How can you not love buckwheat?

[Native Hunter]

You gotta love it:

• Planted with a lawn mower
• Came up in a drought
• Choking out weeds
• Being eaten extremely well despite 70 acres of soybeans nearby
• Perfect amount of OM for when I plant fall T&M plots

 

[DiSc0Rd]

I hope to get that result next year.

 

[Bill]

You must have friendlier droughts than me. I planted buckwheat 2 years ago and it was so dry the poor things threw flowers at 6 inches tall.....

having said that since my beans failed this year I think I have time to include some Now on the spots I’ll be adding rye and oats to in September

 

[SWIFFY]

You make it look easy Native! Ive had some good stands of Buckwheat... but more often than not it always seems like its a bust when i try the Throw 'n Mow. Yours looks beautiful!

 

[trampledbyturtles]

What rate per acre are u throwing down to act as a smother crop?

 

[Native Hunter]

What rate per acre are u throwing down to act as a smother crop?

I go with approximately 50 lbs per acre of buckwheat. I had plenty of dead thatch to mow down on mine and did some tailspins with my Grasshopper working everything into the soil really well. Think of the Dukes of Hazard on a zero turn......

 

[bigbendmarine]

Native Hunter, what type of max temps does your buckwheat see / withstand?

Never planted any, but from what I've read while it will grow in my deep south area (North Florida) the window of growth is pretty short and typically is only planted early spring or mid-fall due to it having a tough time withstanding our heat. Almost tempted to throw some in with my fall planting mix just for kicks and giggles (if I can get my hands on it / haven't even checked to see if local feed place carries it and they may not since not widely grown in the area).

 

[Native Hunter]

Native Hunter, what type of max temps does your buckwheat see / withstand?

Never planted any, but from what I've read while it will grow in my deep south area (North Florida) the window of growth is pretty short and typically is only planted early spring or mid-fall due to it having a tough time withstanding our heat. Almost tempted to throw some in with my fall planting mix just for kicks and giggles (if I can get my hands on it / haven't even checked to see if local feed place carries it and they may not since not widely grown in the area).

We have been in the low to mid 90s the last few weeks. It struggled at first with little rain but once we got a couple of showers it took off.

 

[bigbendmarine]

We have been in the low to mid 90s the last few weeks. It struggled at first with little rain but once we got a couple of showers it took off.

Making me wish I'd planted some in the spring... had pretty steady rains since. Honestly, I'd say about 3 out of 4 summers for us are dependably wet due to our proximity to the coast (about 20 miles) and summer afternoon storms typically brewing up every few days. For that matter we don't tend to get quite as hot as areas more inland either as the afternoon storms help keep the temp from getting quite as hot as they would otherwise.

One more question and forgive me if already shared in post... when did you plant?

 

[Rit]

Perhaps a better title would have been “how can you not love my soils”. I had decent thatch on most of the area I planted into buckwheat. Almost 3 acres. No rain and concrete like clay produced about 150 plants in total that flowered about 5 inches tall. I do think next year I am going way more diverse for a summer soil builder.

 

[Barndog56]

Two years ago I broadcast buckwheat as a cover crop in my pumpkin patch. It has now reseeded for year #3. It keeps most other weeds at bay and draws in the bees right when my pumpkins need to be pollinated.

 

[Native Hunter]

Making me wish I'd planted some in the spring... had pretty steady rains since. Honestly, I'd say about 3 out of 4 summers for us are dependably wet due to our proximity to the coast (about 20 miles) and summer afternoon storms typically brewing up every few days. For that matter we don't tend to get quite as hot as areas more inland either as the afternoon storms help keep the temp from getting quite as hot as they would otherwise.

One more question and forgive me if already shared in post... when did you plant?

I kind of lost track of time but it seems like about 6 weeks ago. Once the rains came it shot up quickly.

 

[IkemanTx]

My buckwheat flowered our at only 3-4 inches tall this year... died a couple weeks after.
Heck even the sunn hemp I planted last day of April are only knee high at this point.


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[mikmaze]

I don't love the fact that buckwheat seed has doubled in price in the last few years...........

 

[cbw]

First year planting buckwheat on new property. Put in 9 plots. One of them failed—not sure why.

