# Question on planting Buckwheat



## ranchdog (Jan 21, 2005)

I have a question on planting buckwheat. Per your great advice I plan to put in my first year food plots by spraying this spring and plant the buckwheat then spraying again and disk in the buckwheat late summer for my real planting in the Fall of clover and hunting draw such as oats and brassicas. 

My question is when do you decide to kill off the buckwheat? When do you then disk it in? Are you killing it before it goes to seed or are you trying to let is grow as long as possible until your ready get ready for the fall planting. Is letting it go to seed a bad thing? Are you mowing it during the summer, in other words how are you managing the buckwheat planting? My main object is getting clovers in and ready for the following years spring.

Thanks, Ranchdog


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## bishs (Aug 30, 2000)

The buckwheat will ripen in 65 days. It grows fast and very aggressive, you will not need any weed control. You should disk it under before it dries down and goes to seed. When the buckwheat is full of white blossoms, it's a good time to disk it down. It is amazing how much volume it produces. You don't have to fertilize, but you may want to fertilize to increase tonnage. If you disk it down after it goes to seed, it will keep coming back. 

Don't plant it to early, buckwheat doesn't like the cold weather. I usually plant it the first of July. The end of August should be perfect for disking it in, and you will be ready for your fall plantings.


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## farm hunter (Sep 6, 2004)

I'll pretty much second Bish's advice. When using any planting for green manure in a fall planting - you kill and/or till it when the seed is in the "dough" stage. At that point with any plot - the plants have obtained about all they can from the soil - and begin to transfer the nutrients to seed production. At no other time will these nutrients be so easily "broken down" in the soil.

In Central NY (Zone 4) - We plant buckwheat in Mid June for use as green manure.


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## NATTY BUMPO (May 12, 2001)

I'll just add a couple of notes to the above posters comments- IME they're dead on. Around here, we call this buckwheat/small grain crop rotation the "Ed's Soil Builder Plan".  And I can testify that - "Its Working"  

Like many of you, we are working with some pretty thin, light and infertile forest soils. Buckwheat will grow, and grow well, without much fuss or fertilizer. We generally plant buckwheat in early June and then till down and plant a small grain ( winter wheat, winter rye or BFO) in late August right before the weather changes and the fall rains start. BTW, the new 3PTH rototiller we bot last spring is the "bees knees" for this task. The deer just luv the stuff and the bw become a prime turkey poult buggin' site. In just a couple of years, the buildup of tilth and texture in those soils has been very gratifying and we've been able to start a couple of new clover/ legume plots where practically nothing would grow beforehand. Good Luck.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

It is always interesting to read about anothers suggestions concerning a plant that you have some knowledge of.
I believe that it was 40 yrs. ago that we put in buckwheat for the first time. Pheasants were the target. 
Deer love the stuff. They will eat it while it is in the blossom stage & the seeds. By mid-Aug. our plants are stripped clean of seeds and are ready to be disked under.
It will come up early the next spring & won't amount to much because of the cold weather. 
Turkeys, pheasants, many other birds, & deer will all visit your field. 
You might consider planting some ww or field rye in addition to the oats. The deer will start eating the ww or rye as soon as it is out of the ground. They don't seem to care for oats much until mid to late Oct. The rye & wheat will also be eaten during the winter if available & in the spring until about April 20th in the mid-Mich area. They are then an excellent green manure. If you let the rye grow to maturity, turkeys & deer will eat the heads.

L & O 

L & O


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## GrizzlyBear (Apr 27, 2003)

L&O,
My experience with BW is pretty much the same as yours a far as birds are concerned. The turkeys and pheasants really hammered the stuff, however, the deer never touched it. We have really good soil and only planted the buckwheat b/c we won it at the QDM banquet. Probably has something to do with our location, prime farm country, and the abundant food sources come late summer. The deer literally have thousands of acres of soys around and probably prefer them at that time.


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## Jeff Sturgis (Mar 28, 2002)

Ranchdog,

As far as timing goes, I like the lack of frost to determine when I plant in the spring/early summer, and the planting dates of my targeted fall attractant to determine when I kill in the late summer. For example, I like to plant my brassica/clover by the first of August because it is common for us to get frosts by Labor Day. If your brassicas only have a week or two before the first frost you will have a very poor crop. When I've done that in the past I'd end up with 4-6" plants that were eaten almost overnight. On the other hand, I like to plant the grain/clover plantings by Mid-August but up until Labor Day isn't that bad. If I were going with an oats/rye or wheat/clover I'd try and plant towards the middle of August because you'd like to get those oats going a couple weeks at least before a good frost, where as a wheat or rye/clover combo you could go a little later because the wheat and rye are both more tolerant of frosts and freezes.

As far as maintainance, you just plant it and let it grow. Most of the time I'm planting around the first of June and just hoping for no frost...I've got caught on a late frost before and it wiped out the planting literally overnight. With how short the timing is around here the plants shouldn't have time to mature and I've found they experienced a very good kill during my late summer spraying. I spray approximately 2 weeks before my expected late summer planting.

What you will then end up with is a great fall attractant with established clover, followed by a very nice and clean clover crop the following year. By utalizing oats at about a 50% rate if you go with a grain/clover planting your clover will not have too much competition the following year....only about a 50% covering of rye or wheat, which ever you choose to plant in combo with the oats. This year I'll go with 50#'s of rye, 50#'s of oats, and the recommended per acre planting of clover. Personally, on new fields in especially poor soils rye is very hard to beat in combination with the oats. After a brassica/clover planting you will be left with pure clover the following year.

The following late summer you can kill the worst 1/2 and replant your favorite fall attractant/clover combo so that you still have a great hunting season draw, but maintain your base of clover for the majority of the year. 

Another reason to plant a brassica/clover planting by 8/1 is to safeguard against a poor hunting season attraction. If your brassicas experience heavy usage by early to mid September, an adequate salvage job can be experienced by broadcasting a heavy rate of rye on top of the planting...around 200#'s per acre. Your clover will have a harder time competing the following spring so you can hit it with a grass herbacide at that time, but the broadcasted rye will give you a good fall hunting season draw...just in case your brassica planting is destroyed.

In the past few years I've followed up with 100#'s of Nitrogen per acre on top of the brassica planting about 4 weeks after germination.


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## MAGNUS (Jun 14, 2004)

Here in eastern PA, I plant buckwheat in mid-June...along with black oil Sunflower sees...and just leave it until the following Spring. It has multiple purposes including...loosening up previously unplanted sod, crowds and shades out weeds and grasses, great deer foraging while green and even into winter, and great seeds for turkeys during Fall, Winter, and Spring until gone. Excellent, and totally under-rated, food plot planting. It's cheap, very easy to plant, and various game species love it.


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## ranchdog (Jan 21, 2005)

Thanks everybody for the solid advice. I think I have a good idea how to move forward thanks to all your generous knowledge you have shared. I will keep you posted when we start in the spring.

Thanks, Ranchdog


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