Food Plots Buckwheat seed?

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That's a little pricey, but the critters love it.
I can't remember- is Buckwheat seed the larger type? About the size of a pea?
 
Now I remember. It was one of the best performing plots I had out here.
It's almost too late for this year I think.
 
I've found, in ridge-and-hollow hardwood habitat food plots, that deer don't pay Buckwheat a lot of attention in early summer (June), but later in the summer (August) and especially in fall (September/October), deer go crazy over it. I don't know why the difference in timing. Perhaps it is because native habitat is at its most nutritious and digestive early in summer, but has dried up and gone woody late in the summer and fall.

Below is a Buckwheat plot around the 4th of July. 3-5-feet tall and hardly touched by the deer. That exact same spot was eaten nearly to the ground in late September.
 

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I planted my buckwheat fairly early this year. Third week of April I think it was because there was rain in the forecast. Soil was still a little on the cold side but it germinated and grew like crazy. I checked it about a week ago it was almost knee high and deer were hammering it. There were even some beds where they had laid in it. I also mulched a lot of saplings all around that area but not all the way down to the ground so the regrowth from those stumps is incredible. That gives them another reason than just the buckwheat for being there.
 
UT-longbeard said:
$45 at Davidson coop and $55 at Franklin coop. 50lb bag
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Price has come down because we're past spring planting time. I don't think most hunters realize what a powerful addition to a fall plot that Buckwheat can be. It will die with the first freeze, but until then it can take a lot of browse pressure off the primary winter crops.
 
I'm using buckwheat as a companion crop this spring for vetch. Vetch is very slow to establish so the buckwheat acts to suppress weeds and keep browse off the vetch while it's small. Now how will the deer in a low density area actually use the vetch…don't know yet but the buckwheat has served it purpose well in getting the vetch established.
 
Buckwheat is a 7 week crop. Around 7 weeks it'll go to seed and from what Ive found, it'll just reseed itself. Depending on when you put it out you can get 3 or 4 rounds of it. Ive been planting it for 3 years now and the deer hammer it from about 4" all the way up. Its growth is so vigorous that even with heavy browse pressure it just keeps on growing.
 
Hunter0678 said:
Buckwheat is a 7 week crop. Around 7 weeks it'll go to seed and from what Ive found, it'll just reseed itself. Depending on when you put it out you can get 3 or 4 rounds of it.
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Agree with this completely. First round goes to seed in about 7-8 weeks, but I keep a crop of growing all the way until fall. Plant in late May and it is still going strong in September.
 

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