# Growing Your Own Barley?



## JulesSeddo (2/11/11)

Anyone out there tried to grow and malt their own barley in a backyard or a small property?

Looks like commercial barley growers get something like 1000kg per hectare so I figure I'd need about 100 sqr m to get about 10kg (enough for say 2 x 20L brews).

The malting sounds a bit more difficult at home - with only a domestic oven.

Anyone tried????


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## Lecterfan (2/11/11)

I know this isn't actually a reply - but I was reading some of the links from this one recently just for shits and giggles:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=29901


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## Greg.L (2/11/11)

The biggest problem is getting the seed - it comes in 40kg sacks, a lot more than you would need, maybe a bulk buy. Barley is pretty easy to grow with a bit of fertiliser - urea and super mainly. I tried it once but got hit by a bad frost, that was the end of that. You can't use the seed barley to make beer because it's treated.


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## JulesSeddo (2/11/11)

Loved the old posts thanks - I haven't read the main article referred to yet but I will.

Good to see some others have been thinking along the same lines as myself. I'm surprised by the nay sayers though. If too hard, too much time, not enough consistency in results were to put us off we wouldn't brew our own beer at all - just get a six pack from the local. 

And I don't get the pessimism regarding growing malt quality barley - professional farmers don't have anything magic that can't be done at a smaller scale - id anything they are limited in the time and inputs per unit area of land compared with a keen backyard gardener. What did local communities do in the days before diesel headers and artificial fertilizers? They grew barley and hops, malted on their farms and made beer from scratch....


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## FNQ Bunyip (2/11/11)

1000kg /ha , would hardly be worth harvesting ..
you might need to do a bit more research ..
cheers


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## Brewing_Brad (2/11/11)

AussieBottler said:


> Anyone out there tried to grow and malt their own barley in a backyard or a small property?
> 
> Looks like commercial barley growers get something like 1000kg per hectare so I figure I'd need about 100 sqr m to get about 10kg (enough for say 2 x 20L brews).
> 
> ...



I'm giving it a go right now. I'm only doing a small bed (10m2) just as an experiment, but the biggest lesson I've learnt so far is; beware the birds! They ate about 10-20% of my crop before it even had a chance to germinate. 

My advice; either sew more to account for the loss or somehow protect it - maybe a jack russle?


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## sim (2/11/11)

i grew some wheat a couple years ago in the backyard in Brisbane, and it was about as succefull as - sow 1 espresso cup of seed, harvest 2 espresso cups of seed.

I was pretty casual about the whole thing, im sure if there was more at stake (like cost and quantity) it would have been more successfull.

Good luck to you!


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## komodo (2/11/11)

On small scale id suggest bird netting like orchards use would be your best bet


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## Malted (2/11/11)

Komodo said:


> On small scale id suggest bird netting like orchards use would be your best bet




Scale everything down and you'll be fine!


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## Braumoasta (2/11/11)

A problem you may come across is getting the correct strain of barley. Different strains of barley are used for different purposes, so finding a strain which is good for malting for your beer would be required. 

Nevertheless I say give it a go. The end result may not (and lets face it, probably wont) be perfect, but it would be an excellent learning experience. There is really nothing to lose...


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## mika (2/11/11)

Brewing_Brad said:


> ....
> but the biggest lesson I've learnt so far is; beware the birds! They ate about 10-20% of my crop before it even had a chance to germinate.
> ....



Official way of dealing with this as suggested by the Agriculture Board, when the birds attacking your crops are a supposedly endangered species, is to plant a decoy crop and that will take care of all your problems..... I think they were serious too ?


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## manticle (2/11/11)

Do you have to paint the decoy crop a special colour so the birds know which one to go for?


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## Feldon (2/11/11)




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## Greg.L (2/11/11)

Braumoasta said:


> A problem you may come across is getting the correct strain of barley. Different strains of barley are used for different purposes, so finding a strain which is good for malting for your beer would be required.
> 
> Nevertheless I say give it a go. The end result may not (and lets face it, probably wont) be perfect, but it would be an excellent learning experience. There is really nothing to lose...



The variety I used was called "Schooner" so it sounded right at least. Any seed supplier will know the difference between feed barley and malting barley.

