These are my first two pans. Really need to build something to keep them for me. I'm hoping to find something else to grow by the time I finish this 50lb bag of oats. For now the quacks are loving my efforts!
This is exactly how my oats were looking! The germination rate of store bought oats seems to be very poor on purpose, so we all have to buy expensive »seed oats«.
This is exactly how my oats were looking! The germination rate of store bought oats seems to be very poor on purpose, so we all have to buy expensive »seed oats«.
"Moon Sand Too" is everywhere! And they are greedy like McScrooge.
Spoke with the micro-brewery's owner and he confirmed that there three types of oats in the market:
Feed Oats, which are the majority, cheapest and with terrible germination rate. That's what's sold to "ordinary" people
Malt Oats, sold to breweries and distilleries to make alcohol. Best germination rate, but sold under adhesion contracts with the obligation not to resell or use to grow new plants.
Seed Oats, sold to farmers for a premium to grow new oats. Also sold under adhesion contracts.
The penalties of those contracts are ruinous, if applied and the seed companies have employed a lot of greedy attorneys…
I may try to re-grow some good oats from those Feed Oats if i find the time and then sell those on the home-steader's markets.
"Moon Sand Too" is everywhere! And they are greedy like McScrooge.
Spoke with the micro-brewery's owner and he confirmed that there three types of oats in the market:
Feed Oats, which are the majority, cheapest and with terrible germination rate. That's what's sold to "ordinary" people
Malt Oats, sold to breweries and distilleries to make alcohol. Best germination rate, but sold under adhesion contracts with the obligation not to resell or use to grow new plants.
Seed Oats, sold to farmers for a premium to grow new oats. Also sold under adhesion contracts.
The penalties of those contracts are ruinous, if applied and the seed companies have employed a lot of greedy attorneys…
I may try to re-grow some good oats from those Feed Oats if i find the time and then sell those on the home-steader's markets.
It would be helpful for you to state how many days growth this oat bin is at. This is what my barley bins look like after about 3 days, but once they start to grow, they explode over the next few days and I can feed the bin of fodder as early as Day 6. Usually I wait until Day 8 with the barley fodder. But the oat germination rate in your picture is pretty low if at Day 6-8. My oat germination rate was about 25%, which looked pretty sparse and I ended up not using oats any more for fodder. Still hoping someone will crack the code on how to grow oat fodder. Again, my barley fodder has about a 95% germination rate at Day 8 and the grass is tall, lush, and green.
It would be helpful for you to state how many days growth this oat bin is at. This is what my barley bins look like after about 3 days, but once they start to grow, they explode over the next few days and I can feed the bin of fodder as early as Day 6. Usually I wait until Day 8 with the barley fodder. But the oat germination rate in your picture is pretty low if at Day 6-8. My oat germination rate was about 25%, which looked pretty sparse and I ended up not using oats any more for fodder. Still hoping someone will crack the code on how to grow oat fodder. Again, my barley fodder has about a 95% germination rate at Day 8 and the grass is tall, lush, and green.
OK. As I look at the other pictures, it still looks like your oat germination rate is pretty low. Would you estimate maybe 30%? Also, I have never had all that mold on the bottom of the root mat. How long do you initially soak your oat seeds? @WannaBeHillBilly ran an experiment on soaking times for oat seeds and reported that soaking the seeds longer than 2 hours essentially drowned the seeds and the germination rates were terrible. When he reduced the initial soak time to 2 hours for his oats, he was able to increase the germination rate. However, IIRC, he stated that his oat seeds never really had great germination rates even when initially soaked at the optimal 2 hour time period. Ping @WannaBeHillBilly for his oat germination results with his 2 hour soak time. I think it was around 50%, but maybe he can refresh my memory.
Nearly every seed sprouted actually. I was hard pressed to find one that hadn't. In the case of this particular batch of oats, after soaking 2 hours I had about a 10% sprout rate. 24 hours was too long, but 12 hours worked very well for me. The mold on the bottom happened on the 8th day after overwatering in a pan with no drainage.
It would be helpful for you to state how many days growth this oat bin is at. This is what my barley bins look like after about 3 days, but once they start to grow, they explode over the next few days and I can feed the bin of fodder as early as Day 6. Usually I wait until Day 8 with the barley fodder. But the oat germination rate in your picture is pretty low if at Day 6-8. My oat germination rate was about 25%, which looked pretty sparse and I ended up not using oats any more for fodder. Still hoping someone will crack the code on how to grow oat fodder. Again, my barley fodder has about a 95% germination rate at Day 8 and the grass is tall, lush, and green.
The best i could do was ~30% of germination rate, see here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fodder-question.1346937/post-22182632
It may has something to do with the lower temperatures in my garage, i need between 17-19 days for my wheat fodder to be ready, with the last two days in our sunny guestroom to green-up.
I need to try oats again, and with the currently growing wheat production i will sneak in one or two oat bins soon. - Also have rye.
Have a look at my Fodder Table i am approaching the 1:4 factor between dry seeds and fodder, maybe it is the increasing length of the days?
Nearly every seed sprouted actually. I was hard pressed to find one that hadn't. In the case of this particular batch of oats, after soaking 2 hours I had about a 10% sprout rate. 24 hours was too long, but 12 hours worked very well for me. The mold on the bottom happened on the 8th day after overwatering in a pan with no drainage.
