Growing flax for linen – a quick guide
Growing flax is easy—the plants are undemanding and when they are in bloom there is nothing prettier! There are many varieties of flax but most have been developed for seed production. The variety we’ll be planting is called “Avian” and was developed in Holland specifically for producing linen fibers. The seeds are edible but if the plants are grown for fiber, they should be harvested before the seeds mature.
Flax grows tallest (which means the longest fibers) in full sun, however, partial sun results in softer fibers. The choice is yours! It is best to plant flax when local lilac flowers are just beginning to bud.
Sow thickly on a prepared bed—loose soil and weed free. The smaller plastic bags have enough seeds for a 3 to 4 square foot plot, the fuller bags are for 10 to 12 square feet. The seeds can be sown by hand, or use a shaker similar to what you’d use for dry cheese. Seeds can be pressed into the soil or left on top. Birds might eat the seeds but they probably have better things to eat with everything else that’s available in spring.
Germination should occur in a few days. Flax plants have shallow roots so in a dry year it’s a good idea to water periodically. Deer LOVE young flax plants and bunnies do too, so you might have to protect the growing plants from those guys somehow (fence? guard dogs?)
The plants will bloom about 50 to 60 days after planting. The flowers are as blue as a summer sky—there’s nothing prettier!
About 20 to 30 days after blooming, or when the stalk is yellowing along the bottom third, the flax should be harvested by pulling the entire plant up by the roots. The earlier the harvest, the finer the fibers will be.
The stems should be dried in the sun, preferably on gravel or something elevated (not on grass or moist ground). Once the stems have dried, the flax can be bundled and it will store indefinitely. Keep the stems orientated with all of the root ends pointing the same way. Mice will be less likely to find your flax if you “ripple” it before storing. Rippling gets rid of the seeds, which are the only thing that mice want—they don’t use linen fibers! We have a ripple that you can borrow if you want, although if you harvest your flax early enough, the seeds won’t be mature. But if you plan on storing your flax over winter in a “vulnerable” place where it will be available to mice, it is best to ripple it, just to be sure!
Flax stems need to be retted (aka rotted) to release the fibers from the non-fibrous stuff. Two methods: dew or tank.
Dew retting is my preferred method since it’s pretty much “idiot proof.” To dew rett, you spread the flax thinly on the ground (preferably over lawn). Make sure to keep the root ends all going the same direction. In the fall, dew retting will probably take about 3 to 4 weeks—faster in wet and dewy weather. The stalks should be “flipped” (like pancakes) every week or so. The retting is complete when the fibers separate easily from the inner core, and from each other. After a couple of weeks, test every few days on a stalk or two. Dew retting will result in silver fibers, while tank retted flax is more blond-colored.
Tank (water) retting is faster but easier to overrett (I’ve done it). To water rett, fill a tank (child’s wading pool, large plastic bin) with water, then put in the flax (again, keeping the root ends aligned). Weight the stems down with something heavy like a board so that they stay under water. After a day the water will start to stink—that means the rotting has begun! Depending on the air temperature, it may take 2 to 4 days for the flax to rett. You need to check it periodically—again, you want the fibers to separate from each other and easily pull away from the inner core. Problem is that everything will be slimy and stinky and wet. It’s better to underrett if you are tank retting—then, if need be, the retting process can be completed by dew retting. If you overrett flax, the fibers will lose their integrity and fall apart into short pieces and in that condition the flax is useless. Believe me, there is nothing more disappointing than overretted flax!!!
If you are nervous or uncertain about retting your flax harvest, I’ll be happy to rett it for you. Retting is the least fun of all of the steps for producing linen yarn and the process can be daunting (and stinky!), so don’t let it hold you back on your flax discovery journey!
Once the flax is retted, it can be stored, again indefinitely, until it can be processed. The guild has complete flax processing tools, and we have periodic flax days. It’s a whole lot more fun to process the flax with a bunch of people helping than to tackle it yourself! But if you really want to be self-sufficient, you can borrow the flax tools—you’ll need a fairly large vehicle (station wagon or something with seats that fold down) to transport them.
There are YouTube videos on all of the aspects of growing, retting and processing flax. And, if you have any questions or need help with retting, please don’t hesitate to contact me – Louise Young, email: molatour32@gmail.com.
Happy growing!!