The Bloom is on the Flax!

An update below. . .

I went on a quick visit to Gale Woods Farm this morning to check on the linen flax plot. I hadn't been able to get out to do more weeding of the crop during the past week or so, although the plot looked fairly weed-free, at least among the stalks themselves, so that was good to see.

The stalks are averaging two feet in height. That is pretty much on schedule. Last year, this same variety of Avian linen flax reached forty inches or more in height at harvest time, which is expected to occur in another 50-60 days this year. Although...

Some stalks have already started to bloom! This is about three weeks earlier than expected. In addition, a few stalks appear to be turning yellow at their base. That is extremely early, since full maturity should be at 90–100 days, not 43 days, which it currently is. This has made me ponder the reasons behind the appearance of maturity. Perhaps the late sowing created conditions that forced the stalks to mature more quickly than normal or stressed the plants? It has also been very wet, hot, and humid for the past four weeks—not conditions that young linen flax stalks like. Another thought is that this particular part of the field did not have the nutrients that the linen flax prefers. Perhaps it is too nitrogen-rich? I am also investigating what was planted in this area last year to determine if the soil conditions were impacted by a previous crop.

UPDATE TO MY SPECULATIONS! My research memory was just jarred by Greg, the garden manager at Gale Woods Farm. He was wondering whether the long daylight at this time of year triggers flowering. Yes! That is most likely what is going on in the field with the "early" flowering! In Sweden, the flax comes into bloom during midsummer, when daylight is the longest. I had totally forgotten that fact. Thanks, Greg, for shaking loose my brain!

Based on my research into annual flax cultivation in Sweden, the implications could be that the farm flax will be shorter than normal due to the shorter season, making it potentially harder to process. However, it may also yield finer fiber when processed. We will see!

My potted flax is holding in there, and the stalks are now up to nearly three feet in height. These potted stalks are the same flax variety that the farm has in their field, but with the update I noted above, it is unlikely they will become as tall as these potted stalks.. 

The potted flax stalks are just starting to show signs of yellowing at the base, so they are on schedule to be harvested soon, although I have not seen much flowering. I wonder if that is because the pots are not tall enough to accommodate a stalk to full seed/flowering maturity. Without the mature seed pods, the linen that is produced could be negatively affected.

Flax growing is a never-ending adventure!

Sowing the 2025 Summer of Flax 

from research activities to getting hands dirty

The past couple of months have been busy here at Saga Hill! As usual, keeping up with the blog is a back-burner activity. But it's time to share what is happening!

Between preparing and teaching fiber classes (primarily knitting). . .

My linen cloth knitting workshop at the American Swedish Institute

. . . and giving presentations about flax history, growing, and processing this spring, I have been contracted by the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI) to process a huge amount of perennial flax for study by the Horticultural Science Department of the University of Minnesota. They are looking at the fiber viability of different cultivars of perennial flax, which typically have a very short stalk and lots of flower branching that breaks up the stalk into shorter pieces. (Flax that is typically used for fiber, aka linen, is derived from the annual flax plant, which is taller, has less flower branching, and is more biologically suited for long fiber extraction.) 

The promise of finding a good perennial flax for fiber use is exciting since perennial flax is more suited to growing in the upper Midwest and is harvested by cutting the stalk at the root crown, which might allow the plant to have more than one harvest in a year. It is also easier to harvest with common farm equipment. Plus, finding a suitable perennial flax for fiber use would open an even broader scope of applications, not just for linen but for bio-industrial use. 

The flowers from my home perennial flax plants have already started blooming.

It is very exciting to be part of this research venture! However, the project’s completion timeline is very tight due to a funding deadline. I have over 40 laundry-sized bags and bundles of perennial flax to process by hand into fibers by the end of July, and our weather, so far, has not been especially cooperative for the first step—the retting (rotting) of the stalks to release the fibers found in the bast material. 

I am using cattle stock tanks to ret the perennial flax cultivars.

As you can see above, I am using stock tanks to ret the fibers, which would normally be a great method for retting if the weather were warm. But this year, it’s a challenge to keep the tank temperatures in a good range for retting. It’s been quite cold and rainy for the past few weeks. And, with not enough electrical outlets, I don’t have the option of plugging in heaters for all five tanks. Fortunately, the tanks are black and absorb ambient heat rather well. I also found black covers for the tanks that hold the water at a surprisingly steady temperature, even if it is cooler than I’d like to see due to ambient temperature fluctuations. All-in-all, the next two months will be a time of discovery in the wider world of linum usitatissimum! However, please note that I won’t be able to share my findings, as this is a research project. But perhaps when the study report is released, I will have an opportunity to tell you more.

Gale Woods Farm—a new annual flax crop has begun for the summer of 2025

Due to the uncooperative weather this spring, the planned crop at Gale Woods Farm has had a slow start but has now suddenly taken on literal growth! 

We were coming to the end of the flax sowing season at the end of May, and, due to the weather and other farm issues, the seeds had not been sown yet, so the farm’s garden manager decided to use a grain drill to plant the crop this year. It was the quickest method of sowing the seeds during such rainy weather, and an efficient means of finally getting the seeds into the ground before it’s too late for the sowing of linen flax. (Early spring is the best time to sow annual flax—early April is best for our region.) 

Grain drills sow the seeds in rows, and the grain drill that the farm used is really set for perennial seed flax sowing, not annual flax. That means the seeds were sown in rows that are somewhat far apart, ranging from 2 inches to 6 inches apart. But when annual flax is sown in rows, the usual goal is to sow it in rows with little space between them so the stalks will grow with less branching and support each other. It will be interesting to see how the stalks mature this summer between the wider-spaced rows and the narrower ones. Will some branch out too much to achieve good fiber for linen? Time will tell!

