Growing Organic Hard Red Spring Wheat Cover Crop Garden Seeds
About Organic Hard Red Spring Wheat Cover Crop Garden Seeds
Like many cereal grains, hard red spring wheat is a popular cover crop broadcasted directly in spring for late summer tilling. For a traditional garden harvest, sow 2-3 Organic hard red spring wheat cover crop seeds ½" deep and 2-3" apart in fertile, loamy, and well-drained garden soil in full sun. Non-GMO hard red spring wheat seeds germinate in 4-10 days, with no thinning required. Non-GMO Triticum aestivum is a spring-hardy grain with no serious pests or diseases. If grown as a spring cover crop, mow to crop before heirloom spring wheat begins to seed. If sown to harvest grains and berries, then harvest hard red spring wheat when heads of seeds have become dried, hard, and heavy in late summer to early fall. Depending on size of crop, anything from a pair of scissors to a scythe would work to cut down hard red spring wheat for tilling or grain drying. Using twine, bunch up loose wheat into a bale, about the size of a bundle of wood. Allow spring wheat to dry for 2-3 weeks before harvesting hard red spring wheat berries. Like many grains of the Triticeae family, non-GMO Organic hard red spring wheat berries can be milled, rolled, steel-cut, and boiled for nearly any occasion.
All Wheat is Not Equal We have had the experience of growing wheatgrass and being in the commercial wheatgrass business over the last twenty years. We have experienced growing many different kinds of wheat from different areas: Texas, Utah, Idaho, Montana, California, and Israel-- both Organic and non-Organic. The wheat we use now is grown in eastern Washington and is undoubtedly the best wheat we have ever used. It has a spectacular germination rate and makes a beautiful and nutritious grass. Our hard red spring wheat is USDA certified Organic, which means the grower has not used herbicides in the field for over 3 years.
Organic Hard Red Spring Wheat Benefits
Non-GMO Organic hard red spring wheat is planted in the fall and harvested the following summer and will often yield more than spring wheat. Like all the heirloom spring grains, one of the major advantages to Organic spring wheat is that it starts growing right away in the spring, meaning you will not get stuck in the spring moisture trying to plant. Non-GMO Organic hard red spring wheat must sprout and grow in the fall and then go through a period of vernalization for it to produce grain the following summer. Which is why it is important to seed heirloom spring wheat early enough for it to establish. Like many other cover crops, Organic hard red spring wheat is known to replenish tired soils of their depleted nitrogen and nutrients, while improving soil tilth, structure, waterflow, and weed suppression.
If a hard red spring wheat is Organic, it will have more of a variety of minerals than a non-Organic wheat. If you grow with an Organic compost the organisms in the soil will help the minerals absorb into the grass properly. Organic produce should also have the organism on it that produces cobalamin (B-12).
