing always seemed tedious when seed saving, but I have the same exact fan, as well as several burlap sacks I picked up from my local coffee shop, so I'll need to try out your method!
hi Kevin. I'm from South Africa. Still Winter here. I got hold of Buckwheat seeds, gluten free and wheat free. I will be growing it for the first time. I started my gardening during 2020 Lockdown. Now its my hobby I do the garden route every morning. At the moment I have a buckwheat bread baking and hope it will taste good, thx for the video.
Thanks for this. I got into sourdough bread making during the whole lockdown and still make it now. I’m also an avid gardener so always wondered what it would be like to grow some wheat. 😀
Well done mate. I really do appreciate creators putting some time and effort into their videos. Putting down the camera into a stable position, making sure there is good sound, the subject is visible and taking LITERALLY months to compile one single video is something that you barely ever see on youtube. This is the stuff that I appreciate about Charles Dowding. It would be so easy to just take a camera, shakily hold it in front of your face and just talk.... like so many people do. Heads off to you, please keep it up.
You know, the whole episode I was cracking up at all the "that's what she said" lines... "I have a special tool for doing it with", "nothing huge, just 3-4 inches", etc. But I thought to myself "nah, I'm just being a perv." But then he says "sometimes you've just got to beat your wheat" and then I just knew he knew. 🤣
This is exactly what I’m wanting to do. Thank you for taking the time to take all of us on this growing project 👍. You always have good info Kevin. 👵🏻👩🌾❣️
You can utilize a food processor to thresh small quantities of wheat...use a standard processor blade and pulse the processor until all seed heads are broken up. An easier method for threshing larger quantities is to chop the stalks off an inch under the seed head, place all seed heads into a rubbermaid tub. Use a string trimmer with a light weight line and pulse the trimmer throttle letting the trimmer line breaking up the heads. We use a homemade sieve screen to help seperate the seed from chaff, which makes winnowing more efficient. Neither the processor blade nor the trimmer line damages the seeds.
This was very interesting and timely. I decided to plant crimson clover this year as a winter cover crop in the unused pockets of my greenstalk planters, but had been thinking about wheat. Next winter I might attempt to grow winter wheat in them. My cat would appreciate the grass early on, I wouldn't mind feeding the birds with it, and if I got any wheat at the end it would be a bonus.
One crop I have always been curious of, and very envious of you sir. My brother still has our grandfathers hand sickle, he brought with him from Eastern Europe. Awsome video, thankyou. :)
When I was little, we used to harvest a small bunch when it's still green and burn the skin off slightly. The fresh grain is super delicious, I'm going to try it at home.
My Dad gave me some wheat seeds from a farmer for me to plant in my garden, this video has been so helpful as all the research I’ve done has only shown how to do it commercially. It’s been hard to come across advice for the home grower. Thanks for this!
Haha, last year I decided to mulch my garden beds over the winter with straw, so I got a couple of bales from the farm store up the street. Within a few weeks I had dense foot-tall grass in all of my beds and paths...those bales were full of barley seed, lol. I do have hops growing on a fence, so I could have brewed some beer I guess. But I needed my garden beds for veggies, so I yanked all of the barley out before it could go to seed. It did make for great mulch and it choked out a lot of weeds. I just wasn't expecting bales of straw to turn into an unwanted crop. 🤣
I love the fact that you experimented with growing wheat. A wrap up of lessons learned would be very helpful for viewers and make the next crop even better. 1. More seed is not better. Plant at recommended rates for the variety and your climate. Overseeding means more competition for the limited resources and much of the growth will be vegetative. 2. Wheat does need water, especially in dry areas. 3. Wheat will respond favorably to fertility. It takes 2.5-2.7 lbs of nitrogen to make one bushel (60 lbs) of wheat.
256 grams = .564 lbs. That is half of what you started with to plant. I sincerely thank you for saving me from giving it a try. Your gardening knowledge is far greater than mine.
He overseeded for some unknown reason. Theoretically, if he'd only planted 40 seeds per square meter then he would have reaped much more wheat berries/grain.
Wheat original semi nomadic crop. Throw the seeds down before the first snow and let nature take over. Only returning for a sustained period for the harvest. With sporadic visit to site. Often only to walk through site. Grow wheat in San Diego, only because of modern seeds development. Common wheat can grow anywhere, ground doesn’t need to freeze to plant.
TIL those are called "Bow Rakes". And that "dibbling" trick with hitting the rake into the soil is a *great* idea. Will try that when cover cropping in the future.
I live in South Dakota. Lots of acres of hard red wheat, both winter and spring wheat. Your dead spots were due to over planting. You harvested too early. Wait till the wheat turns completely golden then wait another couple of weeks. Try using an elevated location like a deck during a windy day and put a weighted tarp beneath you to catch the kernels. Experimentation will determine how windy it should be. I think you’ll find it a very efficient method for winnowing.
I grew wheat by accident! I bought some straw from my local feed supply for mulching and chicken nesting boxes. I put down a 6" layer of straw between my raised beds to help control mud and weeds. Imagine my frustration when "weeds" started growing out of my straw. Now I have really tough Johnson grass around that is almost impossible to stop so I was thinking it's the Johnson grass again! But as I took a closer look I realized that this was not a weed from my yard. I know my flora around here and this was something I had not seen. So I let I grow. Not a month later I identified the invader as wheat. So now I have wheat sprouts growing everywhere between my raised beds....Lol. It's spring here so I can only assume I have spring wheat growing for free. Now I'm thinking about transplanted it or growing more in another piece of land where I can't get irrigation. Sounds like a match!
Nice job trying something new, showing people the process, and being positive about experimenting! I think it is important, though, for people, whether they are inspired to try growing wheat or they think it is too difficult, to realize that the yield should be much higher than what we saw here. Did I miss something, or did you plant 1 pound of wheat for a yield of just over 1/2 pound of wheat? For a better expectation, if each head produces, on the low end, 20 wheat berries, even accounting for only a 50% germination rate and not counting multiple heads possible per plant, then one would hope to have at least a yield of 10x, ie 10 pounds of wheat harvested from 1 pound planted. I totally understand that there is a learning curve, and that average yields are harder to determine with such a small sized plot (though a small plot is easier to manage well). My 14 year old son planted about 10,000 sq ft. of winter wheat last year and got a little better than a 2x return. He was disappointed it wasn't a better yield, but he did know a lot of things he did wrong, including chickens getting into the field early on and the fact that he is trying to grow a wheat that we like but that is not suited for our climate. :) I hope more people will try their hand at growing grains! "Small-Scale Grain Raising" is a great book, if you are interested.
