Last year, I tried my first lentils crop. Only 2 sqmeters, one variety (did not yet know about landracing). I found them easy to grow, to harvest, and to store. Lentills seem to be immune to slug aren’t they ? So this year, I have some more experiment in place :
production for food with 4 commercial varieties, cultivated separately, 10 or 20 sqmeters each, in order to observe they individual behaviour
experiment landracing with a mix of 6 varieties on 5 sqmeters
in both cases , direct seed and covered by a layer of straw.
the pictures show my “grex” and how they grow through the mulch.
hello Ray, yes I did find threshing easy. Really easy. And it got me to understand why lentils are a more ancient crop that wheat for human food .
The key is to pick the right moment to harvest. Gold colour, not yet dry. Because when they are dry, the pods tend to open spontaneously when shaken, so you loose the harvest to the ground.
You cut the whole plants, they are actually all mingled together so you have a big ball of plants, or several balls. You put that to dry on a sheet and wait until the pods pop spontaneously. A few days or weeks depending on air humidity. At this moment, you just have to shake vigourously the ball(s) and all the lentils fall on the sheet. This is the easiest threshing I know.
Great. Threshing looks very easy. I like that. I’ll definitely try growing some next spring. I might try planting some next month to see whether they will overwinter.
I overwintered mine here and we had one of the worst freezes, around 10 F, and below freezing temps for several days and they were unfazed. Not sure how cold your winters get but maybe this gives you an idea. They put on crazy lush spring growth.
That’s good to know. Overnight lows of -5°C (23°F) are relatively common here. A temp of -12°C (around 10°F) would be rare, though not unheard of. Days are always above freezing and the soil never freezes solid. Frosts have set in now and I won’t be able to sow for two weeks as I’m going away. Well, at least I’ll know if a proper winter sowing works!
Lentils harvest started a few days ago. I picked just a section that was gold coloured before a big rain. Now it is drying, while the rest is still ripening.
Looks good @isabelle. We didn’t get round to testing overwintering. We sowed a patch of red lentils early spring so we’ll see how they go. It’s not a good spring for cool season legumes as we’re in drought and daytime temps are climbing rapidly. We’ve planted sunflowers everywhere to provide some shade but we won’t see much use from them for a month or two.
update on my lentils . I have threshed them once dry enough to open easily by just dancing over the sheet long enough and then wanning them in the wind. Still a lof of work for only 2 kilos of lentils but worth it because I want to understand maturation before considering mechanization.
this was the mono specie crop.
My grex, on the other hand has had a very hard time with gasteropods . After a very good germination they seemed to thrive and then were eaten up, most of them. I still harvester a few dozens of grams, which I sherish. the picture of what went in is up there on paril 25, the picture of what vent out is below .
That really big phenotype is interesting. Lentils are so tiny, with so few seeds per pod, that bigger seeds to eat would be a highly desirable thing. Were those a specific variety?
you can see in my sample “in” posted on april 25th that there was indeed one variety with big seeds. it was a grocery store packet “blond lentils” . I will recheck once they a fully dried, and compare the two.
Now they are dry, I took a picture of both the mix sowed and the mix harvested
Since it was a year 1 grex, the change of colors and average size is just the result of aclimatation…
I mixed the two mixes in equal proportion, added some more seeds of various origins, including my leftover of the large one.
Then I reseparated the new mix in two halves. I will sow only one half and keep the other half for safety.
If the pods are fully dry they can be easily threshed by putting them into a sturdy pillowcase and flinging them against a hard rug or something that will provide some cushion against the floor. Sometimes a few hits are enough to thresh all of them.
Very nice lentils. I find they’re the most delectable plants in the garden for herbivores and require a lot of protection.
