garden help! growing food for chickens

[CatInTheHenHouse]

I'm trying some chamomile this year! Currently putting the seeds through a month of cold stratification before I start them. Any tips for it?

Chamomile needs light to germinate, so don’t cover the seeds when you go to plant them. (Mint is the same way.)

 

[Rillowen]

Chamomile needs light to germinate, so don’t cover the seeds when you go to plant them. (Mint is the same way.)

THATS WHY MY MINT SEEDS NEVER GROW??!!!

 

[Sammster]

Greens are good, and usually easy/fast to grow. Some chickens also like cucumbers and zucchini. You could buy one each of those in the store and see if your chickens like them, before committing to growing them. Cut them in half, lengthwise. In the heat of summer, those can be nice cool treats, especially if they're from the fridge.

Sunflower seeds are another tasty treat, but keep them as "just a treat." They're full of fat.

Sally, I was hoping to pick your brain about growing the barley sprouts for my girls. I've done microgreens in soil, but I haven't done sprouts without soil. I understand mold can be an issue when sprouting, and of course mold is dangerous. Can you share your method?

 

[Echelontheory101]

Chamomile needs light to germinate, so don’t cover the seeds when you go to plant them. (Mint is the same way.)

I'm good! My chamomile is growing like weeds I already have to repot them lol

 

[Sammster]

Chamomile needs light to germinate, so don’t cover the seeds when you go to plant them. (Mint is the same way.)

I didn't know that!

 

[Rillowen]

Sally, I was hoping to pick your brain about growing the barley sprouts for my girls. I've done microgreens in soil, but I haven't done sprouts without soil. I understand mold can be an issue when sprouting, and of course mold is dangerous. Can you share your method?

I am not Sally but I have done bean, lentil and chia without soil, bean and lentil I soaked in a bowl for 2 days in boiled water (change the water at least once) then rinsed/mostly drained and mixed gently 2x a day and let sit in the strainer between for 1 week, they turned out beautiful. I tried growing in places other than a strainer, but that seemed to be the best for volume, not getting them stuck as they grew, and draining enough to not mold, but also not dry out. I have seen some peoplenusing a cloth bag, but I was very worried about mold. Chia were harder, you can't "rinse" them, but i found soaking them, then pouring them into a pan spread thin and not letting them completely dry until they had a leaf sprout, then lightlynwatering every other day worked well. I dont know for barley, I'd probably try them like beans if pushed, so im interested in the answer.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

THATS WHY MY MINT SEEDS NEVER GROW??!!!

If it’s any consolation I used to have the same problem and for the same reason!

 

[Rillowen]

If it’s any consolation I used to have the same problem and for the same reason!

I knew they were tiny and so needed to be under almost nothing, but I still lightly covered them. oh how many seeds i have waisted.

 

[Echelontheory101]

Chamomile needs light to germinate, so don’t cover the seeds when you go to plant them. (Mint is the same way.)

I actually just had to move it into a Cheerios box because I way over seeded it and was already becoming a big root ball so definitely still learning on yhe chamomile front!

 

[Sally PB]

I rinsed the barley seed with water (say 2-3 cups?) that had a small glug of chlorine bleach in it. I poured the seed into a strainer and saved the bleach water. I used the bleach water to rinse/clean/disinfect the terra cotta saucer in the picture above.

I put the terra cotta into the glass pie pan, poured the bleach water over, topped it off with more water, and let it soak for 10-ish minutes.

Pour out the water, put the seed in the terra cotta (1 seed deep), and put that back into the pie pan. When I watered, I just misted the seeds to keep them moist, but kept water in the pie pan all the time. Once the seeds sprouted, I made sure nothing was looking like it was drying out, and watered from the bottom in the pie pan.

I remember having to water the sprouts a little bit from above, but our RH in the house in the winter is really low, like 15-19%.

The light I used was just the counter fluorescent light, but I had the pie pan up on a box so that it was just a few inches from the light.