freezing grass seeds

[jusdeb]

Is it OK to freeze the seeding grasses ? Not millets just grasses and I think wild oats.
Can I freeze the stem and all ?

[Myzomela]

Yes. In fact many breeders do exactly that. So long as the grass is clean, not sopping wet and ergot-free ( no sticky bits or strange discoloration of the seed heads), many people place a smaller amount in individual snap-lock bags & freeze them- then thaw out individual bags as required.

[jusdeb]

Snap lock bags Thanks

[Tiaris]

I usually freeze a small chest freezer of Green panic heads each year which I collect early Summer (before the ergot & smut get too bad) & later feed it out when the growing season has ended. I've also done smaller quantities of barnyard grass, white millet, signal grass & summer grass heads when they were temporarily in abundance and friends of mine regularly do the same with white millet heads every year. Excellent way to give consistency of half-ripe grass seed through Winter when fresh sources are very limited. I used to just put the heads all loose in the freezer but found that many stuck to the sides of the freezer and many seeds were dislodged when trying to separate some out for feeding. Last year I cut most of the stems off which left just the shorter heads & put a few days' worth each into lidded plastic containers (milk seed containers) & froze them down in them. This worked great. For feeding just grab a bunch & peg them up still frozen & the birds will strip them bare.

[fincher]

yes it is i just froze some red veldt nd green veld bout 4 ice cream container fulls just stripped the seeds of the stems took about 20mins to get them nd were i went could easily got bout 2 20liter buckets
but only have a small freezer storage area in the freezer or mum would cut sick at me she started to just wit the 4 containers

[Hoopoe]

Would anybody know if you can freeze milk thistle?

I have been collecting buckets of wild oats and phalaris and filling my freezer with them to save my husband time in the morning.

Oats and Phalarus.JPG

half full freezer.JPG

it would be great to collect some milk thistle too as the birds seem to absolutely love it!

[gouldianpaul]

i've tried to freeze milk thistle....unfortunately it is no good frozen...it wilts too quickly to be any good for the birds.....i collect mine twice a week and leave it in a bucket of water....not as good as freshly picked, but you should be able to keep it relatively fresh for about 3 days this way...cheers, Paul

[Tiaris]

Refrigerates better than it freezes.

[Lukec]

When harvesting the Milk thistle to store in the fridge, should it still have roots attached or does it not matter?