How to Plant Wheat

You want to eat healthfully and incorporate more grains into your diet. What better way than growing wheat in your home garden? Wait, really? 

Can I grow wheat at home? 

Sure, and you don’t need a tractor, grain drill, combine, or even the acreage that full scale wheat farmers require. The following wheat growing information will help you learn how to grow wheat in a home garden and caring for backyard wheat grain. 

Can I Grow Wheat at Home?

It is very possible to grow your own wheat. It seems like a daunting task given the specialized equipment and large farms that commercial wheat farmers utilize, but the fact is that there are a couple of fallacies regarding growing wheat yourself that have turned even the most die-hard gardener from the idea.

First off, most of us think you would need acres and acres to produce even a little bit of flour. Not so. An average backyard of say, 1,000 square feet (93 sq. m.), is enough space to grow a bushel of wheat. What does a bushel equal? A bushel is about 60 pounds (27 kg.) of grain, enough to bake 90 loaves of bread! Since you probably don’t need 90 loaves of bread, devoting just a row or two to growing wheat in the home garden is sufficient.

How to Grow Rice

Learn the ins and outs of growing rice for harvest and landscaping with this how-to by grain-growing expert.

When I tell people I grow rice I am always met with looks of mystification. The reality is most people have never seen a rice plant growing, despite the reality that we have all eaten it! And in the past two months, rice has disappeared from grocery store shelves, leading to a sudden interest in cultivating this little-known crop.

DOES RICE HAVE TO GROW IN WATER? 

Rice is commonly grown in paddies for one simple purpose — weed suppression. Unaffected by flooding, the rice plant thrives while its competitors drown. The water serves as a natural form of herbicide. However, growing in water is not required, which is what makes rice such an interesting grain for home gardeners. It will thrive in the same conditions as many of our favorite summer annuals, including begonias, coleus and sweet potato vine.

WHAT IS RICE? 

Rice is a warm season cereal grain in the Poaceae family that thrives in tropical areas, where it is hot and humid year-round. Even if you do not live in the tropics, you can grow rice as a warm season annual. It prefers temps well above freezing — ideally 50-100 degrees fahrenheit — so be sure to plant after your last frost date.

You can grow rice in any sunny area, even in the ground, with supplemental irrigation. I grow rice in many different locations, from my foundation landscape near downspouts to containers. Every way I grow it, rice is beautiful and is an instant conversation starter. Visitors never seem to be able to identify the random grass that I am cultivating around my garden and when they learn what it is, they are totally mystified and eager to learn more!

HOW CAN I GROW RICE?

Containers were my first approach to cultivating rice, and it is what I recommend to first-time growers. You can grow rice in traditional containers with drainage holes or solid vessels, with no holes, because rice will thrive in wetness. Planting is easy: just scatter a packet of rice seed onto the soil, cover lightly and allow it to germinate in place. In my experience, the seedlings will sprout within a week of sowing.