Really the seeds are so cheap per weight that if you have to sow a lot to account for birds you will still have seeds left over. They don't sell the seeds in little packs at Bunnings, you have to buy a whole sack.


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## JulesSeddo (3/11/11)

I was involved in some ecological research in this approach to crop pests - we looked at decoy rice crops in SE Asia to attract rats. The idea is to plant the decoy crop so it ripens earlier than the main crop. You then trap intensively around the decoy crop to reduce pest numbers. Birds my not be so easy as more will just fly in from outside the area - also it's all well and good with rats as you can knock'em on the head but native birds are a different kettle of .......


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## Greg.L (3/11/11)

Decoys aren't much good when the problem is birds eating the seeds sown on the ground. Planting a bit deeper would help.


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## JulesSeddo (3/11/11)

True. My approach will be to plant more than I need also to set my cat loose - He'll be happy to spend hours chasing off seed theives!

By the way - what sort of area did you try to grow?


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## MarkBastard (3/11/11)

One thing you could try and do is say grow less the first time around, and malt and then roast it yourself and use it as part of a recipe. That way your own malt only makes up a part of the recipe and if it isn't that good the beer should still be drinkable. Also means less work the first time around as you'll only need a few hundred grams of finished product instead of 5kg or more.

If it's a success you can then expand of course.


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## Greg.L (3/11/11)

I tried an area about 20x10m, it grew well enough but got frosted while flowering. If you can get the seed I think it would be a good experiment, you just need to prepare the ground by digging and fertilising, and occasional watering if it dries out.


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## JulesSeddo (3/11/11)

That's what I had in mind as the area I have a the moment isn't big enough to supply each years pale malt requirements (not that I make that much but even 2 or 3 brews is 10-15kg). I was thinking of a small area in the garden to supply enough for making some medium and dark malts as additions to the basic brew. That way I get to play around untill (with luck) I have a bit more land down the track.

The other idea was to try to get some malting barley and do the malting on comercial grain while I wait for the homegrown stuff. That way the teething problems are sorted before trying on my own hard won and scant supply.


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## JulesSeddo (3/11/11)

Greg, how did you get your hands on some malting barley seed? I note you're in the Bathust area - are there seed suppliers nearby or did you have direct farming contact?


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## Greg.L (3/11/11)

I don't remember where I bought the seed, must have been a local farm supplies place.


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## vic45 (3/11/11)

Mate jump in the car on Saturday and speak to some graingrowers.
If you talk to a few Farmers you will find one who is interested in what you are doing, will tell you the type of Barley that yeilds best in your area and might even give you a bucket of seed.
At worst they will provide you with growers advice you cant buy.


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## hoppy2B (3/11/11)

Man I grew the best premium wheat ever this year. Just waiting for it to finish ripening so I can get in with the header. 
You'll have to wait until next May if you are planning on sowing some cereal for malting. If you sow now, even with irrigation it will turn out shi..........


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## vic45 (3/11/11)

hoppy2B said:


> Man I grew the best premium wheat ever this year. Just waiting for it to finish ripening so I can get in with the header.
> You'll have to wait until next May if you are planning on sowing some cereal for malting. If you sow now, even with irrigation it will turn out shi..........



Hoppy, which grade of wheat is used for malting.


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## Greg.L (3/11/11)

hoppy2B said:


> Man I grew the best premium wheat ever this year. Just waiting for it to finish ripening so I can get in with the header.
> You'll have to wait until next May if you are planning on sowing some cereal for malting. If you sow now, even with irrigation it will turn out shi..........



Yeah, I think barley is normally a winter crop. Sow in may, harvest in december (if the frost or hail or grasshoppers don't get your crop. At least you should get some good hay.)


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## hoppy2B (3/11/11)

vic45 said:


> Hoppy, which grade of wheat is used for malting.




You want plump grains for a start. I'd say protein levels should be similar as for barley. It depends, for example if your barley protein levels are a bit low you can add some higher protein wheat to balance the mash, or vice versa. Protein being important for head retention, with too much protein affecting clarity.
It's important that the grains don't receive rain damage and have a good germination rate.


