Growing grains from seeds purchased in bulk from food coop

[Sheila]

Our hens are fed organically, and we bought some seed for grain crops. We did this last year, and it's a big treat to give them bundles of wheat to pick through. We planned on saving most of this year's seed to replant next year.

On a whim, I sprouted some wheat seeds from the coop. It was hard red spring wheat. Every seed sprouted. I just put some whole barley into a container to test that too.

My question is, is there any difference between the coop seed (organic under @2.00 a lb.) and seed grown as garden seed (very pricey). If not, you could plant an acre for practically nothing. Is there a reason not to do this?

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

If it's labeled organic seed, you should be okay doing this. That is assuming that organic seed is not genetically modified. If you plant saved GMO seed, Monsanto can and will come and sue the pants off of you, from what I hear.

The other question would be did the feed seed come from some sort of super productive hybrid plant. Hybrids are perfectly acceptable from an organic standpoint, but they don't breed true, so the seed harvested from a hybrid crop will not be nearly as productive when planted.

The real advantage to buying labeled crop seed is that you know what you are planting and what to expect. If it's an old fashioned open pollenated strain, then by all means save it from year to year. Hybrids or GMO's need to be purchased every year.

 

[Sheila]

But even if the seed is a hybrid, you could still plant for a single crop. Organic can't be GMO so that isn't an issue.

I did find a grain producer in NY State who sells 50-lb. bags of organic seed. It's about a day's worth of driving to get there and back, but it looks to be worth it.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

The f1 generation is the generation that is harvested. The f2 generation, or what you would be planting from saved seed would be more variable, and likely less productive. This is assuming the seed was hybrid seed in the first place.

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[Sheila]

Respectfully disagree. The F1 is the first generation of a cross. It is this strain that is a hybrid.

 

[Sheila]

What I meant is that if a seed were an F1 hybrid, I wouldn't save another generation, but it could be used as a crop. My main goal is that it be organic. On the other hand, I think I've found an open-pollinated source, which means I could save the seed and continue to plant organic.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

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Great!

Open pollenated would be the way to go if you want the same crop year to year.