Buckwheat

[corydd7]

So I found a new product from whitetail institute https://whitetailinstitute.com/revive/.

Anyone have any input on buckwheat? I have some crappy rocky soil where almost nothing grows the way I would like it to.

Buckwheat seems to be great for soil, my question is should I plant straight buckwheat or buy a product such as above with sorghum mixed in? It's no more then a third of an acre.

[Kmartinson]

Did you get ph? Mixed seeding is great. 

[bigpaul]

I plant buckwheat as a summer cover crop. Deer eat it but don't destroy it. It is a soil builder and referred to as green manure. Very easy to grow in just about any soil.  

 

[wolc123]

I planted it a few times, mostly as a cover crop on ground that was tilled up in the spring, to control weeds over the summer.   It does not tolerate frost, so it should not be planted before June 1.   Basically, it was a waste of time on my mostly level, low-lying, rich, dark soil.    On hilly, marginal soil, it works good for building up organic matter, while controlling erosion.    On my flat land, I prefer to control the weeds by working them over every few weeks with a drag.    I get better fall-planted clover/wheat plots, when I do that over the summer, compared to when I work in early June planted buckwheat.  That is because the buckwheat usually re-sprouts and partially shades the wheat and clover, until the frost finally kills it off.  

Working the ground multiple times, thru the summer, would not be good on hills and where the soil is poor, because erosion would increase from the extra cultivation and make the soil even worse.  That is where buckwheat would be worth a try, especially if you want to keep your venison "organic" (no herbicides).  Buckwheat is a good natural weed stopper.       

Buckwheat will usually be killed off by frost by October 1, opening of bow season, so I have no use for it on flat land.   I think the main reason folks like to try it is because it has "buck" in its name.   Unless you have hilly, poor soil, I see no good use for it in a foodplot.  

Edited February 6, 2022 by wolc123

[Nytracker]

We use to plant buckwheat . As an early season crop the deer love it. Once its brown it becomes a desert. No draw . Deer cross it without stopping to get to winter wheat. Would not be a option for me again .

[grampy]

Buckwheat/sorghum never did much for us either, as a summer crop. Deer would always find a more preferred food sourse close by. Try an oats clover mix instead. Deer seem to like this much better. During summer, cut it every few weeks to about four inches. Come late summer, let it grow out. It will stay green well throughout the deer season. It will also grow in hard rocky soil.

[Kmartinson]

I would blend all of these suggestions and eventually you could have some more quality substrate. You dont have to buy a fancy mix go to your local farm store and experiment for a couple seasons.  Alfalfa and clover seem awesome for us and beets/turnips in late season.

[stubborn1VT]

I think it's great as a soil builder and easy to grow.  Deer don't usually need a summer food source.  I believe it would be worth planting to build organic matter, along with rye.  I usually just frost seed clover for the summer, but this year I plan to plant some buckwheat for the bees.  Sounds like some challenging conditions to grow in, but buckwheat and rye will grow most anywhere.

[Farflung]

A lot of the enthusiasm for buckwheat comes from its name. Who wouldn't want to  plant something  that  is like wheat to deer. Problem is  that  the  name supposedly derives from the german word, buche. That means beech as in the beech  tree. If you look at the  buckwheat  seed, it does look like a small beech seed. 

I  planted buckwheat for a number of years. It is easy to grow if it has no weed competition, even on soil just lightly tilled or dragged if it had a bath in round-up. Does not get much use by deer, is a great green manure crop. Mow mid summer and plant to something deer like. As mentioned, the  bees like it.

[Berniez]

You think deer don’t use it because once the stuff starts growing so quickly, you don’t notice just how much they eat.  For marginal fields; spray the field , broadcast the buckwheat, cultipack and stand back. Buckwheat smothers weeds.  In mid-August you broadcast your clover and run over the buckwheat with a cultipacker.  That usually kills the buckwheat and will hold moisture in the ground allowing the clover to sprout. The clover will grow through the dying buckwheat using it as cover.

Alternately If you’re afraid of not killing the buckwheat by just using the cultipacker:: spray with Round- Up. Broadcast the clover through the buckwheat. Then use the cultipacker to run over the buckwheat and increase clover to soil contact. In any case it works great and the bees will thank you too.

Clover grows best when planted in August

[suburbanfarmer]

3 hours ago, Berniez said:

You think deer don’t use it because once the stuff starts growing so quickly, you don’t notice just how much they eat.  For marginal fields; spray the field , broadcast the buckwheat, cultipack and stand back. Buckwheat smothers weeds.  In mid-August you broadcast your clover and run over the buckwheat with a cultipacker.  That usually kills the buckwheat and will hold moisture in the ground allowing the clover to sprout. The clover will grow through the dying buckwheat using it as cover.

