I planted before all the rain, this stuff is easy to deal with. It's good stuff to plant if your thinking of something to plant or mix in. My sunflowers are popping up also. Timing is so important when doing this. I am a Novice but enjoy it and all the advice on this site!
Food Plots Buckwheat coming !
- Thread starter deerfever
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BSK
Well-Known Member
I look forward to seeing mine I planted two weeks ago. Should really be up by now.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
I'm hoping to plant this in our newly-created plots in early July for a number of beneficial factors. Never planted it, but it seems you can't go wrong with it
Planted 25 lbs of buckwheat Friday. To be honest I've never had the chance to see buckwheat mature out because in NC where I grew up, the deer never let it get up. I planted that on my land here in TN and dang if there weren't 19 does out there in my field yesterday evening. I gotta feeling what I planted Friday will not make it long once it gets up.
BSK
Well-Known Member
One of the things I like about it is it's just a 10-12 week plant. That means you can plant it into early June and it will just be finishing up about the time you want to plant fall plantings.
It also makes a great "cover crop," in that it can be mixed in lightly (10-20 pounds per acre) with other mixes. Because it comes up so quickly, deer spend their time browsing the buckwheat instead of the plants you are really interested in growing. Nothing knocks down beans and peas faster than early browse pressure (just after germination). Using buckwheat to take the browse pressure of of these more desirable plants gives them a chance to grow to the stage they can handle browse pressure better.
I use buckwheat even in my fall plantings. It matures out just about the time the first frost comes along (which would have killed it anyway).
It also makes a great "cover crop," in that it can be mixed in lightly (10-20 pounds per acre) with other mixes. Because it comes up so quickly, deer spend their time browsing the buckwheat instead of the plants you are really interested in growing. Nothing knocks down beans and peas faster than early browse pressure (just after germination). Using buckwheat to take the browse pressure of of these more desirable plants gives them a chance to grow to the stage they can handle browse pressure better.
I use buckwheat even in my fall plantings. It matures out just about the time the first frost comes along (which would have killed it anyway).
BSK
Well-Known Member
I prefer to plant mid-August, but I base everything on the weather forecast. I want to plant 2-3 days before a good rain, with a little more rain forecast over the following week. last year, I got my fall plots in around August 10-15. Here's a picture of the buckwheat right at the beginning of bow season (late September), and this was planted at only 20 lbs per acre. Growing underneath the buckwheat was wheat, crimson clover and Austrian Winter Peas.
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I've read it is good for weed suppression as well???
BSK
Well-Known Member
I don't think it has natural herbicidal qualities like cereal rye does, but it germinates and grows so fast it could easily shade out weeds. That's why it's important not to seed too heavy if you're using it as a cover crop. I wouldn't seed higher than 20 lbs per acre in a mix.
That's exactly how I got started planting buckwheat. My local WMA guy that plants fields told me to plant it between where the deer come from and my sunflowers. It has worked very nice keeping the deer out of my sunflowers until they can mature. It's good stuff and like you said really versatile to put out at different times. You mow the stuff once it seeds it comes right back! Very inexpensive also
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