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## hoppy2B (3/11/11)

vic45 said:


> Hoppy, which grade of wheat is used for malting.



Errrr.... that would be malting grade wheat. :lol:


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## slacka (3/11/11)

AussieBottler said:


> Anyone out there tried to grow and malt their own barley in a backyard or a small property?
> 
> Looks like commercial barley growers get something like 1000kg per hectare so I figure I'd need about 100 sqr m to get about 10kg (enough for say 2 x 20L brews).
> 
> ...



this help ? They quote numbers 4 times that value. Although they also suggest you live in Dubbo. :unsure:


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## hoppy2B (4/11/11)

Actually, I don't recommend trying to thresh barley by hand, it's nigh impossible. Wheat is much easier. If you want a couple of hundred grams of 'Scout' wheat for free I'd be happy to send you some. I still have a couple of kilos of the original seed left over.
Australia grows mostly bread wheats. ASW - standard, Durum - pasta, and APW - premium. There is also stuff like 'prime hard'. 
I had heard of soft wheat being used for brewing overseas. I'm not sure we have a classification for 'malting wheat'. But I do recall reading years ago that premium wheat is used for other purposes. Malting may have been one of the purposes. Premium would be the stuff to go for if growing your own for malting as it's a higher quality wheat. Cheers.


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## ekul (12/11/11)

Was at the feed store the other day getting some stuff for work when i saw a bag of barley. It was $18 for 20kg so i bought it. I'll have a crack at malting it. Worst case scenario i'll feed it to the chooks.


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## The Gas Man (12/11/11)

My bother inlaw is a farmer near Temora (NSW) who grows barley on his property. He told me the main variety of barley grown for the malting companies is actually call "Schooner". He grows a variety called "Hindmarsh". It is not preferred by the malting companies as the quality is less consistant than "Schooner". But for homebrewing purposes I reckon it should be ok. I would certainly try to get in contact with some of the local farmers. I would imagine you could get as much as you wanted for some homebrew in return.

I had thought about the idea of attempting to malt myself, but not ready for it at this stage.


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## ekul (12/11/11)

I haven't watched all these yet but it seems that this guy is growing and processing all his malt. http://www.youtube.com/user/francois4050#p/u


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## Anofre (13/11/11)

Having a second crack at it this year & blogging the process;

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showarticle=183

I'm due for an update but must use PC not iPhone for photos. Harvested last weekend. In skryrim this weekend...

If u wanna have a crack at growing, wait till may next year. Not possible to grow in summer. 
Right now is harvest. Tons of the freshest ready to go.
Don't buy 25k sacks for planting to malt with; it's poisoned.
Better off with fresh feeding barley. It will still work. 

Any merchant should be able to score you a bucket full for free if u yarn a bit.
I offer a bucket free to any AHB member who wants to visit.

Farmers get from 1/2 ton to 2 tons per ACRE not hectare.
There are many breed of malt to suit different climates & soils. Ours is Tallon. Not a common type but suits our clay soil & rain results. 
You can't predict if it's malt quality or not before brewing or testing.
Hand sowing & threshing is not out of the question, but very labour intensive.


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## ekul (17/11/11)

Is there any reason why the sprouted barley has to be kilned other than darkening and storage? I was thinking of germinating the barley and then drying it out in the sun (its been so hot lately!). Or is there any reason why it can't be just crushed up after its been germinating for a few days and used wet? I suppose i can try and see how it goes, feed barley is cheap as chips.

Would this make an ultra light coloured malt? Might be good for making ultra light coloured lagers. I was thinking of mixing it with a little bought barley malt to ensure conversion (1kg commercial to 3.5kg homemade.) when i use it. A simple recipe would be good to test it (4.5kg malt, 25g POR @ 60) but will also show any faults.

I have the day off today so i'll probably start germinating some feed barley. I have a piece of voille sitting there, was thinking of putting the grain in that and dunking it in a 50L bucket of water a few times a day (MIAB, malt in a bag). Its so humid here that i'm a little worried about mould but other than that it seems easy enough.