Nice quality video as always! Good tips for beginners! Just a couple things to note for new backyard growers: - Allow the wheat grass to all become gold/yellow before harvest. Just dont wait until all the seed heads face down and start sheding the seed. - Seems like a good yield average (depending on variety and climate) is around 1 pound per 10-15 sqaure feet. - Getting a return of a 1/2 lb for a 1 lb input may be a technical loss, but is a gain as long as you learned something for the next season.
Whitman County in Washington is one of the leading produces in the country for wheat. During the growing season it beautiful to drive through because all you see is rolling green hills. Being able to see the wind rustle the large patches is like watching an ocean wave. Then when it is time to harvest, driving through it gets pretty dusty from the farmers working day and night to harvest their thousands of acres of wheat fields!
@@chelseavenable3678 not taking anything away from the wonderful accomplishment, but think even Kevin would agree it’s probably something best done on a bigger scale to make it viable, good fun trying though!
That is so cool! I’m definitely going to try growing some wheat this spring. Of course, my husband walked into the room right when your were beating your wheat. 🤣 He had a lot of questions.
I grow rye and as a time saver after I prepare the ground I wait until it rains, then I sow the seed in the rain. If you are growing a large amount this will save a lot on time and irrigation.
Yay! I started growing wheat a few years ago, and at the time TH-cam videos on home garden wheat were VERY sparse. To the point that a wheat how-to was the first video I tried to make myself
@@billsmith2593 I had it as a private video that I had shared with one of my gardening groups - but I moved it over and made it public now. Thanks for asking :) If you watch it, I hope you enjoy it! th-cam.com/video/wFm9Z_-KAfE/w-d-xo.html
There's definitely some truth to that farmers tale. Growing Rye and I find it'll gladly take whatever dust you put it in. Almost like it prefers it. The damn things get 6 ft tall.
Been doing this for the better part of 10 years and I have to say I’m glad my parents showed me how to be self sufficient Most people my age don’t even like to get their hands dirty
This is brilliant! I've been wanting to have a go at growing wheat but didn't know how to and thought it wouldn't be that easy to process it myself, I'm going to give this a try now, have also been thinking about trying to grow barley so I might just try it and see what happens.
It was amazing to see the process of home growing wheat 🌾 for fresh bread 🍞 I grow on my balcony so I don’t have the space for wheat, but still intriguing to see the process.
Grow some potatoes in buckets and you can process it into potato flour. Townsends has a video about potato yeast that could help with getting a normal loaf.
Kevin I am at Homesteaders of America in Front Royal, VA and the Melissa K. Norris class I was just in should have made your ears ring. You got serious props from Melissa and several of us in her class. Epic Gardening WORLDWIDE!
Your result is about what mine was on a small scale.... You started with a pound of wheat berries. Your gardening effort resulted in nine ounces at harvest. I also harvested about half of what I sowed. I might tray again on a larger scale with rows instead of a compact plot.
Great vid. Really cool ! Is the wheat plot going to expand ? Would love to see a bigger plot experiment Remember that bread dough with cold mashed potato mixed in ( about 1/3) is excellent, and also stays fresh longer.🙂
You have to grow quite a bit of wheat berries to get a decent enough crop to make a loaf of bread. Keep an eye out for ergot grains because it can be dangerous. I decided to steer clear of growing wheat because you have to grow so much to get so little and I didn't like the idea of going crazy from consuming a myceliated grain.
This was so exciting to watch 😀 I am looking forward to you and Jaques making that bread, the both of you together will be EPIC. Thanks for sharing the process of growing wheat from beginning to harvest 👍🏼😊
Grow wheat? Yep easiest thing in the world. just throw a heap of my leftover parrot seed in the compost and wheat comes up everywhere. I just let it grow and could harvest for myself as there's a ton of it but I keep it for my parrots as the they enjoy picking the wheat out of the heads and chewing stalks both fresh and dried. I couldn't stop the stuff from coming up and growing here if I tried.
256g of wheat from 448g of wheat planted... totally missed the bar on that one. Next time I recommend using less seed per sq ft so you can actually get a higher yield. Also, when I harvest my wheat I put the heads in a 5 gallon bucket and beat the bajeezus out of it with a grout mixing tool on my power drill. Very effective!
I grow wheat all the time! I place a small handful in a bowl containing potting mix, cover them with more soil, water them, and boom! I have a thick bowl of wheat grass, which the cats absolutely love. One of them gets so excited every time I show him a bowl of it that he jumps up and down until its on the floor. And boy, does he tear into it!
I love that you did this. Since 2020 most people have been thrown into food insecurity and as a result, truly understanding where their food comes from. Im going to attempt this myself so i have these skills.
This reminds me of the time I grew some black gram (lentils). I spent several hours to harvest the lentil and despite the plants taking up a whole bed I had barely enough for a single meal. Ahh well it was still fun though!
4x8 plot yeilds a ½ loaf of bread… love the idea of growing the wheat, knowing what’s gone into my food! Doing my math… 1 homemade loaf for my family every week, I’d need 52 8x8 plots, or a minimum of 416x416 plot. Which is a third larger than a football field length. I’m not sure on acreage. Or, ⅔ of the field twice a year. Not being a smarta$$, just calculating space if someone wants a loaf a week. Right now, I REALLY appreciate the organic farmers that grow the wheat to make the flour I bake with. Thank you!
While this may be a great little project to do with my kids, it just isn’t practical. However- to see how it’s done is awesome. Doing great Kevin- keep up the good work.
It may start becoming practical due to the change in climate. Farmers this year have had a horrible wheat harvest due to extreme weather conditions, meaning we will probably see an increase in some grain products in the near future. Having some wheat berries is just good security to have! This winter, I recommend you buy some. Just in case. I know it sounds weird but better safe than sorry. 🙏🏼
I loved watching this compared to adam ragusea's attempt, his was truly the most basic attempt, it didnt really work but it was very interesting, this shows how to do it proper
Long time partners of Epic Gardening and they didn't give you compost in a reusable bag!?! I'm thinking the bed is absorbing moisture from the wood chip pathways. That's why the edges grew faster.
I live in Oklahoma and wild wheat grows out here and it's hard to kill lol. *Edit* For more info wild wheat is edible but it's seeds aren't as big as domestic wheat.
Kevin, you're truly Inspiring ; Keep the videos coming.... I've followed u for sometime now 2 years probably , and I must compliment that You're thriving with your garden. Keep up the Great Job!!!
