Grow and Care for Foxtail Barley

Grow foxtail barley in full sun on soil that drains. Foxtail barley is Hordeum, also sold as squirrel-tail grass.

Give it full sun and soil that drains, and water it until it is established

Foxtail barley wants full sun and soil that drains. Water a new sowing until the roots take, then let the ground run moist to on the dry side. Heat is fine; a long dry spell on a new patch is not, and a boggy hole rots the crown. [1] foxtail barley uses that same sun as a short-lived clump about one to two feet tall, with long nodding awns that go pink and then tan. Light salt and alkaline ground are ordinary for it, including a gravel strip or a dry roadside bank. [2] meadow barley uses the same full sun as a native bunchgrass two to three feet tall, but it wants moister meadow, stream-edge, or salt-marsh ground, and it only shrugs off a dry week after it is established. [3] Both plants are cool-season grasses. Growth is strongest in spring and fall, not in midsummer heat.

Sow it on the surface in cool soil

This grass is grown from seed. Sow it on the surface in late fall or in early spring, while the soil is still cool, in the same full sun and draining ground you will keep it in. Press the seed in and cover it only as deep as the seed is wide, then keep the bed moist until the seedlings stand. Direct sowing beats a windowsill start because the young roots do not like to be moved.

1. Rake a weed-free patch in full sun on soil that drains, in late fall or early spring.
2. Sow on the surface and press the seed in. Cover it only as deep as the seed is wide.
3. Keep the bed moist until the seedlings stand, then water only as the surface dries.
4. Pull extra seedlings while they are small if you want a patch, not a thicket.

Cut the seed heads before they shatter

The long awns are the show, and they are also how the plant moves. Heads dry to a bleached tan and break apart, and the barbs catch in fur and clothing. Cut the heads when they are fully formed if you want a dried bunch or if you do not want a carpet of seedlings next year. [4] Keep this grass out of a path that dogs use, because the awns can work into eyes, noses, and paws.

1. Cut the heads when they have colored and filled, before they turn brittle and fall apart.
2. Hang a dried bunch upside down in a loose cluster if you want stems for a vase, or drop the heads in the trash if you are stopping seed.
3. Pull the shallow seedlings in spring if a few still germinate.

Cut last year's stems in late winter

The top slows in winter. New blades come from the crown in spring if the plant lived, or from seed if last year's heads shattered. Cut last year's tan stems close to the crown in late winter, before the new growth is buried in a mat.

1. Leave the stems standing through winter if you want the form.
2. In late winter, cut the tan stems close to the crown.
3. Watch for self-sown seedlings as the soil warms, and thin them then.

Not foxtail fern — and not grain barley

A shop tag that says only foxtail is often foxtail fern, Asparagus densiflorus with upright bottlebrush stems for a pot — see How to Grow Asparagus Fern. Foxtail barley is a true grass with a nodding, bristly seed head, not a houseplant fern.

Grain barley is Hordeum vulgare, the cereal. Wheat is a different crop. Do not treat this ornamental grass as a food plot. Foxtail lily is Eremurus, a tall desert spike — see How to Grow Eremurus. Purple fountain grass is Pennisetum — see How to Grow Fountain Grass. Nodding wild rye is Elymus — see How to Grow Canada Wild Rye. Read the Latin: Hordeum jubatum for the long-awn ornamental, Hordeum brachyantherum for the meadow kind.

Sow the next patch in full sun on soil that drains, and cut the heads before they shatter.