I'm really interested in getting this to work because i can get barley very cheaply from a farmer i know. I would need to wait till a friend was driving from his place to mine but i think it would end up being about $5 per 25kg bag, or even free if i only wanted a few bags.

For information about malting the best places i've found have been distilling forums. A lot of guys seem to malt their own feed barley so there's lots of guides. Some of the guys don't even kiln or dry their germinated barley. They let it germinate for a few days, crush it up and mash it, they call it green malt. NOt sure if this would work in a beer situation, i don't think the moonshiners have to worry about off flavours as much. From what i can gather they don't even use sanitisers!?


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## Greg.L (17/11/11)

Here's the current prices for 1st grade schooner malt barley. Maybe get a truck load and do a bulk buy?

schooner malt price

Greg


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## ekul (17/11/11)

~$200 a megatonne is good and cheap. It would cost alot in freight and storage though! 
I'm def going to try malting my own, imagine your malt costing less than your salt additions.

Here's a nice little costing that i can get behind...
5kg homemade malt $.001
80g cascade $2.40
repitched US05 $.20
Salt additions $.05
LPG $2
*Total* cost $4.651 a batch or 20c a litre 

Even just using it to make your commercial malt go further would be great, especially seeing as i'll be at uni next year and wanting to save money everywhere.



Greg.L said:


> Here's the current prices for 1st grade schooner malt barley. Maybe get a truck load and do a bulk buy?
> 
> schooner malt price
> 
> Greg


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## Greg.L (17/11/11)

Ha Ha, yes that would be very cheap, but you would need a big truck.

I think it means Metric Tonnes.

Greg


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## ekul (17/11/11)

oh right, big M is mega, little m is metric. Still, means it would cost a dollar a batch for 5kg grain. But i'm mainly doing it for the novelty. 

I want to get the malting down pat so that when my hops come on i can have a beer that i've made nearly from scratch. Next year i might put down some barley and make a beer where i've created every ingredient, it will truely be a 'hand-crafted' ale.




Greg.L said:


> Ha Ha, yes that would be very cheap, but you would need a big truck.
> 
> I think it means Metric Tonnes.
> 
> Greg


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## ekul (18/11/11)

So this arvo i got around to starting to malt my barley. Pretty simple so far. 

Lined a 20L bunnings bucket with a round piece of voille that i used to use as a biab bag.

Poured in 10kg of feed barley

Filled the bucket with water and let it soak 

After 3 hours i pulled the bag out. (so much easier when the grain isn't crushed!!)

And then came upstairs and typed this.

Tomorrow morning i will put the grain in some fresh water and let it soak while i'm at work. Then hang it up overnight, then soak, hang, soak, hang etc until the acrospire reaches the tip of the grain. I'm hoping hanging it in the bag will give it enough air so it doesn't rot.

Some people have some great machines for this but i think if i go to all that effor tnad it doesn't work i'll be unhappy


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## Superoo (19/11/11)

Ekul,
Stop soaking the grain when it starts to chit, ie: when the little white spot which is the root is about 1/2mm long. That usually only takes a day or 2. You wont need to keep soaking the grain, It will have absorbed enough water to get the acrospire to 80% grain length. 

Then just spread it over a board and keep it slightly moist with a spray bottle, and move it around regularly. 

10 kg will be a lot of grain by the time they all have roots everywhere. 

I did this about 6 mths ago, and all went good. I used barley from my bro in laws farm, and all numbers came up the same as store bought pale malt. I used about 50% of my malted grain in the brew. 

Cheers


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## the_new_darren (19/11/11)

I have some wild wheat growing in my front yard if anyone wants some?

tnd


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## stillscottish (19/11/11)

Try waxing.


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## ekul (19/11/11)

Thanks mate,

I was thinking once the grain begins to chit to just hang the bag up for a few days. I figure the inside grain will spread moisture as the outside grain dries out? I don't even know where i would be able to spread 10kg of grain out. Maybe i should have started with a smaller amount! I figured that there would be losses in weight (because of all those chits coming off when i dry) so to ensure i def had 5kg i just doubled the maount i need.