Hey Kevin and all- I was inspired to try wheat after watching your videos. Threshing is the hardest part. SO...I tried running it through my leaf shredder after removing the cutting blades. I only had to put it through twice. Then winnowing with a fan was a breeze! (Pun intended). I used the pour it back and forth between two buckets method. Just wanted to share.
harvesting and processing wheat is a hundred times more difficult than growing it. Its one of those crops that id rather let the proffesionals do it. Grew it twice but no more... Nice video tho You know what, i regret saying this. If you are a gardener i recommend you grow wheat, but just a few seeds. You can easily manage and separate the seeds from the husks by hand if its just 5 or 6 stalks. Each year select the seeds from the biggest and healthiest plant and voilà, you are slowly creating a variety suited for your climate. I think this is way funnier and healthy than to grow big patches of wheat, even more if you dont got much space like me
I’ve done what you did kind of in a little different way I grew a 4 x 4 area and I made a very tasty muffin it was a lot of hard work but it was worth it
Given all the space that is wasted growing inedible grass lawns, I see no reason why you can't replace all of that with an edible type of grass like this.
So, cool vid, but, I grew up in ND and they leave their wheat in the field until it is completely dry (no green at all). I'm not sure how many grams of wheat seeds you sowed, but your harvest yield seems quite low. Wheat yields are usually between 9 to 15 times more than what is sown. Thanks for sharing!
Commercial growers spray the crop with Roundup to squeeze out a couple extra kernels per head, not much at this small a scale, but when you plant acres and acres….
I havent ever tried the wheats back to back to see which i prefer. I took a chance, purchased a hard red winter wheat, which i love. As well as a spring wheat, which is very good. I ferment the dough at least 3 days in fridge. before use. It seems to me that is best flavor, at least for the recipe i use. Enjoy your fresh bread. Thats great you grew your own. Take care.
I grew kamut one year. A 40x3' bed yielded enough for about 1 1/2 loaves of bread. Super yummy. Hulless oats are also easy to grow and don't require as much work to thresh.
Is it true that you need about a square meter of wheat for a single loaf of bread? I'd also start baking bread now so you're skilled enough to get really good loaves by the time you harvest.
That seems like a lot. Wouldn't that be a little bit cost-prohibitive just for a loaf? You'd need a football field-sized wheat patch to have a loaf per week. 🤪
I would rather grow potatoes to get more calories per square foot, but I would love to plant some winter wheat to get a quick harvest in spring. I have a ruth stout garden and I love chewing the berries that are leftover in the straw. They also easily sprout in the straw once watered. I think I'll try it.
OMG I SO loved that you took the time throughout the months to put this video together - so that we (your followers) could really enjoy and learn from the 'fruits of your labor' from start-to-finish - so entertaining (as well as educational since you also teach us the correct names of our garden tools, etc.! 😅) very satisfying to watch (unlike so many other ‘long-winded’ gardening channels out there - which usually leave me hanging with no ‘sense-of-completion’ or ‘closure’ like yours do) “Sometimes we just gotta Beat Our Wheat” huh 🤣 LoL! We are so lucky to have you and your channel 💘💘💘👏👏👏
I hope you will continue to show us your traditional cooking. It’s better than watching all those world famous chefs . Also your traditional attire and lifestyle are so wholesome , healthy and peaceful. It’s very soothing watching your videos . And it's an honor to have you visit our channel, we can discuss more about our experiences in harvesting and building farms.
You said it was Spring Wheat, but didn't specify whether it was 'hard or 'soft' wheat. Hard wheat is used for things that have to rise, like bread, whereas soft wheat is for quick breads, muffins, etc. Just curious.
Kevin, I feel like the topics you’ve been focusing on recently are RIGHT ON SCHEDULE. You brought up your water tank you got, the solar panels, growing your own wheat. Thank you for teaching people how to collect these things on our own (self-sufficiently). I don’t know if that’s your intent, but it looks like we may need to put these tips into practice down the line soon.
Did you know you can cut it for wheat grass juice, then let it grow again then feed livestock feed on it then let it grow again and it will still mature to make wheat for flour!! Amazing plant!
Can you grow a video on barley and then show the process of malting it to make beer? I would love to see how it goes. I grow my own hops and would love to make a farm to table brew in the future.
Wow, makes you REALLY appreciate the work that farmers put in to grow and process wheat so we can have flour 😂 All that for half a loaf. I think I’d rather just grow the wheat for the look of it and use it as decoration during the fall season. Lol
@@epicgardening Isn't a pound closer to 450 grams ...? So, plant a pound, recover half a pound + half a pound to mold? Still seems like a fun project though!
An old British rhyme about planting wheat: “One for the rook, one for the crow, one to let rot, and one to let grow”. This would indicate that of the 40 per square foot rule mentioned, you might expect as few as 10 per square foot will germinate.
When my dad grew acres of wheat in Michigan, it was planted in the fall and we snowmobiled on it in the winter and it turned golden and totally dry in summer. Your crop looks to green. We used to eat handfuls of wheat berries out of the bin on the combine. I had never heard of anyone spraying with roundup. That whole idea is just stupid. Poisoning the crop. We did not do that.
@Fred brandon of course it affects the wheat and everything it touches. Would you take a bath in a toxic pool, even with a mask to make sure you don't drink any of the liquid?
Got wheat straw bales that had wheat seed still in them, it grew. Got chicken feed that was heavy in wheat seed, it grew. I have Red winter wheat in #10 cans for sprouting if I need it. I'll grow some, the birds and squirrels will love me for it. Get your wheat before the animals do. 1 seed can make lots more, be aware of your area's animal population,
I did similar to this this spring. Went from “new to me”poor dandelions/thistly lawn to 1.25gallons of cleaned einkorn. I cut 4 “ wide strips of sod, 10-12” between rows. Pick axed the row to loosen hardpan. Added 3-4 pounds cricket manure, cal mag, 20 pounds sheep manure(directly over seed), half hand full of muriate of potash and 27-0-2 5% iron lawn fertilizer. Planted 40 grams in the rows over 96 sq ft. Next time im trying 60-80 grams(1/8 to 3/6 pound) seed per 100sq ft(9.25m2), early planted in my nice black sandy loam. 40 pounds manure and 1 pound 27-0-2 5% iron, calimagic, Lord know what else. Maybe Rhino Skin. Sturdy plants dare to put on big crops. Threahed in a drill press with stranded copper wire whisking in a bucket. Then 4” exhaust fan to winnow the wheat. The plants we grow up here are left standing toll they are golden yellow. Rain can lower protein levels i guess when its standing ripe.
Great video.... Gotta love seeing wheat grown in a place where palm trees and citrus are the norm...hee As for growing "exotics"...one summer I decided to try 3 "very southern" crops... tobacco, cotton, peanuts. Crazy, different, and all were successful 👍😊 Cool to see here, yet another grow-experiment come to fruition. Cheers! JerBear Charlotte USA
I live in an area where turkey red wheat (used for bread) is commonly grown. It’s a neat crop, especially in the spring when you can stand in a literal sea of green grass. My farmer friends put in some pretty hard work, especially during harvest when it’s 100+F and they are dodging severe thunderstorms. It’s a race to get it to the elevator before hail flattens it or the fields flood (or get too muddy to work). If it gets wet, it can grow toxic mold and be ruined.
