Can buckwheat choke itself out?

[yoderjac]

How long before the first frost should buckwheat be planted? Never tried it but my spring clover was a disaster :)

Thinking of buckwheat followed by fall clover and rye.

That is the way I do it. Buckwheat is a warm season annual that is very sensitive to frost. The first frost will kill it. It is 60 to 90 days of food value for deer. In my area we can plant it up until about the 4th of July and then rain is the limiting factor. You can terminate it at any time for your fall plant. Work backwards from that 60 to 90 days and see what works in your area. Even a light frost will kill buckwheat. The optimal soil temp is 80 degrees for germination. It will germinate in soil as cold as 45 degrees but the crops tends to be lethargic. I generally don't recommend planting it with soil temps under 65 degrees unless you have special situation.

As long as you spray to kill the competition, Buckwheat will throw and mow and the cultipacker makes it a slam dunk. This year, I tried something new. I generally like it broadcast rather than row planted. I used my little no-till drill, but I disconnected the tubes from the planting shoes and just let them dangle. This dropped seed willy-nilly in front of the cultipacker. The field now looks like I just broadcast and cultipacked.

Thakns,

Jack

 

[Bill]

Eclipseman
Sorry for the thread Jack. But it is about buckwheat. My plot had more clover than I originally thought. Sprayed it today with cleth and butyrac. May kill the the little clover but...it may not. Hopefully the coop has buckwheat for tomorrow.

 

[eclipseman]

That is the way I do it. Buckwheat is a warm season annual that is very sensitive to frost. The first frost will kill it. It is 60 to 90 days of food value for deer. In my area we can plant it up until about the 4th of July and then rain is the limiting factor. You can terminate it at any time for your fall plant. Work backwards from that 60 to 90 days and see what works in your area. Even a light frost will kill buckwheat. The optimal soil temp is 80 degrees for germination. It will germinate in soil as cold as 45 degrees but the crops tends to be lethargic. I generally don't recommend planting it with soil temps under 65 degrees unless you have special situation.

As long as you spray to kill the competition, Buckwheat will throw and mow and the cultipacker makes it a slam dunk. This year, I tried something new. I generally like it broadcast rather than row planted. I used my little no-till drill, but I disconnected the tubes from the planting shoes and just let them dangle. This dropped seed willy-nilly in front of the cultipacker. The field now looks like I just broadcast and cultipacked.

Thakns,

Jack

What type no-till drill do you have? I'm thinking of saving for one but dang those things are expensive (or at least the ones ive found are).

 

[Bill]

Well the weatherman lied. Got an inch of rain on Sunday. 3 hours after my burn down. That looks good things are twisting.

Co-op had seed so it went down Monday. Cultipacked into wet ground today. Please rain again!
Oh and when I looked closer there was more clover than I initially thought so I hit the field with cleth and 2,4-Db that May smoke the baby clover but maybe not....

Been at this a long time but haven't tried buckwheat because it's so short lived. Never saw buckwheat seed before but that stuff is prime for cultipacking. Little pointed things...

 

[yoderjac]

What type no-till drill do you have? I'm thinking of saving for one but dang those things are expensive (or at least the ones ive found are).

I couldn't afford a real one either. I bought a used Kasco 4" no-till versadrill for about $3K. It does not handle trash well and debris gets caught between the mud scrapers and openers and clogs the seed tubes so I have to check it often. I had a number of issues that I mitigated with a hydraulic toplink and chain. Setting depth is still more of an art than science. Having said that, it works for row crops like corn and beans and has a lot of benefits over traditional tillage. There are threads on here you can find by searching for kasco that provided more details.

Thanks,

Jack