How can you not love buckwheat?

Native Hunter

Well-Known Member
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
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Looks great Native! What did you plant it into? I’m contemplating putting it in my brassica plot next spring, after spraying.
 
Looks great Native! What did you plant it into? I’m contemplating putting it in my brassica plot next spring, after spraying.

Thanks, I don't remember the exact date, but it didn't take long for it to fill in like you see it in the pic - just a few weeks.
 
Thanks, I don't remember the exact date, but it didn't take long for it to fill in like you see it in the pic - just a few weeks.
What did you plant it into? I’m a complete novice when it comes to buckwheat. I don’t know about fertilizer or anything. Also, do you have any problems with it reseeding after throwing and mowing?
 
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What did you plant it into? I’m a complete novice when it comes to buckwheat. I don’t know about fertilizer or anything.

It was just grass and weeds. I killed the existing vegetation with Gly, and scattered the seed a few days later. Then I mowed the dead thatch down over the seed. Buckwheat is a very forgiving plant. If will sprout and survive under adverse conditions. I didn't use any fertilizer at this location, because the ground is fairly fertile.
 
It was just grass and weeds. I killed the existing vegetation with Gly, and scattered the seed a few days later. Then I mowed the dead thatch down over the seed. Buckwheat is a very forgiving plant. If will sprout and survive under adverse conditions. I didn't use any fertilizer at this location, because the ground is fairly fertile.
Sorry for all the questions, I snuck one in on you after you already answered. Do you have any problems with it reseeding in the fall?
 
Sorry for all the questions, I snuck one in on you after you already answered. Do you have any problems with it reseeding in the fall?

It can reseed but that hasn’t been an issue for me. I have been known to throw some warm season annuals like buckwheat into a fall mix just to add a little diversity.
 
If I didn’t have to ay shipping, I’d plant every year into spent brassica plots waiting for a fall grain planting. Deer hammer it up here.
 
If I didn’t have to ay shipping, I’d plant every year into spent brassica plots waiting for a fall grain planting. Deer hammer it up here.

That's a good point - lots of areas won't have it in local stores and shipping can be expensive. One of my local stores tells me that they will get me anything I want if I give them enough advance notice. They add whatever I want to their regular orders.
 
If I didn’t have to ay shipping, I’d plant every year into spent brassica plots waiting for a fall grain planting. Deer hammer it up here.
This would be my number one use of the buckwheat. I’m trying to go as much throw and mow as possible, but when planting fall cereal grain and clover into buckwheat, would I need to fertilize? Nitrogen would be my only concern, I can throw p&k down with no worries. If buckwheat doesn’t fix nitrogen at all, I’d have to work in the urea, which isn’t that big of a deal, since I rotate the brassica plot around in a good sized area each year.
 
i had 3 acre plot of buckwheat that last weekend was mowing so can break down for planting in fall well i kicked out doe and 2 fawns & my 2 biggest bucks out of there bedded down......none of them got out of their seat until i was within 20-30 ft of them. In fact the doe i kicked out first and she circled the plot and bedded on the other end while i'm still on the tractor.

Always thought of buckwheat as great summer cover crop but not as deer bedding...proves very versatile
 
I like to watch the bees when the buckwheat is blooming. They seem as excited as I do about how things are going. Deer seem to like it a lot also and they do sleep in it when it gets high enough. I am hopefully going to mow mine down next week. It has been very wet here.
 
I like to watch the bees when the buckwheat is blooming. They seem as excited as I do about how things are going. Deer seem to like it a lot also and they do sleep in it when it gets high enough. I am hopefully going to mow mine down next week. It has been very wet here.
If I go this route next spring, I might have to put a strip of it in the bee plot behind the house.
 
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