homegrown grain

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by ho-hum, Mar 13, 2006.

  1. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Has anyone here tried to homegrow plots of grain. I have had some success with birdseed, sorghum etc on a very small scale but have never grown grain and tried to thresh it or store it etc.

    Apart from self-satisfaction is it economically worth the effort?

    Anyone?


    Cheers
     
  2. mariet

    mariet Junior Member

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    homegrown grain

    I want to try some grain this year. I haven't before but I have really enjoyed growing lentils and chickpeas. I seem to put in a lot of work for not a lot of return as it takes a while to get the seed clean. Also I have grown enough beans for our winter supply, mostly dried scarlet runners. I think I will try wheat and spelt, maybe some millet too. I can't imagine trying to take the husks off oats but would love to do my own porridge.
     
  3. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Re: homegrown grain

    We grow corn here in Belize at the farm, since corn is the staple food of our Maya neighbors, and we like to eat it. Shifting cultivation for corn is the number one cause of deforestation in southern Belize, so we are working on ways to maximize production per acre, in stable, non-shifting plots, and reduce slash and burning.

    Most farmers slash and burn an area for corn, which gives them 3-5 years of useful life out of that patch of soil. Then the area is fallowed for several years, in the soil types we get here a 12 year fallow period is desireable, but increasing popul;ation densities result in reduced fall0w periods of 7 years, or five years, or threee, two and, in some locations closer to settlements (the farms can be four miles walking away from the villages), the fallow period may be reduced to one year between 5 year cropping episodes, resulting in dead soil.

    We have tried growing vetiver grass across the grade to retain soil, rotating production of beans and corn, and sometime in the next two months we are sending two people from our project to Honduras to look at an innovative use of inga for alley cropping, which results in stable areas of production.

    We grow two kinds of corn, an open pollinated yellow corn, and an open pollinated blue corn. Both of them are important food sources for us, but I personally like the blue corn more as it is so pretty to work with.

    We have grown sorghum, too, but local acceptance of sorghum was zero, so we stopped trying.

    Some farmers grow rice, but rice is so cheap, and damaging (growing rice here always involves burning, then lots of Round Up, which I hate), we have decided not to grow it... until we figure out how to grow paddy rice.
     
  4. mariet

    mariet Junior Member

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    homegrown grain

    I love to hear about what you do in Belize, it is so vastly different to the small urban vege garden I have here in the cool climate.
    What do you mean by open pollination? Is it non-hybrid corn? The blue corn sounds good. I have tried a lot of different types of non-hybrid corn and my family don't like it so much, too starchy and not sweet enough for them. I haven't tried pop corn yet but will next year. It sounds like an exciting venture you have Christopher. How long have you been there? Is it a long term thing for you or a temporary project? Cheers, Marie
     
  5. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Hi Marie,

    Thanks! I have lived in Belize a whopping 20 years, with 17 of them on this farm, so I guess it is a long term thing. I have a well developed skill set, for this life. I'd be next to worthless outside of the lowland humid tropics :lol: .

    Open pollinated is non/hybrid, and will produce succesive generations true to type, unlike hybrids. This allows farmers to save seed, reducing dependency on seed companies. Much of what we are working on is food security strategies for the lowland humid tropics....

    Most people grow corn to dry and eat as tortillas here, so the local palate is not designed around sweet corn on the cob. Our blue corn is really pretty, and makes nice slate grey tortillas! It used to be an important corn for Catholic/Maya riyuals, but the proliferation of evangelicals, and the death of many of the older farmers has made the blue corn an endangered variety, which is partly why we grow it.

    Corn is pretty cheap, so we could buy it cheap instead of growing it, but we like growing it....

    Our web site has a few photos, (needs updating and expanding) but I have a photo album over at Dan the Mans site where you can see some photos of the place:
    https://www.aussieslivingsimply.com.au/photogallery.php?album=6

    Cheers back to you,

    C
     

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