Barley

Plant Characteristics
Habit		grass

Cultivation

Scientific Names
Poaceae >	Hordeum >	vulgare >

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Barley is a cereal grain derived from the annual grass Hordeum vulgare.

Barley is a widely adaptable crop. It is currently popular in temperate areas where it is grown as a summer crop and tropical areas where it is sown as a winter crop. Its germination time is anywhere from 1 to 3 days. Barley likes to grow under cool conditions but is not particularly winter hardy.

Barley is more tolerant of soil salinity than wheat, which might explain the increase of barley cultivation in Mesopotamia from the 2nd millennium BC onwards. Barley is not as cold tolerant as the winter wheats (Triticum aestivum), fall rye (Secale cereale) or winter Triticale (× Triticosecale Wittm. ex A. Camus.), but may be sown as a winter crop in warmer areas of the world such as Australia.

Barley has a short growing season and is also relatively drought tolerant.

Read about Barley in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
Barley. Various kinds of Hordeum of the Gramineae. Common barley is H. sativum, Jess. According to Hackel, it “undoubtedly originated from H. spontaneum, C. Koch, which grows wild from Asia Minor and Caucasian countries to Persia and Beloochistan, as well as in Syria, Palestine, and Arabia Petraea." The common barley has a 4-rowed ear or head. There are also 2-rowed and 6-rowed races, and other well-marked forms. They are probably all domestic forms of one parent stock. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

Propagation

Pests and diseases

This plant is known or likely to be susceptible to barley mild mosaic bymovirus^[1] as well as bacterial blight. Barley can be susceptible to many diseases but plant breeders have been working hard to incorporate resistance. The devastation caused by any one disease will depend upon the susceptibility of the variety being grown and the environmental conditions during disease development.