This one on a hilltop in middle of an oak/hickory/walnut/cedar timber. We cleared the trees and have a good planting. Plan to roller-crimp it in two weeks for fall planting on brassicas on one side and greens on the other. The tall green you see in the background is a healthy stand of Egyptian wheat we planted along the logging road.

One learning on this plot—- our notill drill broke down with 2 rounds left. (Actually, the tractor pulling the drill ) I sowed with an Earthway hand sower 2 days later right after a rain. That did not do nearly as well as what we drilled.

The one plot that failed, we plan to spread lime to get the pH up based on soil test soil sample and just put tillage radish in this year. Then later in fall, oversees with cereal rye.

Anyone else have experience planting to improve soil? It is an old cattle pasture. We killed a lot of brome, and where we planted buckwheat, instead iron weed and milkweed and a bunch of other weeds came up. The Egyptian wheat screening 30 yards away came up fine. Thoughts?

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[WTNUT]

Buckwheat may be “your” brassica - Some always talk about how their deer will not eat brassicas. Well my deer love them, bu Buckwheat is the last thing on the farm they will eat. I am pretty sure they would eat siding off the house first. But, I wish they did like it. Great crop for many reasons.


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[Native Hunter]

First year planting buckwheat on new property. Put in 9 plots. One of them failed—not sure why.

This one on a hilltop in middle of an oak/hickory/walnut/cedar timber. We cleared the trees and have a good planting. Plan to roller-crimp it in two weeks for fall planting on brassicas on one side and greens on the other. The tall green you see in the background is a healthy stand of Egyptian wheat we planted along the logging road.

One learning on this plot—- our notill drill broke down with 2 rounds left. (Actually, the tractor pulling the drill ) I sowed with an Earthway hand sower 2 days later right after a rain. That did not do nearly as well as what we drilled.

The one plot that failed, we plan to spread lime to get the pH up based on soil test soil sample and just put tillage radish in this year. Then later in fall, oversees with cereal rye.

Anyone else have experience planting to improve soil? It is an old cattle pasture. We killed a lot of brome, and where we planted buckwheat, instead iron weed and milkweed and a bunch of other weeds came up. The Egyptian wheat screening 30 yards away came up fine. Thoughts?

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In an old cattle pasture it can take a while to exhaust the seed bank of undesirables like ironweed and milkweed. Cattle don't eat them and when the farmer doesn't mow them they just keep adding seed to the seedbank over the years. Some of that seed is just waiting for a chance to burst forth. I've seen this happen on pasture being converted to NWSGs. Within a few days after the first gly kill an army of undesirables will germinate and come on strong.

One of the most interesting episodes I have ever seen of this was a 5 acre field that had been in pasture for 50 years. Two kills were done and NWSGs were drilled, but immediately passion flower just popped out of nowhere. It was so thick that it kept the NWSGs from germinating. I spoke with an owner of a seed company and he wanted the passion flower seed. That fall he sent 6 workers who spent two days gathering the pods. They filled a full sized horse trailer and flattened the leaf springs on two full sized pickup trucks with passion flower pods. No passion flower had been seen in that pasture for the whole 50 years it had been in pasture. It was thick fescue. Live long enough and nature will teach you new things.

 

[BobinCt]

One thing with Buckwheat if your going to throw n mow brassicas into it , is you gotta make sure you time it right and don’t start to go to seed. If it starts to seed then one you mow it down you will get lots of volunteer buckwheat. You can end up with more Buckwheat than brassicas which is a bad thing since you want winter food. It’s not easy to always time the Buckwheat before it goes to seed because a lot of it depends on soil conditions and rainfall. I’ve had it happen to me before and not afraid to admit it.

 

[Bassattackr]

One thing with Buckwheat if your going to throw n mow brassicas into it , is you gotta make sure you time it right and don’t start to go to seed. If it starts to seed then one you mow it down you will get lots of volunteer buckwheat. You can end up with more Buckwheat than brassicas which is a bad thing since you want winter food. It’s not easy to always time the Buckwheat before it goes to seed because a lot of it depends on soil conditions and rainfall. I’ve had it happen to me before and not afraid to admit it.

Do you have much of a problem with volunteer Buckwheat the following spring?

 

[BobinCt]

Bass: No.