Good video. As someone who has grown wheat and learned a bit, have some suggestions for anyone growing wheat. Spacing matters! I did this my first time too, just spreading it and letting it grow. Wheat likes to be about 8-12" apart per plant, I have found 8 inches in row and 12 inches between rows to be a good way to get most out space while not crowding the plants. Trust me you will see the results, the individual plants will be a lot more vigorous and produce lots of tillers. The seed heads will be larger and better quality.
As someone who has raised and bred wheat, I agree that spacing is important. The proper spacing depends a lot on moisture and fertility. Commercial growers will plant 50-100+ lbs per acre in rows 6-12 inches apart, depending on the factors mentioned above.
I saw your comment to late and also pointed it out 😹
Do you put a few seeds in one spot? Or is it one seed at a time, each spaced 8 inches apart? I'm looking to start a patch of wheat this year, never tried it before.
@@Munsonelli one seed every 8 inches. As long as you are using quality seed I have had little issue with germination and needing more than one seed per hole
I’ve seen wheat fields with plants roughly 4 inches apart and doing well. Is it species-dependent?
‘Grow our own bread’
My dreams for a doughnut tree are finally coming to fruition!
Next come the croissant and bagel bushes!
I mean, bread fruit exists, but it isn't a donut...
Croissant trees as far as the eye can see.
Aah the patisserie forest of our dreams!
Should have said...."coming to a head" get it? I'm a dork
I absolutely love the fact that you follow through.. SO MANY CHANNELS will just be like "Here is me growing wheat, ok its all planted, catch me in the next video to see how it goes" and 3 months later, still nothing. Your videos are a complete package and I greatly appreciate this
' Hollis and Nancy Homestead ' do it like this - really kool
except the bread.
I grew up on a Kansas Wheat Farm. When we were kids we loved going out to the field when the heads were brown & pick a couple of heads. We'd pull out the berries and chew them like gum. Every kid needs to experience that! Grow some wheat in a pot and let the kids have fun with it.
We used to do this! My uncle had a wheat farm!
I used to chew the wheat gum! Fun memories! :)
Really love the “farm to table” style videos. Gives a different feel to your gardening videos.
Glad you enjoy it!
@@epicgardening will you do a review of hydroponic systems e.g Amazon for those he don't have a large garden
Grasses are the most versitile plant
@@epicgardening any follow up on the bread made from the berries?
I remember when I was around 13 years old, watching a Minecraft tutorial on how to make a wheat farm.. look at me now 11 years later looking at how to grow wheat.. see that Mom and Dad.. those hours of gaming really payed off..
🤣🤣
Super agree 🤣
paid* off lol
I can relate. Minecraft is literally how I designed the house I am now living in.
Bro 😭
I did this project last year, did 1X1metre plot and used 50grams of wheat seed in it. I planted this in Autumn (Western Australia) and it grew beautifully, 1metre tall and lovely dark green. Seed heads didn't appear til mid-late winter big heads they started to dry into spring and once the heads started to droop over and dry off completely it was ready. Winnowed and cured result was 500grams from the 50grams planted!
hello, i also live in wa but i've always planted my winter wheat in july (which you shouldn't), what month did you plant yours.
@@sheesh6507 I planted the wheat about mid May(when the rains start-ha ha!) so I don't have to water it and they out pace the weeds!
Ok now what do you do with it once you harvest?
Thanks for leaving such a detailed experience! It has encouraged me to try growing wheat myself.
@@christianterrill3503 once I collected sheafs in a large bucket, with a pair of sturdy gloves on I kept scrunching the heads till they release all the seed and winnowed it from bucket to bucket till clean. From there I ground small amounts in a bullet blender (no flour mill) to try and keep it cool when grinding. Resulting flour is wholewheat so the bread is quite dense but tastes delicious and sweet!
On the yield of a 1/2lb from 1lb of seed:
Kevin mentions that ~40 seeds per square foot was the recommendation, with the Johnny’s seed website recommending ~56 seed/sqft.
Yet for the 4*8=32sqft bed Kevin planted in, optimally he would have planted somewhere in the 0.09-0.13 lb range. But Kevin spent the bag.
That means Kevin overplanted by almost 10x his space 😂.
The lesson is clear to me: plant with space and let your seeds breath!
So he over planted thanks. I needed this. I'll make sure to not to overplant
My first time growing winter wheat I also just broadcast and ended up overplanting. This year I just decided to get a push seeder to make nice neat rows. So far I've used a fraction of the seed as I did year 1 and the wheat plants are really putting on growth and tillering nicely. Don't overseed wheat!
You forgot the "e".
I grew some wheat this year, only about dozen square feet or so. My dogs ate it, my cats ate & slept in it. The rain battered it. I got exactly the same amount of wheat kernals back that I planted at the start of the year.
That sucks maybe retry next year with an animal ‘proof’ fence.
@@nevaeha4048 I've saved the seed from them.. & will be retrying next year. Hope springs eternal of course, though two years is a long time to wait for a loaf of bread. 😆
Nature, It's so balanced
Lol I would consider that success... I wish I had that much success with my late summer corn..... Dogs just killed it all 😳🤣
Fence ?
It’s great to see just how much effort goes into one loaf of bread!
Obviously industrial scale is different but when the lights go out we might need to do this ourselves.
When the lights go out a lot of ppl will be unable to even find their ways out of the city without the maps on their phone...not to mention even ppl who don’t have a garden, but just a balcony, don’t even have soil at Home, since they don’t want to have the responsibility of watering the plants regularly and indoor plants also got out of fashion with the same reasoning...them hunting for food? Unlikely, option 1: they are unable to kill an animal in general, Option 2 : in their Country hunting was forbidden and they therefore never learned it...so many reasons why mankind would not really survive a blackout on a large scale 😹
@@alexandrau6096 Yes, the entitled "I want it & I want it now" group will be shell shocked & will become the marauders kicking in doors for food! Sooo glad I left Florida & moved to the mountains 2 years ago before Covid. I won't even go back for a visit. Loving having a garden & family & friends near by! Just wish I could convince them to stock up more!
I'm starting to grow some ancient grains & oats this coming spring. Also put in wild rice by my pond, hope the ducks & geese don't find them! I may have to build a seawall with netting over it - we'll see! Can't wait to see how well they'll all do in my mountain climate.
