Rouge de Bordeaux

A heritage wheat from France. This variety does well on rich clay soil. It also has stiff stems and is more lodge tolerant in fertile ground. I had very minor lodging issues at “grain fill” even during multiple, heavy downpours. It also appears to be very high yielding. Extremely easy to thresh and is awnless.

Descriptions and Photos courtesy of John Sherck and Scott Hucker

Grower Notes

Scott Hucker, Great Lakes Staple Seeds, Ortonville, MI:
An awnless hard red heritage wheat from France, Rouge de Bordeaux is often mentioned in traditional bread making discussions. This variety does well on our clay soils. We grow Rouge de Bordeux as a fall planted wheat while our fellow seedsman John Sherck has grown it as a spring planted wheat. This line is multi-generational grown on our southeast Michigan homestead.

John Sherck, Bristol, IN:
I trialed it as a fall planted wheat later that season. It survived wonderfully over the winter and produced quality seed with less disease, and better grain fill as a fall planted wheat, than as a spring planted wheat. Below are photos of Rouge de Bordeaux from the same harvest season. I had understood this cultivar to be spring planted, but found it to be facultative. My point is that many of these ancient and heritage spring wheat varietals need trialed as fall planted. Of course, region and climate will be a major consideration for the overall results. I grow in a zone 5, bordering on 6.