My barley is starting to head! How exciting!
Very cool !
Very cool. Are you going to kiln it too? How big is your farm?
Yeah, I’m gonna malt it and play around with kilning in the oven.
My ‘farm’ (thanks for that by the way, makes me feel far more industrious that I actually am) is about 800 sqft with about 200 to barley right now and three chickens, a dog, and a cat. The dog and cat don’t really do much for the farm except maybe chase rats away.
How much barley do you expect to get out of that?
I count about 20 kernels 
if I’m lucky!
I’m hoping for around 10 lb
Nice. Wish I could try what you make of it.
Dude - posting pics of growing barley in March is a low blow to us Minnesotans. We’re still buried under 4 ft of snow and hunkering down with -50 windchills! Grrrr…
Looks nice though. Where did you get your seed? I’m assuming you went organic? I’d like to grow a little test plot, once I’m able to expand my garden space. I wonder if a person could sow barley under hops plants? My garden space is all booked for vegetables, but I have about 120 square feet of space (3 x 40 feet) in my hops bed. I’d hate to weaken the hops by putting in too much competition though. Hmmm… anybody tried this? Thoughts?
yeah, apologies to my cold weather friends;D
Got the seed from johnny’s. 5 lb was cheap and it only took ~1 to sow the site so I’ve been practicing malting with the rest. Organic so not sprayed or treated.
Looks great man! I’m about to order a few hop rhizomes and see how they fare in the GA humidity, but I’m not sure I could produce enough barley to be worthwhile.
Is that the Conlon?
My winter barley is lodging quite a bit. I think I should have irrigated a bit more. I planted in Nov. and let it go. When the rain came in Feb it was too tall, and with the added water fell over. I think I’ll stick to spring planting (& just veggies in the winter).
The heads that I do have are not nearly as plump as yours. Looks like you’ll be able to plant again as soon as you harvest.
Look forward to hearing about the harvest, threshing, malting!
The only thing left when I got around to ordering was robust. It’s six row but it is a malting variety.
I’m getting 5# of the same to plant if spring ever comes. How much irrigation did it take? My options of where to plant it widen if I don’t need to reach it with a hose. I’m thinking of doing some near enough to water with the hose and, if possible, plant some before a good rain in an area that is a couple hundred yards from a hose.
I hope you keep us posted on how much time the threshing and winnowing takes.
I think we watered twice before winter. since then none. we will see what happens as the ‘wet season’ here ends.
I will say that I have now pulled 5 or 6 plants with loose barley smut infections. I don’t know if it’s from the seed or someone else’s barley in the area but be aware. I guess it’s the price of organic agriculture.
I only watered when I first seeded. Let the rain do the rest (hence my problems w/weak stems when the rain arrived late). My biggest issues have been the lodging and aphids.
I got seed (Bere, Lacey, Excelsior) from sustainable seed last year, before they went out of stock on “malting barley” varieties. They still have the “excelsior” (http://sustainableseedco.com/heirloom-grain-seed/barley-seed/hulless-barley/organic-excelsior-hulless-barley.html), that Fisher’s Hombrewer’s Garden recommended. It’s not cheap ($4.99 for 25 seeds), but after growing last spring, and this winter, I’ll have enough seed for my garden so that I will have some to malt.
Awesome! Look forward to reading about how it all turns out.
Thanks for the info. I think my biggest expense will be fencing to keep the chickens and dog out if I grow it near the house and wild animals from trampling through away from the house.
Not sure of your growing season but I was just able to order 2row from Johnny’s. Hope to get your experience with malting and kilning etc.
