Food Plots Buckwheat

[Vermin93]

When would be the best time to plant buckwheat for a spring/summer plot if you plan to disc it in and plant radishes for the fall?

 

[Hunt 365]

A frost will zap it. April 15, or you can risk it now

 

[Hunt 365]

It is a great builder for green manure and deer and turkeys will use it too. Good choice

 

[Vermin93]

Thanks. I will probably have to plant the first weekend of April when I'm there for the turkey opener. Hopefully there will be no more frost after that.

 

[Big Pop]

We planted it last year and both deer and turkeys hammered it,

 

[Vermin93]

We planted it last year and both deer and turkeys hammered it,

Do you recall when you planted it?

 

[Big Pop]

It was later, about mid May due to some delays

 

[MickThompson]

Keep in mind that buckwheat is short-lived, so if you want to provide forage through the summer, you need to mix something else in with it. I like to plant in late may so native browse is up enough to buffer browse pressure during establishment.

 

[Vermin93]

Keep in mind that buckwheat is short-lived, so if you want to provide forage through the summer, you need to mix something else in with it. I like to plant in late may so native browse is up enough to buffer browse pressure during establishment.

What do you mean by short lived? I read that it grows pretty fast and won't die until the first frost. I was planning to plant the buckwheat in April, disc it in around mid-August, and then plant my fall / winter mix in early September. Is that a good plan?

 

[PickettSFHunter]

It'll seed out and be pretty well done in like 60 days. It'll reseed itself pretty well on some sites though just by disking it in.


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[MickThompson]

What this guy said^. if I was going to plant in April and hope my deer still had something to eat in September, I would either go with a very late maturing soybean or lab lab. That's not to say you can't mix in some buckwheat, etc. I also like to push my planting date back closer to Memorial Day-you want abundant, high quality forage during the lat summer nutritional stress period. If you have been managing for habitat properly, deer will have plenty to eat early in the growing season.

 

[Jmed]

Although I have no experience with buckwheat, I agree with pushing back the planting date. I planted a large field in ky with eagle beans and iron and clay peas. The deer were hammering my surrounding neighbors ag beans, so my field didnt really get "found" until later. When the neighbors beans yellowed in the fall, mine stayed green and lush about a month longer and it ended up being a great place to bow hunt into late october.

 

[Jon54]

I am the least knowledgable guy on the planet about food plots. But I just rec'd the latest edition of the QDMA book on food plots which is written by aUT professor. When I get off from work, I'll ck the book and let you know what it says about the plant