buckwheat

TreeDaddy

TreeDaddy

5 year old buck +
I have newly created perimeter roads in creek bottom grey clay loam soil that i want to use buckwheat for cover crop/soil health,etc

submitting soil samples this week

Any general thoughts on fertility requirements for buckwheat?

Elbon rye produced a decent stand with simply broad cast this past fall and no lime/fert

thanks,

bill
 
Year two using buckwheat as a broadcast summer cover crop for a plot of mine here in WI. I find it is great on low fertility soil, better than cereal grains like rye. However buckwheat does not like compacted or wet soil and will wilt in high heat/drought. As a weed suppressor and phosphorus scavenger it does great.
 
Bees love it too!
 
Tree Daddy - Texas climate much hotter and soils different than up here - hard to say how BW will act for you there. Our soil is a heavier, clayish loam that drains fairly well due to small stones throughout it's structure. Buckwheat doesn't require much in the way of nutrients - old time farmers planted BW on newly cleared and tilled land to get something to grow and to improve the soil with organic material. IMO - it's worth a try.
 
I too have been toying with the idea of buckwheat as a summer forage. I do have some questions though. I have an atv ground hog max and drag that I do most of my plots with. Will I be able to till up the ground once buckwheat is established? And do the deer use it enough to keep them coming back? I am not looking for something magical, just something different than the rest of my area.
 
I have planted Buckwheat the last 3 years and the deer hammer it but I think it depends on your deer numbers and where you are located. The first year it grew great and the deer didn't start using it until it was about to bloom, but now it seldom gets to that stage.
 
Peplin Creek - We've planted BW for a few years now. If you mean, does it form sod and is it tough to till, disc, etc., then NO - it is very easy to disc or till through. It breaks down pretty easily. We've over-seeded other things into it with good success. We'll plant it every year now - somewhere on our property. It tends to keep weeds down if it's seeded heavy enough, making for easier transition to another crop later.

We don't know why, but at our place the bucks seemed to focus on the BW more so than other plots during daylight. We saw 6 bucks at the same time eating in the BW on numerous occasions last year. We had plenty of other plots to choose from, but they seemed to hang in the BW more than the others. One member of our camp had cams out and he had the evidence on his cams of the BW use by bucks. Proof in the pudding, so to speak. Another plus is - it draws bees. We're happy with BW for sure.
 
I planted about a acre of buckwheat a few years. I put the seed heavy and it still ended up being 4-5 ft tall. The wife wasn't impressed with it when I had her swing by to get the cameras. It was almost impossible to walk thru and full of thousands of these tiny small bees. I wasn't able to disc it down before it seeded. I was a few weeks late. The thick stems seemed to be somewhat tuff to disc in. I used my tractor with a 10ft disc, I don't think it would of been possible with a atv. I only notice a small amount of browsing, but I wasn't there enough to watch it. The only problem I had was it reseeded and choked out most of my July planted brassica. I'm going to plant some more this year and let it mature for the turkeys and grouse. I left some strips last time I planted. It was impressive seeing the amount of songbirds that were in it come fall. A lot of turkeys too.
 
Thanks for the input, as anyone ran into problems with the bees, coming tilling time?
 
Peplin Creek said:
Thanks for the input, as anyone ran into problems with the bees, coming tilling time?
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I just did a little research to find what kind of bees I had in my buckwheat. It looks to me that they were Mason bees. They are a non aggressive bee and only the females have stingers. They wont sting you unless its a last resort. Unlike the ground bee nest I plowed up that were chasing me on the tractor.:emoji_fearful: I only got stung once thou. I would think if you disk your buckwheat when its 3ft or less you would be fine.
 
We never had a problem with bees while disking. When we roll / mow / disk our BW, it's usually at the seed-head stage - flowers mostly gone. We over-seed fall plot crops into the BW, then roll it down.
 
Would mid-May be too early to spread BW in the UP of MI? I believe I read that BW does not tolerate cold or frost well. I want BW in some of newer plots this spring/summer for all the soil/weed benefits.
 
TreeDaddy said:
I have newly created perimeter roads in creek bottom grey clay loam soil that i want to use buckwheat for cover crop/soil health,etc

submitting soil samples this week

Any general thoughts on fertility requirements for buckwheat?

Elbon rye produced a decent stand with simply broad cast this past fall and no lime/fert

thanks,

bill
Click to expand...

Buckwheat is pretty tolerant of low fertility and poor pH. If I'm starting a new plot in the spring, I use buckwheat. It takes a while for soil amendments to work and buckwheat is a great first cover crop because of its tolerance and ability to mine minerals and make them available to the next crop. It is quick to germinate and the optimal soil temp for germination is 80 degrees (soil temp not air temp). It is very competitive with weeds. I've I'm starting a new plot in the fall, I use Winter Rye for the exact same reason. For poor soils like my old logging decks, I will rotate buckwheat in the summer with a mix of Winter Rye and crimson clover for a year or two. These are great soil builders. The crimson will reseed and bound back (in my area and yours) in the early spring providing food and ground cover until you are ready to plant buckwheat. After a year or two of this rotation, I'll switch to adding a perennial clover like Durana to the winter rye in the fall and manage the field as a perennial cover plot for a minimum of 5 years. After that, I can grow most crops pretty well even on old logging decks.

Thanks,

Jack
 
I'm not qualified to answer that MoJo. I do know that BW doesn't like cool / cold soil to germinate. We plant our BW here at camp in northern Pa. in May - usually the 2nd or 3rd week so the soil is warmed up. It doesn't take long for it to germinate. Our camp is at the border of zones 5 and 6 on a mountain top - fairly chilly into late spring. I don't know if that helps you or not.
 
MojoRisin said:
Would mid-May be too early to spread BW in the UP of MI? I believe I read that BW does not tolerate cold or frost well. I want BW in some of newer plots this spring/summer for all the soil/weed benefits.
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We plant ours Memorial Day weekend in Central Wisconsin with great success. Most years we get a freeze or two in the the 7-10 days after planting but haven't noticed any ill effects. Unless no other options are available I don't see myself trying to plant it any earlier. It would really suck to have an entire field die from a freeze.
 
We have always planted ours on Memorial day as well. Never an issue.
 
I also plant on Memorial day.
 
I am coming up on my 5th year of BW. I usually plant Memorial weekend or the weekend before. I don't get the thick stands some do due to browsing but have no issue getting through it with my 4' atv disk. The deer love it, it's cheap.
 
ToddG said:
I also plant on Memorial day.
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Todd,

Planting Memorial day here in Va is quite different than planting where many are planting it in WI or MN. The optimal soil temp for buckwheat is about 80 degrees. By Memorial day, our soil temps are certainly warm enough to plant it. In fact, you can probably get a decent crop planting in mid-April most years. Typically the end of our window is about the 4th of July. After that you risk insufficient moisture for good germination. We are probably close to the northern limit for double cropping buckwheat. I've done it, but the soil is so cool when I need to plant the first crop to get the second one it that the first crop is often lethargic. Buckwheat is usually the last thing I plant in the spring because it requires such a short growing season. If you are only planting one crop, we have a pretty wide window here.

I no longer try to double crop it. Now, when I'm doing soil improvement projects, I'll plant a mix of WR and Crimson Clover in the fall. In our area, Crimson acts as a reseeding annual. It bounces back and covers the early spring period. I can then wait until mid June to plant buckwheat.

Thanks,

Jack
 
I am just in shock over how much buckwheat seed has gone up over the last couple years, who has the best price? I am thinking of going to oats instead, 8.50 for a 50 lb bag is hard to beat for a good spring crop to add om before the fall rotation.
 
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