Shoutout to Kevin for showing us a variety of different plants and growing techniques.
Never thought of growing wheat but I might give it a go now.
No you won’t 😅
I think you'll like growing corn more
Ever grow pineapples? I just harvested my first -- from a container in partial sun! I let it ripen on the plant and it was incredibly sweet and delicious. Another will be ready in a month or two.
Lol. I've tried several times. My cats love eating them in the winter. I'm not giving up yet though lol
Would the pineapple grow down south, like Melbourne?
@@swissmaid Of course. I'm assuming that down south in Melbourne there is no heavy frost likely to kill other tropical fruits. Things might be different in Hobart.
On the other hand, I live in Southern California, in Laguna Hills above the Pacific Coast. Our winters have been frost-free for several years in a row, so what do I know about conditions Down Under? I've never been to your wonderful country.
To me "down south" is San Diego. (On the other hand, how did I know about Hobart? I don't know, but I've been this way since I was eight. Consider it a disability.
Cheers.
Yes Scott, I have this addiction also! Have about 10 large plants at the moment (not counting pups and slips) take about 4years from top to pineapple fruit here in cooler temperate Perth but they get to a good size, about a kilo!
@@scottadler haha, must try it.
I have a mini field of Kamut wheat growing in my back yard, which is in Concord, California. I planted it in the late fall, so it went through a fair amount of 30° nights. The berries are well formed at this point (31 March). Naturally when just happened to come across this video, I was thrilled!!! Thank you Kevin Espiritu.
Now you have to grow some butter to go with it. Great video, thanks!
Next time! :P
I wonder if SD is the proper climate zone to grow butter. I can’t wait for his next video on that. Curious if he’ll sow the butter seed or transplant. Can’t wait!!!
Could do homegrown margarine
I've been growing little patches of barley for the past two and a half years. I do it more for fun. My chickens eat the leaves early on, but then I protect it to let it grow out, and then I throw half the seeds to the birds and half into bare patches to be grown again.
Winnowing always seemed tedious when seed saving, but I have the same exact fan, as well as several burlap sacks I picked up from my local coffee shop, so I'll need to try out your method!
hi Kevin. I'm from South Africa. Still Winter here. I got hold of Buckwheat seeds, gluten free and wheat free. I will be growing it for the first time. I started my gardening during 2020 Lockdown. Now its my hobby I do the garden route every morning. At the moment I have a buckwheat bread baking and hope it will taste good, thx for the video.
Thanks for this. I got into sourdough bread making during the whole lockdown and still make it now. I’m also an avid gardener so always wondered what it would be like to grow some wheat. 😀
Well done mate. I really do appreciate creators putting some time and effort into their videos. Putting down the camera into a stable position, making sure there is good sound, the subject is visible and taking LITERALLY months to compile one single video is something that you barely ever see on youtube. This is the stuff that I appreciate about Charles Dowding. It would be so easy to just take a camera, shakily hold it in front of your face and just talk.... like so many people do. Heads off to you, please keep it up.
You know, the whole episode I was cracking up at all the "that's what she said" lines... "I have a special tool for doing it with", "nothing huge, just 3-4 inches", etc. But I thought to myself "nah, I'm just being a perv." But then he says "sometimes you've just got to beat your wheat" and then I just knew he knew. 🤣
This is exactly what I’m wanting to do. Thank you for taking the time to take all of us on this growing project 👍. You always have good info Kevin.
👵🏻👩🌾❣️
You can utilize a food processor to thresh small quantities of wheat...use a standard processor blade and pulse the processor until all seed heads are broken up.
An easier method for threshing larger quantities is to chop the stalks off an inch under the seed head, place all seed heads into a rubbermaid tub. Use a string trimmer with a light weight line and pulse the trimmer throttle letting the trimmer line breaking up the heads.
We use a homemade sieve screen to help seperate the seed from chaff, which makes winnowing more efficient.
Neither the processor blade nor the trimmer line damages the seeds.
This was very interesting and timely. I decided to plant crimson clover this year as a winter cover crop in the unused pockets of my greenstalk planters, but had been thinking about wheat. Next winter I might attempt to grow winter wheat in them. My cat would appreciate the grass early on, I wouldn't mind feeding the birds with it, and if I got any wheat at the end it would be a bonus.
Now that's an idea....perhaps I'll try that in my single raised bed this fall when all my vegetables are done!
One crop I have always been curious of, and very envious of you sir. My brother still has our grandfathers hand sickle, he brought with him from Eastern Europe.
Awsome video, thankyou. :)
When I was little, we used to harvest a small bunch when it's still green and burn the skin off slightly. The fresh grain is super delicious, I'm going to try it at home.
We call it „Grünkern“ in german, it is sold at most supermarkets.
I love that you show the entire growing process beginning to end in one video. Thank you for that
My Dad gave me some wheat seeds from a farmer for me to plant in my garden, this video has been so helpful as all the research I’ve done has only shown how to do it commercially. It’s been hard to come across advice for the home grower. Thanks for this!
Haha, last year I decided to mulch my garden beds over the winter with straw, so I got a couple of bales from the farm store up the street. Within a few weeks I had dense foot-tall grass in all of my beds and paths...those bales were full of barley seed, lol. I do have hops growing on a fence, so I could have brewed some beer I guess. But I needed my garden beds for veggies, so I yanked all of the barley out before it could go to seed. It did make for great mulch and it choked out a lot of weeds. I just wasn't expecting bales of straw to turn into an unwanted crop. 🤣
I love the fact that you experimented with growing wheat. A wrap up of lessons learned would be very helpful for viewers and make the next crop even better.
1. More seed is not better. Plant at recommended rates for the variety and your climate. Overseeding means more competition for the limited resources and much of the growth will be vegetative.
2. Wheat does need water, especially in dry areas.
3. Wheat will respond favorably to fertility. It takes 2.5-2.7 lbs of nitrogen to make one bushel (60 lbs) of wheat.
Yes it seemed like he got the same amount of seed that he sowed. I would think some nutrients would give increased yield
Of course wheat needs water, it's a grass, it thrives in proximity to water bodies, like river Nile.
256 grams = .564 lbs. That is half of what you started with to plant. I sincerely thank you for saving me from giving it a try. Your gardening knowledge is far greater than mine.
I did the exact same thing, laughed when I read your comment.
@@sonyabusby6473 was the the total he got out of that little plot? 250 g???? eek
I think growing grains only really pays off in large quantities.
He overseeded for some unknown reason. Theoretically, if he'd only planted 40 seeds per square meter then he would have reaped much more wheat berries/grain.
@@scooter5005 this is good to know. Got a small bag to grow, will definitely space them out.
