Last year I grew some wheat in pots outside: I have a bag of whole wheat berries that I use for baking bread, and I took around 20 kernels from there and put them in plastic pots with some dirt. And I didn’t do anything else than give them some water now and then, and very quickly they sprouted out of the dirt and looked like they were thriving. I was surprised by how low maintenance they were. I thought that if it is so easy for me to do this, then maybe it’s no wonder that wheat is grown on more land area than any other food crop, and world trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined.
Now I want to see how deep of a pot I need for the wheat, so I’m trying in the tiniest terracotta pot I have: that’s often something I wonder about, how deep of a pot, or how deep of a raised bed do I need for different plants? How far down do the roots need to go? How much dirt do I need? And I probably could find out by reading the right publication. But often when I do that, when I do my research, I still fail. It seems to me the best way to learn gardening is to just try it and learn by doing.
So in time I’ll see how the wheat likes it in that tiny pot. Meanwhile I’ve discovered I have to protect them from the cats — I caught one chewing on the wheat grass today, indifferent to the beauty of scientific experimentation and to the philosophy of everything.
Sources:
- Curtis, B.C. “Wheat in the World.” In Bread Wheat Improvement and Production. Plant Production and Protection Series 30, 1-18. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2002.