How to Grow Spelt in the Garden

Till your bed in early August to pull up the weeds and kill them. They will be back in two weeks so do it again. Repeat for any that remain in two more weeks. This will minimize the weeds that you have the following spring when the spelt is finishing its growth.

Incorporate 3 to 5 inches of compost before sowing. Soils with high clay content require a higher amount to help break up the soil. Rake the bed free of debris and weed tops.

Fill a broadcast spreader with spelt seed. You can use the kind that straps onto your chest or use a wheeled version. Walk or push the spreader across the bed with a 1/2 inch overlap for a fully seeded bed. The goal is approximately one spelt seed per inch.

Go over the bed and rake it to cover the seed. Water the bed to a depth of 2 to 3 inches if you had a very dry summer. Most grains get no supplemental watering unless they are grown in summer. Fall-sown spelt will be harvested in spring and will likely need no supplemental watering.

Keep weeds out of the grain as well as you can. The triple tilling should prevent large outbreaks. The spelt will sprout by winter and then stop growing until spring when it will amp up its rate of growth exponentially.

Harvest the spelt when the seed heads are heavy and dry in mid to late spring depending on your zone. Remove the seed heads with scissors or a scythe. Lay them out somewhere dry and warm for a month to finish ripening and then rub the seed heads over a bucket or container to collect the seed as it falls from the dry heads.

Pour the grain outside on a windy day from one container to the next. The wind will pick up the chaff and effectively clean your spelt grain. Store the grain in a pest-proof container.