Wheat original semi nomadic crop. Throw the seeds down before the first snow and let nature take over. Only returning for a sustained period for the harvest. With sporadic visit to site. Often only to walk through site.
Grow wheat in San Diego, only because of modern seeds development. Common wheat can grow anywhere, ground doesn’t need to freeze to plant.
Yes, we grow wheatgrass for Christmas in Croatia and we certainly don't cool the wheat before. We just soak it over night and let it grow.
TIL those are called "Bow Rakes". And that "dibbling" trick with hitting the rake into the soil is a *great* idea. Will try that when cover cropping in the future.
That was so cool of seeing everything from beginning to end.
I live in South Dakota. Lots of acres of hard red wheat, both winter and spring wheat. Your dead spots were due to over planting. You harvested too early. Wait till the wheat turns completely golden then wait another couple of weeks. Try using an elevated location like a deck during a windy day and put a weighted tarp beneath you to catch the kernels. Experimentation will determine how windy it should be. I think you’ll find it a very efficient method for winnowing.
I grew wheat by accident! I bought some straw from my local feed supply for mulching and chicken nesting boxes. I put down a 6" layer of straw between my raised beds to help control mud and weeds. Imagine my frustration when "weeds" started growing out of my straw. Now I have really tough Johnson grass around that is almost impossible to stop so I was thinking it's the Johnson grass again! But as I took a closer look I realized that this was not a weed from my yard. I know my flora around here and this was something I had not seen. So I let I grow. Not a month later I identified the invader as wheat. So now I have wheat sprouts growing everywhere between my raised beds....Lol. It's spring here so I can only assume I have spring wheat growing for free. Now I'm thinking about transplanted it or growing more in another piece of land where I can't get irrigation. Sounds like a match!
Nice job trying something new, showing people the process, and being positive about experimenting! I think it is important, though, for people, whether they are inspired to try growing wheat or they think it is too difficult, to realize that the yield should be much higher than what we saw here. Did I miss something, or did you plant 1 pound of wheat for a yield of just over 1/2 pound of wheat? For a better expectation, if each head produces, on the low end, 20 wheat berries, even accounting for only a 50% germination rate and not counting multiple heads possible per plant, then one would hope to have at least a yield of 10x, ie 10 pounds of wheat harvested from 1 pound planted. I totally understand that there is a learning curve, and that average yields are harder to determine with such a small sized plot (though a small plot is easier to manage well). My 14 year old son planted about 10,000 sq ft. of winter wheat last year and got a little better than a 2x return. He was disappointed it wasn't a better yield, but he did know a lot of things he did wrong, including chickens getting into the field early on and the fact that he is trying to grow a wheat that we like but that is not suited for our climate. :) I hope more people will try their hand at growing grains! "Small-Scale Grain Raising" is a great book, if you are interested.
Nice quality video as always! Good tips for beginners! Just a couple things to note for new backyard growers:
- Allow the wheat grass to all become gold/yellow before harvest. Just dont wait until all the seed heads face down and start sheding the seed.
- Seems like a good yield average (depending on variety and climate) is around 1 pound per 10-15 sqaure feet.
- Getting a return of a 1/2 lb for a 1 lb input may be a technical loss, but is a gain as long as you learned something for the next season.
Whitman County in Washington is one of the leading produces in the country for wheat. During the growing season it beautiful to drive through because all you see is rolling green hills. Being able to see the wind rustle the large patches is like watching an ocean wave. Then when it is time to harvest, driving through it gets pretty dusty from the farmers working day and night to harvest their thousands of acres of wheat fields!
This came at the right time! I was looking for videos today to help me plant my red fife wheat I received in a seed swap.
Do you think your yield was lower due to overseeding? The fact that stalks on the outside of the patch did better is suspicious...
That’s a lot of effort to turn 1 pound of wheat seed into 1/2 a pound of wheat🤔
Glad I wasn’t the only one to notice lol
100 grams of grain per m/s
He did mention losing some to rain.
@@chelseavenable3678 not taking anything away from the wonderful accomplishment, but think even Kevin would agree it’s probably something best done on a bigger scale to make it viable, good fun trying though!
Everything in life takes effort if you want success!
That is so cool! I’m definitely going to try growing some wheat this spring. Of course, my husband walked into the room right when your were beating your wheat. 🤣 He had a lot of questions.
I grow rye and as a time saver after I prepare the ground I wait until it rains, then I sow the seed in the rain. If you are growing a large amount this will save a lot on time and irrigation.
I would like to grow rye. Now I need 2 plots! LOL.
Yay! I started growing wheat a few years ago, and at the time TH-cam videos on home garden wheat were VERY sparse. To the point that a wheat how-to was the first video I tried to make myself
Is it available to the public?
@@billsmith2593 I had it as a private video that I had shared with one of my gardening groups - but I moved it over and made it public now. Thanks for asking :) If you watch it, I hope you enjoy it! th-cam.com/video/wFm9Z_-KAfE/w-d-xo.html
There's definitely some truth to that farmers tale. Growing Rye and I find it'll gladly take whatever dust you put it in. Almost like it prefers it. The damn things get 6 ft tall.
Been doing this for the better part of 10 years and I have to say I’m glad my parents showed me how to be self sufficient
Most people my age don’t even like to get their hands dirty
This is brilliant! I've been wanting to have a go at growing wheat but didn't know how to and thought it wouldn't be that easy to process it myself, I'm going to give this a try now, have also been thinking about trying to grow barley so I might just try it and see what happens.
It was amazing to see the process of home growing wheat 🌾 for fresh bread 🍞 I grow on my balcony so I don’t have the space for wheat, but still intriguing to see the process.
Grow some potatoes in buckets and you can process it into potato flour. Townsends has a video about potato yeast that could help with getting a normal loaf.
@@FerriteCrowe thank you! I’ll have to try it.
Kevin I am at Homesteaders of America in Front Royal, VA and the Melissa K. Norris class I was just in should have made your ears ring. You got serious props from Melissa and several of us in her class. Epic Gardening WORLDWIDE!
Your result is about what mine was on a small scale.... You started with a pound of wheat berries. Your gardening effort resulted in nine ounces at harvest. I also harvested about half of what I sowed. I might tray again on a larger scale with rows instead of a compact plot.
Great vid. Really cool ! Is the wheat plot going to expand ? Would love to see a bigger plot experiment
Remember that bread dough with cold mashed potato mixed in ( about 1/3) is excellent, and also stays fresh longer.🙂
You have to grow quite a bit of wheat berries to get a decent enough crop to make a loaf of bread. Keep an eye out for ergot grains because it can be dangerous. I decided to steer clear of growing wheat because you have to grow so much to get so little and I didn't like the idea of going crazy from consuming a myceliated grain.
