pea
Photos
The oats, peas, beans, & barley cookbook
I have so many grains growing in the garden; it's time to learn the old recipes for cooking them. This…
black oat
Avena sativa
Last edited by shiny on November 10, 2026. View history
Oat
How to sow oat: Direct seed/broadcast
Sun requirement for oat: Plant in Full Sun
Oats are a species of cereal grain grown for their seed. They are an annual, upright grass with a higher tolerance for rain than other cereal grains. Oats thrive in cool, moist conditions and can tolerate light frosts up to -15C. They do not do well in hot, dry weather. Oats can be eaten as rolled or steel cut oats, oat flour, muesli, or baked into granola. They can also grown as livestock feed or cover crops/green manure. Seeding rates, planting time, and spacing vary based on intended use.
- 3
- plantings
- 0
- harvests
- 1
- seed packet
Oat facts
Lifespan
Annual
living and reproducing in a single year or less
Height × spread
120cm × 7cmRow Spacing
7cm
Optimal temperature
16–20 °C
Absolute temperature
5–30 °C
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal rainfall
600–1000 mm/year
Absolute rainfall
250–1500 mm/year
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal soil pH
5–6
Absolute soil pH
4.5–7.5
FAO EcoCrop
Crop cycle
110–270 days
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal light
very bright
FAO EcoCrop
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 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 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.
How members grow oats
Sunniness
Loading...
Planted from
Loading...
Varieties of oat
hulless oat
Avena sativa
Plant oats with
Photos
Oat crops
Oat plantings
Where oats grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about oats
green beans
barley
Who's planted oats
- shiny Big main bed · Wellington, NZ
- cfarm Patio raised bed · Philadelphia, PA
- sakata Garden · Ashgrove Brisbane Qld
Oat harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
Sign in or sign up to track your oat harvests.Find oat seeds
View all oat seeds
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 110 to 270 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
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) |
Learn more about oats
Resources outside Growstuff.
