[Grovenet] Wheat

[chuck]

Katie Allnutt wrote:
> Has anybody tried to grow wheat in a home garden?
>
> Any advice?
>
> Katie
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>   
 From what I can tell, our wheat growing region is the North East corner 
of the state.  In a book called, "Growing Vegetables West of the 
Cascades", author Steve Solomon says

"Millennia of heavy winter rains have leached all our soils into a kind 
of chemical imbalance that won't grow highly nutritious food.  
Willamette Valley Wheat for example, is low grade, low protein, soft 
white wheat used for noodles and  starch.  When I've tried to grow hard, 
red bread wheat, it came out as soft red pastry wheat.  My soil couldn't 
feed the wheat enough to produce the proteins required for bread making 
wheat."

In another article I read the following: 

"But wheat is no panacea. Agriculture experts say soft white wheat used 
for making tortillas and pasta, not bread is what grows best in the 
Willamette Valley, and is commonly used as a rotation crop by grass seed 
farmers. But even that presents problems. "Wheat is not tolerant of wet 
conditions," Nelson said. Root rot sets in, forcing growers to rotate 
something else in, he said.

In either case it sounds like a challenge.  Good luck Katie.

chuck