 

Alternately If you’re afraid of not killing the buckwheat by just using the cultipacker:: spray with Round- Up. Broadcast the clover through the buckwheat. Then use the cultipacker to run over the buckwheat and increase clover to soil contact. In any case it works great and the bees will thank you too.

 

Clover grows best when planted in August

 

Or frost seed clover in the next month

[wolc123]

I usually broadcast plain old winter wheat into tilled ground, after September 1, cultipack, broadcast clover, then cultipack again.   The clover always looks great the next year on those plots.   The winter wheat is also a good draw the first fall.  By the looks of my plots right now, that wheat seems to have also been the preferred forage of the deer over the last two winter months or so.   I would try your buckwheat trick, but I am afraid my deer might starve the first winter after that.  

I had 1.5 and 2.5 acre corn plots last year, and that is where I am putting in white clover this year.  I will brush-hog them in the spring, when it gets dry enough (there was still a little corn left on the smaller plot last week but its nearly all eaten up now).  The deer have been hitting the adjacent wheat plots really hard, the corn yield was exceptional on the smaller plot, and I trapped out most of the coons, so the corn has lasted way longer than normal.  After I chop those old corn stalks in the spring, I will disk up those two plots, then control weeds with a drag after every rain.

I am going to try a slight variation this year, on those two plots.  Half of each will be the same as last year (wheat and clover planted after September 1).   The other half will be oats and clover (planted the same way I do the wheat later), but planted in mid-August.  I am doing that for one reason - early antlerless gun season.   Oats are preferred by deer significantly more than wheat in the fall.    The early antlerless gun season seemed to be a huge success here in wmu 9f last September, so I assume they will do it again this year.

I am only doing half of my plots that way, so I will have a good comparison of August planted vs September planted clover the next year, and the deer will still have that wheat for a winter food source.  Maybe, I will try your buckwheat trick on the center part of the larger plot, where the soil is not as good.  That was an old creek bed that the county re-routed about 50 years ago and nothing ever grows very well there.  That way, I can compare the clover grown with wheat, oats, and "rolled" buckwheat, the following year.  

As long as I can keep my cost of boneless (except for neck roasts) venison down around a buck a pound, after subtracting all input costs, I will be happy.  The buckwheat should help with that because fuel is looking like it will be mighty expensive this year and that will save me lots of that by eliminating the need for tillage over the summer.  I like to keep my venison as "organic" as possible by minimizing herbicide usage.  

The only place I use gly, is directly on the corn rows, applied as I cultivate.  I get about 3 years out of 2.5 gallons of gly, and that saves me big bucks in fertilizer and fuel, both of which will be astronomically priced this year, from what I hear.  

 

6 hours ago, Berniez said:

You think deer don’t use it because once the stuff starts growing so quickly, you don’t notice just how much they eat.  For marginal fields; spray the field , broadcast the buckwheat, cultipack and stand back. Buckwheat smothers weeds.  In mid-August you broadcast your clover and run over the buckwheat with a cultipacker.  That usually kills the buckwheat and will hold moisture in the ground allowing the clover to sprout. The clover will grow through the dying buckwheat using it as cover.

 

Alternately If you’re afraid of not killing the buckwheat by just using the cultipacker:: spray with Round- Up. Broadcast the clover through the buckwheat. Then use the cultipacker to run over the buckwheat and increase clover to soil contact. In any case it works great and the bees will thank you too.

 

Clover grows best when planted in August

 

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by wolc123

[Trad bow]

Our soil is terrible and buckwheat is one of the few things that grow well.  The bees love it and the turkeys along with other small game really hammer it too.  

[wolc123]

40 minutes ago, Trad bow said:

Our soil is terrible and buckwheat is one of the few things that grow well.  The bees love it and the turkeys along with other small game really hammer it too.  

It’s also pretty when them little white flowers come out before going to seed and I can see why the bees like it.  
 

The German name makes sense and brings back some memories of stories my grandfather would tell.  His great grandfather came over here from there, and homesteaded our farm prior to the Civil war.  
 

When he talked about buckwheat, grandpa would always say: plant in June and harvest “in October drunk or sober”.    I am definitely picking up a bag when I buy my fertilizer this spring, if just for an excuse to enjoy a little more Genny.  

Edited February 12, 2022 by wolc123