@Fred brandon , you feel better little buddy?
Wow! So cool!! Thanks for sharing this process with us. Always cool to see what's possible to do in your own backyard!
This was so exciting to watch 😀 I am looking forward to you and Jaques making that bread, the both of you together will be EPIC. Thanks for sharing the process of growing wheat from beginning to harvest 👍🏼😊
Grow wheat? Yep easiest thing in the world. just throw a heap of my leftover parrot seed in the compost and wheat comes up everywhere. I just let it grow and could harvest for myself as there's a ton of it but I keep it for my parrots as the they enjoy picking the wheat out of the heads and chewing stalks both fresh and dried. I couldn't stop the stuff from coming up and growing here if I tried.
Yep pretty easy!
256g of wheat from 448g of wheat planted... totally missed the bar on that one. Next time I recommend using less seed per sq ft so you can actually get a higher yield. Also, when I harvest my wheat I put the heads in a 5 gallon bucket and beat the bajeezus out of it with a grout mixing tool on my power drill. Very effective!
I grow wheat all the time! I place a small handful in a bowl containing potting mix, cover them with more soil, water them, and boom! I have a thick bowl of wheat grass, which the cats absolutely love. One of them gets so excited every time I show him a bowl of it that he jumps up and down until its on the floor. And boy, does he tear into it!
I love that you did this. Since 2020 most people have been thrown into food insecurity and as a result, truly understanding where their food comes from. Im going to attempt this myself so i have these skills.
7:40 you also stepped on a few spots while you were throwing out the seeds. So those spots were probably harder for the seeds to grow on
I’ve seen some suggestions that the initial watering of the seeds with a compost extract can speed up germination and boost yields.
This reminds me of the time I grew some black gram (lentils). I spent several hours to harvest the lentil and despite the plants taking up a whole bed I had barely enough for a single meal. Ahh well it was still fun though!
4x8 plot yeilds a ½ loaf of bread… love the idea of growing the wheat, knowing what’s gone into my food! Doing my math… 1 homemade loaf for my family every week, I’d need 52 8x8 plots, or a minimum of 416x416 plot. Which is a third larger than a football field length. I’m not sure on acreage. Or, ⅔ of the field twice a year. Not being a smarta$$, just calculating space if someone wants a loaf a week. Right now, I REALLY appreciate the organic farmers that grow the wheat to make the flour I bake with. Thank you!
While this may be a great little project to do with my kids, it just isn’t practical. However- to see how it’s done is awesome. Doing great Kevin- keep up the good work.
It may start becoming practical due to the change in climate. Farmers this year have had a horrible wheat harvest due to extreme weather conditions, meaning we will probably see an increase in some grain products in the near future.
Having some wheat berries is just good security to have! This winter, I recommend you buy some. Just in case.
I know it sounds weird but better safe than sorry. 🙏🏼
I loved watching this compared to adam ragusea's attempt, his was truly the most basic attempt, it didnt really work but it was very interesting, this shows how to do it proper
This isn't really the proper way, he overseeded and gave little water to these plants, hence poor yield.
Long time partners of Epic Gardening and they didn't give you compost in a reusable bag!?!
I'm thinking the bed is absorbing moisture from the wood chip pathways. That's why the edges grew faster.
Seen this on little house on the prairie, it went in detail how the women did it. Very cool, thanks
Man I watched this channel so much last summer. Glad to have found this again. My garden was so much better last year lol, I'm discouraged.
You got this...improvement next year!
I live in Oklahoma and wild wheat grows out here and it's hard to kill lol.
*Edit* For more info wild wheat is edible but it's seeds aren't as big as domestic wheat.
Kevin, you're truly Inspiring ; Keep the videos coming.... I've followed u for sometime now 2 years probably , and I must compliment that You're thriving with your garden. Keep up the Great Job!!!
Hey Kevin and all- I was inspired to try wheat after watching your videos.
Threshing is the hardest part. SO...I tried running it through my leaf shredder after removing the cutting blades. I only had to put it through twice. Then winnowing with a fan was a breeze! (Pun intended). I used the pour it back and forth between two buckets method. Just wanted to share.
harvesting and processing wheat is a hundred times more difficult than growing it. Its one of those crops that id rather let the proffesionals do it. Grew it twice but no more... Nice video tho
You know what, i regret saying this. If you are a gardener i recommend you grow wheat, but just a few seeds. You can easily manage and separate the seeds from the husks by hand if its just 5 or 6 stalks. Each year select the seeds from the biggest and healthiest plant and voilà, you are slowly creating a variety suited for your climate. I think this is way funnier and healthy than to grow big patches of wheat, even more if you dont got much space like me
The only problem is the professionals spray roundup on the wheat lol
Wheat or weed lol the name of the wheat even sounds like a cannabis strain lol 😂. I would love to see Kevin grow hemp it’s such a great plant
Cannabis is a beautiful plant
What a quality video. Thank you for spending so much time to create this start to end video. really enjoy watching it
I’ve done what you did kind of in a little different way I grew a 4 x 4 area and I made a very tasty muffin it was a lot of hard work but it was worth it
Best tasting muffin for sure
Given all the space that is wasted growing inedible grass lawns, I see no reason why you can't replace all of that with an edible type of grass like this.
Because Karen at the HOA said no
@A R Karen said all fences must not exceed 5’4”
So, cool vid, but, I grew up in ND and they leave their wheat in the field until it is completely dry (no green at all).
I'm not sure how many grams of wheat seeds you sowed, but your harvest yield seems quite low. Wheat yields are usually between 9 to 15 times more than what is sown.
Thanks for sharing!
Perhaps he grew it too close together??
He said he planted “about a pound” I believe. And harvested ~250 grams (or just more than half a pound) 😆
@@ianturkstra8221 yeah wtf
@@ianturkstra8221 If so, then his yield should have been 9 to 15 times what he planted. Whatever is the cause, something didn't go right in that crop.
Commercial growers spray the crop with Roundup to squeeze out a couple extra kernels per head, not much at this small a scale, but when you plant acres and acres….
I havent ever tried the wheats back to back to see which i prefer. I took a chance, purchased a hard red winter wheat, which i love. As well as a spring wheat, which is very good. I ferment the dough at least 3 days in fridge. before use. It seems to me that is best flavor, at least for the recipe i use. Enjoy your fresh bread. Thats great you grew your own. Take care.
I grew kamut one year. A 40x3' bed yielded enough for about 1 1/2 loaves of bread. Super yummy. Hulless oats are also easy to grow and don't require as much work to thresh.
Is it true that you need about a square meter of wheat for a single loaf of bread?
