Growing wheat from grains

Question

I want to grow wheat. Do I have to purchase special "seeds" or can I use the "whole grains" that I use at home? They are 100% Organic KAMUT wheat grains that I purchased from: https://www.montanaflour.com/100-organic-kamut-wheat

Answer 1

You can grow wheat from live, intact wheat grains. Live wheat grains are commonly sold as food, often labeled as wheat "berries." In order to grow into wheat plants, the wheat grains must be intact and (IE not split, cracked or ground into flour) and not heat-treated. Wheat berries are commonly used to grow sprouts or wheatgrass, both of which can be eaten. So it's quite common that wheat grains sold for food are sproutable.

I can't tell for certain if your example wheat product will be sproutable, but it looks like it might be. You can easily test your wheat grains by following the steps to grow sprouts. Soak the grains overnight in cool water, then drain them and put them in an open glass jar. For the next several days, 2-3 times a day, fill the jar with water, then drain it. The idea is to keep the grains moist but not submerged. Rinsing them regularly keeps them wet, and prevents mold growth. After several days, your grains should have cracked open and grown tiny sprouts, which will make them look a bit like tadpoles. If that doesn't happen within a week, your wheat berries can't be sprouted.

You can plant your sprouted wheat berries if you want, or eat them as sprouts. To grow wheat from the rest of your wheat berries, you don't have to sprout them first. Just sow them as you would wheat.

One difference between wheat berries sold for food and wheat sold as seed grain, is that the seeds might be covered in a coating that will help them grow better. An anti-fungal coating is quite common. So you may have reduced success at growing a wheat crop compared to growing from seed grain.

Another advantage of seed grain is that you can choose one that is appropriate to your local climate. With wheat berries intended for food, you have no idea what strain the plant is, and whether it will grow well in your area. So, if you just wanted to grow a few square feet of wheat as a novelty and to see if you can do it, go ahead with using your wheat berries. If you intend to grow a serious crop of it, buy seed grain.