If you can start anything from seed, grains are easy. If you have never started anything from seed, grains are a great place to break in! We start ours in 3" deep flats with a flat soil mix (I'll get to that in the next post). We broadcast them into the flat and keep it moist, well-ventilated, and protected until they are of a size to transplant. How do you determine what that size is? 
Well here is Goldilocks' assortment for us: much too small, much too big, and juuuuust right. You want to make sure everything that is going to germinate has, but you also don't want to worry about how big the roots are or how developed the plant. The plants in the flat on the right have germinated as fully as they will, and the roots have hopefully not hit the bottom of the flat yet. These look about 2 inches tall, and it takes them somewhere between 7-10 days to get there. By the way, if you are into wheat grass juice it is as simple as this. Get your flat, fill it with mix, broadcast the wheat berries that you got at the co-op or wherever on top, water and wait. When it looks like you want it to look, cut it!
Well here is Goldilocks' assortment for us: much too small, much too big, and juuuuust right. You want to make sure everything that is going to germinate has, but you also don't want to worry about how big the roots are or how developed the plant. The plants in the flat on the right have germinated as fully as they will, and the roots have hopefully not hit the bottom of the flat yet. These look about 2 inches tall, and it takes them somewhere between 7-10 days to get there. By the way, if you are into wheat grass juice it is as simple as this. Get your flat, fill it with mix, broadcast the wheat berries that you got at the co-op or wherever on top, water and wait. When it looks like you want it to look, cut it!But if you are trying to grow more grains, transplant them into a well-prepared bed. Maybe this means single dug, maybe double dug, maybe just weeded with some compost on top...
Here are our tools of the transplanting trade: a digging board, which distributes your weight on the bed; a trowel to open a hole; a hand fork to help you remove seedlings from the flat and to loosen the soil when the digging board is moved; a spacing stick, to help you put the plants on proper spacing (5" in the case of cold-weather grains); and your flat of grains. What I have here is Schrene Barley, which we all love.
Now we dive in! We lay our digging board a reachable distance from the end of the bed, and start transplanting. Each grain plant goes five inches from every other grain plant. Why? We
have determined, in Willits' climate, that the best yields are achieved from that distance.
Most important is that each seedling receives its own space. As to the grains in question, they work best with 2.5" on every side, or a circle with a 5" diameter. Two plants put side-by-side must each get their 2.5" distance, so they turn out to be 5" apart. A seedling on the edge of the bed still only needs its 2.5" to grow happily, so it will be 2.5" from the edge.
A look at the picture will explain two of the terms we use to describe the spacing in Grow Biointensive: offset spacing, and hexagonal spacing. Offset, because rows are staggered, and hexagonal because each plant is surrounded by six others. We also refer to it simply as "close plant spacing", because they are closer together than those planted rows apart. I'll go into the intimate details of why in another post sometime.
This was all to say that, when we start at the end of the bed, the first plant will go half the
prescribed distance from the edges of the bed. The whole first row of grains will be 2.5" from the end of the bed. Once you're moving, though, it will all be 5" except for the edges. I think we have all earned another picture. I usually only use one spacing stick at a time, but for the sake of an image I pulled all the stops.
The act of transplanting is simple and repetitive. Make certain of your
distance, make a hole with the trowel, pull back and insert seedling (roots down, please), and fill the hole. Leave the grain upright and the seed buried. Water what you have planted every once in a while, especially when it is sunny, warm, breezy, dry, etc. Cover and defend as much as necessary.
I've been talking grains in this post, but the pattern holds for almost everything else we
cultivate. The main difference is in the centers. For example, flour corn is planted on 15" centers, lettuce on 8" centers, cardoon on 36" centers, all depending on the space the mature plant will need. Exceptions to this process are the two crops we direct sow or broadcast (radish and buckwheat) and those root cuttings (like potatoes) that get buried entirely.
So happy gardening - It's that time of year!
Here are our tools of the transplanting trade: a digging board, which distributes your weight on the bed; a trowel to open a hole; a hand fork to help you remove seedlings from the flat and to loosen the soil when the digging board is moved; a spacing stick, to help you put the plants on proper spacing (5" in the case of cold-weather grains); and your flat of grains. What I have here is Schrene Barley, which we all love.Now we dive in! We lay our digging board a reachable distance from the end of the bed, and start transplanting. Each grain plant goes five inches from every other grain plant. Why? We
have determined, in Willits' climate, that the best yields are achieved from that distance.Most important is that each seedling receives its own space. As to the grains in question, they work best with 2.5" on every side, or a circle with a 5" diameter. Two plants put side-by-side must each get their 2.5" distance, so they turn out to be 5" apart. A seedling on the edge of the bed still only needs its 2.5" to grow happily, so it will be 2.5" from the edge.
A look at the picture will explain two of the terms we use to describe the spacing in Grow Biointensive: offset spacing, and hexagonal spacing. Offset, because rows are staggered, and hexagonal because each plant is surrounded by six others. We also refer to it simply as "close plant spacing", because they are closer together than those planted rows apart. I'll go into the intimate details of why in another post sometime.
This was all to say that, when we start at the end of the bed, the first plant will go half the
prescribed distance from the edges of the bed. The whole first row of grains will be 2.5" from the end of the bed. Once you're moving, though, it will all be 5" except for the edges. I think we have all earned another picture. I usually only use one spacing stick at a time, but for the sake of an image I pulled all the stops.The act of transplanting is simple and repetitive. Make certain of your
distance, make a hole with the trowel, pull back and insert seedling (roots down, please), and fill the hole. Leave the grain upright and the seed buried. Water what you have planted every once in a while, especially when it is sunny, warm, breezy, dry, etc. Cover and defend as much as necessary.I've been talking grains in this post, but the pattern holds for almost everything else we
cultivate. The main difference is in the centers. For example, flour corn is planted on 15" centers, lettuce on 8" centers, cardoon on 36" centers, all depending on the space the mature plant will need. Exceptions to this process are the two crops we direct sow or broadcast (radish and buckwheat) and those root cuttings (like potatoes) that get buried entirely.So happy gardening - It's that time of year!
I just found your blog and very glad I did! Thank you...
ReplyDelete