Superoo said:


> Ekul,
> Stop soaking the grain when it starts to chit, ie: when the little white spot which is the root is about 1/2mm long. That usually only takes a day or 2. You wont need to keep soaking the grain, It will have absorbed enough water to get the acrospire to 80% grain length.
> 
> Then just spread it over a board and keep it slightly moist with a spray bottle, and move it around regularly.
> ...


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## Superoo (19/11/11)

I started with 5 kg and ended up with 4 after drying. 

5kg was a bit too much, It just fit onto a board 1 metre x .6 metre. 
It was about 40mm deep at the start and about 150 deep when finished due to the roots. 

You wont be able to leave it in the bag it will get too big, and go mouldy. 

I just left it in my shed, and turned it every time i went past to prevent mould, used a brickies trowel. 

And use a spray bottle to mist it regularly and keep it moist. 

I did mine in august / sept was hard to dry it out. 
I used an old cupboard on its side with flywire, and blew hot air in from underneath with a hot air gun for 3-4 days. Would have cost a bloody fortune in power, but... Its for beer so its acceptable. 

I then used a flour sieve rotating thing that swmbo has to strip the roots off of the barley. 

Then just crushed and brewed as normal, and it worked out fine. 

If you dont have a good / reasonably fast drying method, I would start drying earlier, say when the acrospire is 50%. 

You dont need to peel the grain all the time either to see the length of the a'spire, after you look at a few u will realise you can see the shape of it from the outside.


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## ekul (20/11/11)

I soaked the grain overnight by accident. Anyway, there was a few flies hanging around this morning, hope the grain is ok.

I will go hang the bag ouyt in the sun, shbouldn't take too long to dry. The acrospire is at about 50% so far.


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## ekul (20/11/11)

Here's soe pics of the (hopefully) malting barley

This is the bag hanging up after it had been soaking. The grain almost doubles in size after soaking for two days.






Here's what the grain looks like. Notice how there's not too many roots coming out. Apparently this happens when the grain is soaked for too long (like i did). When the grain is drier there will be more roots. I tried to get a good pic of the acrospire but it wouldn't ccome out. 




And this final pic is how i am drying the grain out. Because there is so much of it i think it will take a while to dry. So i am starting now whilst the acrospire is halfway up the grain, and i'm hoping by the time this dries it will be fully modified.

For size reference, that sheet is a fitted queen size sheet. So its a lot of grain!


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## sim (20/11/11)

ekul said:


> For size reference, that sheet is a fitted queen size sheet.
> View attachment 50245



hah, MIAS (malt in a sheet) love it!


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## ekul (20/11/11)

Also, the sheet that i have on the ground is a different one to the bag thats hanging up. The bag hanging up is my old faithful circle of voille which i no longer use. The sheet on the ground is the one off my bed, its wash day today though. All beer made froim this grain will contain a little piece of me, in the form of dead skin cells mainly.


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## sim (20/11/11)

ahh, the spice of life


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## hoppy2B (20/11/11)

Feed barley generally contributes higher levels of DMS to your brew, so it would be recommended to boil for longer than usual when you come to make your beer.
Commercially malted barley is stored after malting to develop the flavour. 
The main thing to keep in mind is temperature when drying the grain if aiming for a malt with a high diastatic power.
Cool temperatures and the use of gibberellic acid provide for fast even germination.
Cheers. :icon_cheers:


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## ekul (20/11/11)

So what temperatures contribute to high diastatic power?

Germination seems to be pretty even so far, there's the odd bit of grain with long roots but they are far and few between.

The nieghbour doesn't look to happy about me drying the grain there, she's scared of rats.



hoppy2B said:


> Feed barley generally contributes higher levels of DMS to your brew, so it would be recommended to boil for longer than usual when you come to make your beer.
> Commercially malted barley is stored after malting to develop the flavour.
> The main thing to keep in mind is temperature when drying the grain if aiming for a malt with a high diastatic power.
> Cool temperatures and the use of gibberellic acid provide for fast even germination.
> Cheers. :icon_cheers:


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## hoppy2B (20/11/11)

If you can keep the grain below about 50 degrees Celsius when drying it should preserve all of the enzymatic activity.
For germination, the sort of temperatures encountered in the temperate zone over winter would be preferable to those encountered in summer. :blink:


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