Experience of black oats?

[Emma Chapman]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any experience of growing black oats (Avena strigosa)?

I started googling it because of some work I'm doing on wild harvested crafts - a basketmaker mentioned it, and I knew nothing about it.

Google tells me that it's an old European cultivated variety, especially on marginal soils - a little is still grown in Orkney;
that it's still valued (including in South America & even Hawaii) as a cover and fodder crop; that this is partly because of its high production of biomass (the long straw makes it good for craft use as well); and because it's a weed suppressant (due to "alleopathic" effects/residues) and also a has a "nematicide effect", making it a bio pesticide;
that it's low-yielding - but said to have high levels of zinc, manganese and amino acids.

I'm wondering whether it has any potential for a Scottish small-scale, low-input, no-till grain system of some kind - something I'd dearly love to find/develop, especially if it involved oats! But googled knowledge is simply not enough...

Emma

ps apologies for cross-posting! - not sure how many people are on both the Scottish & Aberdeen/Shire pc groups.