The Gale Woods Farm annual flax plot for 2025.

About 100 lineal feet of seeds were sown on May 27^th, and the seedlings emerged around June 4^th. This year’s seeds came from last year’s farm crop of Avian linen flax that we rippled from the stalks at the end of last summer. The farm garden manager conducted a seed test in early spring to assess seed viability. There was an approximate 90 percent germination rate, so we knew the seeds would be good for this year’s crop. 

The test seeds were sown in a greenhouse flat.

Since it feels like murder to me to toss any baby seedlings, I planted the flax seedlings from the seed test into pots at my home/studio. I’ve planted annual flax in pots in the past, but have found that they grow to a certain height and then lodge and die off. This year, I used soil with no added nitrogen (extra nitrogen can cause lodging). I’ve also learned that even though the roots of the annual flax plant appear to be very short—actually only a few inches long—there are finer, hairy roots that go much deeper. So, I planted the seedlings in deeper pots than I have in the past (in pots with a 9-inch soil depth) in hopes of getting these stalks to make it to maturity.

 

The test flax seeds have grown into tall potted plants!

I might find that I need even deeper pots, as the stalks are now 24 inches tall and seem to be slowing down in growth. Since they have been growing for 60 days (from when they were sown in the greenhouse flat), they are due to flower soon, so perhaps they are putting their energy into developing the flower capsules, or they are stunted by a pot that is too shallow for their full growth. If they are nearing the end of their growth and about to put out seed capsules, the stalks will be shorter than last year’s crop, which averaged around 40+ inches. But I suspect the height difference is due to growing in a pot that is still too shallow for their full maturity. After 60 days of growth, the flowers should be starting to appear, and they are not. As a comparison, it will be interesting to see how tall the flax from the same seed supply grows in the field this summer, where the ground depth is unlimited.

The Annual Flax Crop at the Farm Today

This morning, I went out to Gale Woods to see if the seedling rows needed weeding. A benefit to growing them in rows is that the weed situation is easier to manage. Plus, due to closer management of the seedbed, there were very few weeds to pull. 

The plants are already about 1–2 inches tall after one week of emergence. They like the current cool, rainy weather, so that is a good aspect of this fickle June. 

Come out to Gale Woods Farm to visit the crop (7210 County Rd 110 W, Minnetrista, MN 55364)! You will find it in the field located on the right, just after you enter the gates of the farm. Look to the far back end of the cultivated area. The flax rows are at the far right-hand end of the field, running south to north. Since annual flax (linen flax), when grown in a field, typically takes 60 days to flower, be sure to schedule a visit around the middle to the last week of July. But come anytime to see the stalks grow taller and taller! 

A view of baby flax sprouts at ground level – Gale Woods Farm, June 10, 2025.

A Perennial Reveal

Those following my blog may recall that the University of Minnesota Horticultural Research folks visited Gale Woods Farm a couple of months ago to see the linen flax crop. They gave me a few bundles of their perennial flax, which they had retted, to try to process mechanically. I finally got around to doing that, and here is the result:

I first tried to break the flax with my flax brake and found the stalks as hard as steel! To me, that indicated that either the perennial flax needed more retting or the stalks would need another method of breaking. I leaned toward requiring a longer retting than the 1–2 weeks that the University had already done. 

So, I put one bundle into my puppy pool to soak a bit longer. I don't have photos of the flax in the pool—it was rather unexciting, to be honest, since there was no obvious biological action happening—at least the bubbling you typically see with retting flax was very minor. The weather was warm (mostly 80 degrees), but my yard had limited sun, so it was not as ideal as the Gale Woods greenhouse. Nevertheless, after 11 days, I finally saw some release in the fiber strands as I bent the stalks. It was time to pull the stalks, rinse them, and let them dry as a re-test of the mechanical processing!

I took a small handful of stalks to break since they were still very stiff and did not easily break in the brake. (I don't know why brakes are not spelled "break" since that is what the equipment does, but that's the nomenclature for that piece of equipment!)

The stalks were finally breakable! There are certainly differences between the linen variety of flax grown at Gale Woods Farm and this perennial variety grown for seed and straw use. Besides the length of the stalks (this variety of perennial flax is about a foot shorter than the linen flax), there is obviously something different about the cellular structure between the varieties. I observed that the boon (woody matter of the stem) of the perennial variety hangs onto the fiber strands much more tightly than it did in the linen flax variety.  

I was able to break enough fiber to scutch and hackle. Above is what the stalks looked like after breaking. 

There is a substantial amount of boon to scrape off after breaking—more than with the linen variety of flax!

Success! After putting the broken and scutched (scraped) fiber through three grades of hackles (coarse to fine), I ended up with a small bundle of short but spinnable fibers. They are a bit coarse, although they can be spun with a tow-spinning method. (That comment is for all of you flax spinners. You will know what I mean!)

My conclusion is that, yes, you can grow perennial flax for its fiber content. Although it takes longer to ret and mechanically process, you can get some short, spinnable fibers. It won't create fine linen thread, though. I plan to try spinning this into a wool/linen blend yarn, which is more suited to a shorter fiber preparation called "woolsey," also called "linsey-woolsey!"

Now, I'm going back to spinning some of the Gale Woods linen flax, so I have samples of that for the Fall Fest at Gale Woods Farm on October 13th! I hope to see you there!