I find I have much lower germination rates with broadcasting. It is the easiest option, but good soil contact seems to be the surest way to get good germination. If I do broadcast, I might clear the field of debris and rake to the mineral soil before broadcasting. Then stomp it in and cover it again with the debris I took off.
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Very cool @Lowell_McCampbell . Those look super lush and healthy! I speak to @MarkReed 's experience up my way. It’s fun to hear of your success down yonder and how the grains respond to your climate. My climate is automatically overwintered and then see what makes it during the spring. I never know what I’m going to get. In a standard summer day I have 60F swings. This winter I had 75F swings. Last year I had light frost every month of the year.
As to Western Oregon, Mark, it depends where in Western Oregon. There’s a pretty diverse array of climates once you get West of the Cascades. You do have that massive moderating impact of the Pacific ocean. You’d be hard pressed to get -15F that way even with the ongoing Arctic farts happening routinely. Typically, the lows are maybe single digits but more like 10-15F. The wind chills can bring it negative depending, again, where you are - closer to the impacts of the Cascades the more likely. They’ve been getting more ice storms as well. Corvallis is Willamette Valley. Portland, 45 minutes or so due North of that part of the Valley, just had the largest ice storm they’ve had since 1952. Tons of tree fall. I think it’s going to be trial and error for you. For all of us in the more temperate regions.
I just got an email back today, they are still sending packets out. Apparently, demand is pretty high, so it’ll be a week or two before mine gets mailed. Which is fine for me, since there’s still plenty of time left to plant a spring crop where I’m at. Anyone who’s got an earlier spring than me (my last frost averages around mid-April) might want to get an email sent out if they’re still considering putting in a request.
Do you think we could get enough of us growing a hulless barley (not just ONBB) to have a GTS mix next year?
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I got the same email, should have them in one to two weeks, which will be fine since I’m pretty sure my last frost is at the end of May…
I think as long as someone volunteers to steward the mix, we could get one going.
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I hope we do a barley mix in the future, but I’m not sure this year.
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Looking forward to everyone’s experience growing this mix!
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My packet showed up today! It’s a beautiful mix, and I look forward to growing out a patch of it (saving some for fall-planting, of course!)
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Last year in SE IN I planted my OSU barley about the third week of February. It got hit by some later frosts but did quite well. I only planted about a 1/3 of the package and got back well over what I planted despite some loss to chipmunks and or birds. In fall I planted another 1/3 and it came up sporadically, it’s under snow right now but I don’t think any survived.
It was actually the most successful I have ever been growing small grains. Soon, it will be time to plant the rest of the original and mine from last year too. I’ll have to try to figure a way to reduce the theft by critters.
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Just saw this thread and ordered some barley seed today. What an interesting project and hoping there is still some available seeds. Hoping it arrives soon and I can seed it right away. Some for the spring. And some for this fall.
Thanks for sharing the info.
Hi, I just saw this thread, did growouts do well? Is there seed to start a GTS mix with a steward? I just emailed today, hoping there is still some seed available.
Good news. Oh I did get a speedy email reply from the barley project coordinator and they are still sending out seed. I should get the delivery by next week. Looks like this grex was produced organically and is genetically diverse within the naked barley type. Im not looking to brew barley, just grow and mill into flour and use for foods and baking.
The barley is organic.
https://eorganic.info/node/23562
None of it came up for us. I’m sure it was a mixture of factors. I don’t think Hubs planted it all last year though, so we will try again this year. 
He’s doing gardens down at our friends’ property, which is mostly pasture, so it will probably grow better there than in our tiny meadow on the mountain. If we have luck with it, I’ll give updates. 
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Im awaiting the seeds arrival and have a space to plant it immediately. Ill try some now for spring, and some for fall.
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Great idea! Let us know how it goes. 
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From my planting last year, I gathered about 4 cups of seed. Half of that or more went into this year’s Barley mix on the Seed Share.
I noticed it had excellent disease resistant early on, but became filled with leaf spot and other molds at maturity. It was also late for barley. I also grew the barley mix that was on seedsave.org. It looks like they’re not selling it, but it was a composite of all the hulless barley’s they sell. That mix was wonderfully disease resistant and produced the best grain. I highly recommend in problematic areas.
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I got mine in later this year due to weather and it is doing well. I spent a couple hours inspecting each seed for larger size and that truly had completely lost its husk. Surprise! Three plants of that planted last fall did survive after all. I transplanted and tagged them into the spring planted patch.
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I planted the same, about one third of the packet. Im planting again in October/November as well.