Hoping to share the wheat

The small control group, out in our Los Angeles backyard, is approaching maturity.  A big visual change has taken place over the last few weeks.

In blossom 3/11/13

4/28/13

3/28/13

The control group  -- all Glenn --  exhibits a range of maturity, from soft dough stage to cannot-dent-with-a-thumbnail.  That spread makes it hard to generalize about time to harvest.
                   

Fully ripe

Mixed ripeness

     

Soft Dough

                                         On the subject of hoping to share the wheat .... an intrepid team visited Maggie's Farm on 4/29/13 to set traps in an effort to reduce the threat to our crop from CGSs.  California Ground Squirrels and their habit of stripping wheat fields to the bone.  Ehr, to the straw.

Essentially all of our first plot of Glenn has given up the ghost.  On our last post, it had extensive brown/dead areas in the center.  This has now spread throughout the plot.

                             To the right (west) of that brown Glenn, the Oberkulmer and the Maverick Spelt are doing well.  Both are in boot stage, with seed heads emerging and --if the squirrels don't take it all -- a likely harvest in mid-to-late June.

 Northern portions of our second planting of Glenn and Sonora are doing well, with maturity less than a month away.

Glenn2 on the left, and Sonora 2 on right.

Glenn 2 vigorous, with some trampling.