I'd also start baking bread now so you're skilled enough to get really good loaves by the time you harvest.
Yeah I'd say something around there or slightly more
That seems like a lot. Wouldn't that be a little bit cost-prohibitive just for a loaf? You'd need a football field-sized wheat patch to have a loaf per week. 🤪
@@billsmith2593 definitely is a lot, thankfully it's not only flour that we can get from wheat. The straw can be used in a lot of things as well.
12-16 loafs per household a year should be more than sufficient.
Quality vs quantity my friend
@Kwame Phillips-Solomon Definitely was in the old days
I would rather grow potatoes to get more calories per square foot, but I would love to plant some winter wheat to get a quick harvest in spring. I have a ruth stout garden and I love chewing the berries that are leftover in the straw. They also easily sprout in the straw once watered. I think I'll try it.
I appreciate so much that you do all of it in one video
OMG I SO loved that you took the time throughout the months to put this video together - so that we (your followers) could really enjoy and learn from the 'fruits of your labor' from start-to-finish - so entertaining (as well as educational since you also teach us the correct names of our garden tools, etc.! 😅) very satisfying to watch (unlike so many other ‘long-winded’ gardening channels out there - which usually leave me hanging with no ‘sense-of-completion’ or ‘closure’ like yours do) “Sometimes we just gotta Beat Our Wheat” huh 🤣 LoL! We are so lucky to have you and your channel 💘💘💘👏👏👏
I hope you will continue to show us your traditional cooking. It’s better than watching all those world famous chefs . Also your traditional attire and lifestyle are so wholesome , healthy and peaceful. It’s very soothing watching your videos . And it's an honor to have you visit our channel, we can discuss more about our experiences in harvesting and building farms.
You said it was Spring Wheat, but didn't specify whether it was 'hard or 'soft' wheat. Hard wheat is used for things that have to rise, like bread, whereas soft wheat is for quick breads, muffins, etc. Just curious.
Kevin, I feel like the topics you’ve been focusing on recently are RIGHT ON SCHEDULE. You brought up your water tank you got, the solar panels, growing your own wheat.
Thank you for teaching people how to collect these things on our own (self-sufficiently). I don’t know if that’s your intent, but it looks like we may need to put these tips into practice down the line soon.
Did you know you can cut it for wheat grass juice, then let it grow again then feed livestock feed on it then let it grow again and it will still mature to make wheat for flour!! Amazing plant!
Half a loaf in a 4'x8' area. Assuming one loaf per week, you'd be looking at 3328 ft^2, or about a 40'x80' plot.
Yikes that feels like a really small return for the space used. Won’t be trying that one haha
He sowed too heavy he actually lost seeds because of that
@@kevinpeters6709 that makes sense. I knew something was up, otherwise we wouldn’t have loaves of bread all over the grocery store
All that's missing is growing a butter tree 🧈🧈🧈
Soooon
@@epicgardening ayo I just learned that butter trees are a thing 👁️👄👁️
Can you grow a video on barley and then show the process of malting it to make beer? I would love to see how it goes. I grow my own hops and would love to make a farm to table brew in the future.
Wow, makes you REALLY appreciate the work that farmers put in to grow and process wheat so we can have flour 😂 All that for half a loaf. I think I’d rather just grow the wheat for the look of it and use it as decoration during the fall season. Lol
So you planted a lb of seed and now have a lb of seed? 😆 I want to do this just for the experience. Such fun!
Remember I lost half due to mold!
@@epicgardening Isn't a pound closer to 450 grams ...? So, plant a pound, recover half a pound + half a pound to mold? Still seems like a fun project though!
It's nonetheless a win!
Bro is playing Minecraft in real life
An old British rhyme about planting wheat: “One for the rook, one for the crow, one to let rot, and one to let grow”. This would indicate that of the 40 per square foot rule mentioned, you might expect as few as 10 per square foot will germinate.
You can also try winnowing in a 5 gallon bucket with a hair dryer! There are drill attachments to thresh the seed head as well
When my dad grew acres of wheat in Michigan, it was planted in the fall and we snowmobiled on it in the winter and it turned golden and totally dry in summer. Your crop looks to green. We used to eat handfuls of wheat berries out of the bin on the combine. I had never heard of anyone spraying with roundup. That whole idea is just stupid. Poisoning the crop. We did not do that.
People destroy microbiology with chemicals, and of course you can't grow a healthy crop in those soils, which leads to more chemicals...
@Fred brandon of course it affects the wheat and everything it touches. Would you take a bath in a toxic pool, even with a mask to make sure you don't drink any of the liquid?
Got wheat straw bales that had wheat seed still in them, it grew. Got chicken feed that was heavy in wheat seed, it grew. I have Red winter wheat in #10 cans for sprouting if I need it. I'll grow some, the birds and squirrels will love me for it. Get your wheat before the animals do. 1 seed can make lots more, be aware of your area's animal population,
I did similar to this this spring. Went from “new to me”poor dandelions/thistly lawn to 1.25gallons of cleaned einkorn.
I cut 4 “ wide strips of sod, 10-12” between rows. Pick axed the row to loosen hardpan. Added 3-4 pounds cricket manure, cal mag, 20 pounds sheep manure(directly over seed), half hand full of muriate of potash and 27-0-2 5% iron lawn fertilizer. Planted 40 grams in the rows over 96 sq ft.
Next time im trying 60-80 grams(1/8 to 3/6 pound) seed per 100sq ft(9.25m2), early planted in my nice black sandy loam.
40 pounds manure and 1 pound 27-0-2 5% iron, calimagic, Lord know what else. Maybe Rhino Skin. Sturdy plants dare to put on big crops.
Threahed in a drill press with stranded copper wire whisking in a bucket. Then 4” exhaust fan to winnow the wheat.
The plants we grow up here are left standing toll they are golden yellow.
Rain can lower protein levels i guess when its standing ripe.
Great video....
Gotta love seeing wheat grown in a place where palm trees and citrus are the norm...hee
As for growing "exotics"...one summer I decided to try 3 "very southern" crops... tobacco, cotton, peanuts. Crazy, different, and all were successful 👍😊
Cool to see here, yet another grow-experiment come to fruition.
Cheers!
JerBear
Charlotte USA
I live in an area where turkey red wheat (used for bread) is commonly grown. It’s a neat crop, especially in the spring when you can stand in a literal sea of green grass.
My farmer friends put in some pretty hard work, especially during harvest when it’s 100+F and they are dodging severe thunderstorms. It’s a race to get it to the elevator before hail flattens it or the fields flood (or get too muddy to work). If it gets wet, it can grow toxic mold and be ruined.
Great work kevin, i have been growing naked oats, and I'm doing some kamut wheat when thayt is finished