Here are some of the seed heads I gathered from the perennial rye plants on a standard sized dinner plate.
These are among the best I found on the plants. Most plants had empty seed heads, or heads containing only a few or only immature seeds. The ones in the picture are mostly full. The main reason for this is the plants are recent crosses made by Tim Peters, and still need to be selected.
Out of about 400 plants, in about 38m2 or 400ft2, I got about 1 kg of seed heads. After cleaning, the amount of grain and/or seeds would be a little less than this. I estimate with selected plants it would be possible to get yields about 10 times higher. What this means is on a fairly small sized suburban plot it should be possible to get enough grain each year for several loaves of bread.
Harvest time was less than an hour, and care for the the plants while growing was really minimal. It really was almost ‘free’ grain.
Out of the 400 plants I identified and marked about 20 I thought were particularly good, and one in particular that was exceptional compared to the others. What I plan to do is dig these plants up, and divide the crowns for replanting. My understanding is each crown contains about 100 separate genetically identical plants that can be used for replanting, and I’ll make rows with each of the crowns to facilitate cross pollination.
I understand it’s possible to bag seed heads together in order to make controlled crosses between two plants, so the one plant I identified as particularly good I’ll try to plant in such a way as to facilitate controlled crosses with the others. I’ll also plant more of this one in order to promote it’s presence in the overall genepool.
By the way, Nick Routledge recently sent me an email telling me about something he wrote about Tim Peters perennial grains projects. You can find it here.
I have small amounts of seeds to share with people interested in participating in a breeding project. You need to have a climate that’s not too different from mine, because it’s what the seeds are now becoming acclimated to. I live in northern Europe, which is similar to the North American pacific northwest. Preference is for people in Europe, because there’s no need to worry about customs regulations. If you live some place else and are interested let me know. I’ll try to find someone else who might have seeds to share with you.
The main issue is I don’t have that many seeds to share, and I want to send them to people who have the best chance of success with them. In a few years this may be less of an issue, because there might be more people growing the plants who are willing to share seeds.
In particular, these plants are not suitable for very hot and dry climates. Mike tried them in South Africa, and they were killed by the heat. Tim Peters also confirmed they were not bred with hot dry climates in mind, but this may be a future breeding effort on his part.
Patrick, just to pick nits… 😉 I think my Perennial Rye planting died for lack of water rather than the heat per se. Our dams were completely empty at the time and remained so for another year.
Anyhow, I still have plenty of seed, and despite the fact that it’s a bit older now, I’ll be planting again in the coming Spring. Naturally I’ll be selecting for heat and UV tolerance, possibly drought tolerance 😀 Now way to avoid them, eh!
Actually I suspect that the strains I have may turn out to be quite drought-hardy – they were pretty-much the last things standing when drought shut down gardening.
Mike,
I hope they do well for you. It would be great to get a selection better suited for dry climates. I didn’t mean to suggest it was totally hopeless, just that you had tried once and failed. I think you already mentioned or I read somewhere, that your area used to be a major grain region. I know I’ve seen some grain related genebank accessions from your area.
Tim has tried growing a number of things personally in Texas, and his experience is no rye-like plants will grow there, because it’s too hot and dry. He mentioned this year, even well established, hardy, native bushes and trees were being dried to death, because of the drought.
Tim mentioned ‘Russian Rye’ which does grow in Texas, and he plans to look into if this can contribute to his breeding work.
My plants are currently being selected for surviving in soggy ground. The ground here is constantly wet, and floods in heavy rain.
Currently my selections would also be for soggy ground 🙂 (It’s raining out – 40mm so far today and its mid-afternoon!) I’m really looking forward to starting again!
Yeah – local farms did once grow a bunch of grains, but they’re out-competed by the mega-farms the cover most of the Western Cape between here and Cape Town. I recall one farmer speaking of one of his fields having a single boundary 4 km long!
Patrick! this perennial rye is really surprising. before hearing this from you I had no idea it exists 🙂
It was grat meeting you 🙂 no decisions yet.
Hi Ewa,
It was really nice to meet you too. Thanks for visiting Amsterdam! I’m hoping for good news…
Very nice photo!
Thanks Cynthia!
Hm, so you’re not going to eat any of these special rye seeds? (I know this dilemma) In that case, I’m interested. When do we sow this rye? August, fall, spring? Also, would it be possible to clone the best yielding plants?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Lieven, sowing time is as soon as possible. I’ll send you an email with all the details.
Hi!
I would be very interested in growing/breeding/spreading perennial rye! I’m living in Germany, but currently buying a small farm in Portugal where I will have plenty of space for the plants. I tried to locate any commercial/other sources for perennial rye, but Adaptive Seeds seems the only company offering them – and they’re out of stock.
If you still have some seeds to share or know of anyone who is growing it in Europe (or anywhere else for that matter) I could contact, please please let me know!
Keep up the great work!
Luise
Hi really interesting information. I have a farm in England and have been trying to get into perennial seed research for a while. Do you still have any seed available
Hi everyone, I’m sorry but I don’t have any more seeds left. I don’t know anything about it, but I’ve seen some advertised for sale on this German website: https://www.bingenheimersaatgut.de/en/organic-seeds/organic-seeds/perennial-rye-d390
Otherwise, in the past, Adaptive Seeds in the US has also advertised a similar strain.
Best of luck, and happy new year everyone!