Last edited on November 02, 2026. View history
Black Oat
A variety of oat
How to sow black oat: Direct seed/broadcast
Sun requirement for black oat: Plant in Full Sun
A New Zealand oat selected and grown for years at Milmore Downs in Canterbury, mainly as animal feed. It is nearly hulless but not quite, and the long, good-quality stems make it a useful carbon crop. Ferment, sprout or soak and cook slowly before eating. Sow in trays in autumn or early spring and transplant at 5 cm high, 10 cm apart on the diagonal.
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Black oat facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For black oat, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 5°C and a shortest growing cycle of 110 days at its best temperature, about 1430 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your black oat will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Plant black oats with
pea
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Avena sativa L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Liliopsida Commelinidae Cyperales Gramineae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -15 °C |
| Life form | grass |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
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