Growing Winter Grains in a Greenhouse

Has anyone tried it? I wanted to try growing some varieties of heirloom wheat and rye to see which will do well here, but missed the optimal planting date. However I was going to buy a greenhouse for next year anyway, so I'm pondering using it to plant the grains later into the year.

I figure it could at least be used to establish them so they'll make it through winter well. Or it could be used all through winter, possibly getting them to mature sooner. But since I want to select for winter hardiness, I suppose it's best to tear it down once they've grown enough.

Of course growing a big field of them wouldn't work this way, but if doing it by hand I don't think one would want to do more than can fit in a large greenhouse anyway.

Now is a great time to plant grains outdoors for  overwintering.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Now is a great time to plant grains outdoors for  overwintering.

Yes I would still plant outside now, even here up north, but I've been out of town and may not be back for a few weeks.

I do recall last year I planted barley quite late into October and it still did well. But going into November I think winterkill will be probable, especially since the coming winter is projected to be colder than usual.

I don't know about wheat, but I've planted rye in November and it did fine. When I planted, the daytime temps were probably never more than 8C. Nights were consistently frosty, as low as -5C. As long as it can grow a couple leaves before it gets really cold, rye seems to survive winter okay.

I rate the winter hardiness of small grains as follows.

Rye -- very hardy
Wheat -- hardy
Barley -- marginal
Oats -- spring only
Millet -- spring only
Sorghum -- spring only