Vic Dupont

If your are "much closer", I would advise you to try what I did: sow in furrows, controlling the spacing, and trying 4 inches and 8 inches spacing in the furrows.

Mine was 4 inches, but I saw a very good presentation by a guy who sowed one seed every 8 inches, 20 cm.

Did you fertilize?

Thanks a lot for the replies guys!

In my case, I think the reason why the hulls are stuck to the seeds is because I harvested too late. I had read somewhere that this can happen.

It seems confirmed because this year I haven't threshed it yet, but it seems to not be the case, although it's the same variety. I harvested much earlier this year.

Joseph, your method with a screen and a shoe is interesting. I am surprised about the size of the screen. 1/2" isn't so wide that the seeds just fall through?

Hi there!


Just an update on where I am on this topic.

I have stopped looking for a roller solution, because I tried sowing in furrows, and I found it much easier.

Instead of broadcasting the seeds, I tilled the ground, then just traced small furrows, and dropped one seed every 10 cm, or 4 inches. After sowing one furrow, I close it with a rake, and start the next one. As I work on the next one, I simply step on the first furrow, and it compacts it naturally.

I found it a lot faster, a lot less tiring, it enabled me to control sowing density, and actually to save on seeds.

As always, if someone has any thoughts on this I'll be happy to read them!

Thanks a lot for the reply, and very sorry for my late answer.

I followed your link, and if I understand correctly, that could work, but would partly roast the grain, thus would make it suitable only for specific uses, right?

Apart from that I found videos about people attaching rubber on their mill for this task. I guess I could try that, but if anyone had another method I'd still be interested.

Cheers!

Thank you VERY MUCH for this SUPER INTERESTING answer.

I'm sorry that I am replying so late.

This is so interesting. Guess what? My family's house is literally 100 meters from the Swiss border, so it makes a lot of sense that you would have found this anvil in Switzerland. It's probably in the same region, same climatic conditions, same traditional economy, same tools.

Do you have any insights on how to use this anvil?

For example:

Should I use the flat or narrow face of the hammer? From your explanation I would tend to think the flat one, to cover the whole width of the anvil.

Anything to know on how to position the blade? From your explanation I would tend to think I should line the edge with the edge of the anvil closest to me.

Does it mean positioning the blade upside down?

Does it mean only one pass for each peening session?

Anything else different?

In case you're interested, people here tell me that the way this was used is that it was planted in the ground. I guess that's why it's taller. Also I found it in a bag, still hanging at the wall, with the hammer in it. So I guess people were taking the bag with them on the field for a day's mowing, and peening on site.

Again, a huge thanks for this super interesting reply!

Hi guys!

It's been a year, I wanted to give an update on what I've learned about it, in case it helps others.

Summary:
1. Bending and heterogeneity actually were a problem for processing
2. Causes were likely all three reasons in my case: excess fertilizer, too high sowing density and lack of sunlight

Bending and heterogeneity were a problem

It turned out that the yield seemed ok last year.

However, the fact that plants were bending over, and of heterogenous sizes made the whole harvesting - threshing - winnowing process difficult.

Harvesting was not that bad. It was slower, but overall not a big deal.

Threshing was the most problematic part. Because cut stems were not all pointed in the same direction, and not of the same lengths, I could neither whack them over a board, nor beat just the heads. I was stuck with a messy mixture of straw and heads without any order.

Winnowing was made harder too, because the result of the threshing process contained a lot more straw.

Additionally, this year I realized that bending also decreased the yield, probably because some animals ate on the heads, probably rodents. I had entire square meters without any heads left.

Causes were threefold in my case

I can tell now because I've grown again this year, but I changed two things :
1. This year I didn't add any fertilizer, so it only used last year's manure
2. This year I sowed in furrows, one seed every 10 cm (4 inches)

I had read that actually, sowing too densely could also lead to long stems, and thus bending. It makes sense. The way I interpret it, is that if plants are too close to each other, they suffer more competition, they don't tiller, and they try to grow higher, to get sunlight. Conversely, if they have enough space, they tiller and don't need to go as high.

The result this year: my plants tillered, which was the first time for me. At first they were pretty straight, but after a few months some of them started bending. And that's when I could add the sunlight cause: the parts that were in full sunlight stayed straight, the parts that were in the shade in the afternoons bent over.

Since last year, every plants were bending, I can tell that sunlight was not the only issue in my case. Because this year only parts of it are bending seems to mean that I solved the fertilizer and spacing part, an that sunlight is also an issue.

I hope this helps someone else in the future.

I am still interested to read your thoughts if this resonates with what you know, if you confirm or have another opinion.

Cheers!

Hi guys,


I just started winnowing my wheat.

I realise that most of it has its husk still attached to the seed.

I tried rubbing it between my hands a little bit. It doesn't seem to have much effect.

Does anyone know what to do in such a situation?

From what I read, it seems I could soak it, but the problem is that I would then have to dry it before I could grind it, I guess.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Thanks for the swift reply!

Theoretically that shouldn't be the case, I bought the seeds a year before to a local farmer, when he sold them to me I'm pretty sure they were well isolated. When I harvested last year, I also was pretty careful to keep them separated.

Thanks a lot guys!

I'll start a new thread about threshing, because I have constraints to specify, and also to explain the difficulties I've had until now.

As for the initial points of this discussion, I'd like to share my impression and my remaining question.

1) Apparently solved: bending stems

By now it seems pretty clear that the yield is ok, and the bending was not a problem in itself.

Two other elements make me pretty convinced that it was not due to sunlight but to overfertilization.

The first element is that sunlight was unequal on the field. Some parts got more sunlight during winter, some parts more during the spring and early summer, and some were in between, but I don't see any difference across the field. I am thinking that if sunlight was the issue, I would have seen a difference, at least at the end of spring.

The second element is that I read that one should not amend the soil with compost more than half a kilogram per square meter, because otherwise the soil is too light and the roots cannot grab hold, which makes the plants bend over. I didn't add compost but sheep manure, but still, I think I added way more than half a kilo per square meter. I think I emptied a wheel barrel every 4 square meters.

So I am under the impression that this is the explanation for bending plants.

2. Remaining question: heterogeneity

I thus feel confident that I understand why plants were bending, but I still have no idea why the field was so heterogenous. Some plants were a lot taller than others, some dried way earlier than others, etc.

Do you have any idea what could have caused this?

Thanks a lot again very much for the help!