I’ve often grown oats as part of a green manure but I now have some growing that I want to harvest. At what stage should I harvest? When they all dry down? Fifty percent dry? Just beginning to dry?
I have no experience with oats. Any advice gratefully received.
I’m not an expert on oats; however, I’ve always waited to harvest until all of the seeds are fully dry. Although I should note that my oat patches are tiny and I can harvest each plant one at a time as they dry down.
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Thanks @bramblewoodhill. My patch to harvest is experimental i.e., quite small so I could harvest plant by plant and probably will. Longer term though, I’ll need to figure out another way so perhaps I’ll have to grow a larger experimental plot and try different harvesting methods.
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Depends on your bird issues, but seeds fully dry is ideal. If you take a seed and try to dent it with your fingernail it should be at least really really firm but more ideally not really dentable (some terms you might find useful to search out are “milk stage” “soft dough stage”)
If you have bird or weather issues, cutting the stalks and stooking them somehow – letting the grain dry and ripen on bundled stalks – is conventional. Those bundles can be stored under cover if you have a small quantity.
Grains are fun to play with but I find them challenging to thresh.
Are your oats hullless?
@Greenstorm I don’t know whether they are hulless or not. I got them from a packet of breakfast groats. I guess I’ll find out shortly as they are beginning to dry down.
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