Where's the best place to buy 50lb bags of buckwheat? Coop? Don't want to have to order any and pay for shipping.
Food Plots Buckwheat
- Thread starter EastTNboy
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JCDEERMAN
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Coop is where I've gotten mine. Prices have gotten fairly high though due to all the YouTuber food plot planters pushing it
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Eddie Murphy got his at Spanky's place.
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
Yep...if your local Co-op doesnt have it then they can get it. Last we got was around $80 per 50lb...more than double what we had paid previously...but on a more positive note...It has a great germination rate (even with throw and mow) deer will nibble on it but wont mow it down, let it go to seed and the turkeys and dove love it (also it will reseed itself) Its a great soil builder....but one of the most impressive things we experienced is buckwheats abilty to surpress weeds..some of the cleanest food plots we had that year...only downside for us is price.
This is why I'm wanting to plant it. Help build the soil and suppress weeds.
Quailman
Well-Known Member
Wow, I remember not long ago when it was $0.45 per pound! But, it will grow pretty much anywhere!
buckaroo
Well-Known Member
I ordered a bag just the other day from CO OP, 45$
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
Good deal! Glad to see local prices drop back closer towards normal....online prices are still ridiculous.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
Really??? If this has gotten back to normal all over the place, I'm thrilled!
How many pounds was the bag?
BSK
Well-Known Member
I've had real trouble getting it, even through the Co-op. Ordered some last year and it never came in.
But it is a great plant. Will grow in poor soil. Although I've found deer like it more as an early fall plant than a summer plant. I've planted it in my summer mixes and deer hardly touched it. But in fall plantings in August, deer tear it up until the first frost kills it.
But it is a great plant. Will grow in poor soil. Although I've found deer like it more as an early fall plant than a summer plant. I've planted it in my summer mixes and deer hardly touched it. But in fall plantings in August, deer tear it up until the first frost kills it.
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
Called local Co-op in middle TN (Dickson) and buckwheat is in stock $58 per 50lb. So in our area its come down quite a bit. Still high but better.
BSK
Well-Known Member
That IS better! I too was paying upwards of $80/bag.
Of course, part of that is because many of the food plotting YouTubers from up North have finally gotten off their ONLY PLANT BUCKWHEAT! kick.
Quailman
Well-Known Member
Why are they promoting buckwheat so much? Because it's good at building organic matter? It has such a short growing season that it really needs to be planted in a mixture.
hard county
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Like you said soil building. You can double crop on red clay, terminate before it seeds. I don't think there is anything better at what it does.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Exactly why the guys far north promote it so hard... planting in June, then crimping it down for fall plots end of July.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Don't get me wrong... im not poo pooing buckwheat....
That being said, it doesn't give me the bang for my buck for summer plots due to cost. I'm a cheapskate... hard to beat cheap generic forage beans plus cheap sorgham plus cheap millet for summer plots to build and aerate soils.
That being said, it doesn't give me the bang for my buck for summer plots due to cost. I'm a cheapskate... hard to beat cheap generic forage beans plus cheap sorgham plus cheap millet for summer plots to build and aerate soils.
BSK
Well-Known Member
A couple of reasons. First, they are new to food plotting. We here in the South have been experimenting with food plot seed blends for 30 years. Up North, food plots are somewhat of a recent phenomenon. I remember when I was still working for Grant and we started managing properties in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Those hunters thought we were crazy to plant crops just for the deer to eat. That concept just hadn't made it into that part of the deer world at that time. So their knowledge base about food plot plants is nowhere near what it is in the South. They will "discover" a new (to them) plant and suddenly that plant is the be-all plant. They then quickly produce several YouTube videos about it so they are the "first" to bring it to attention. And YouTube being what it is (a copycat world), every other northern land management YouTuber then jumps on the bandwagon. Then after a couple of years, they realize this plant alone has downsides. They then have to be the first to tell everyone DON'T plant this plant (even though they were the ones who first said plant it alone). The YouTube land management world is pretty crazy and loaded with managers with little experience in land management.
Off my soapbox now...
What value did they see in Buckwheat? In a heavy seeding rate monoculture, it does an amazing job of blocking weed/grass competition. They loved that. It will grow in just about any soil. It does fairly well being broadcast without incorporation into the soil (drilled or covered). Deer like it. But like any single plant, a monoculture has downsides, and it took them several years to learn that lesson.
buckaroo
Well-Known Member
50 lb bags, ended up getting 2 bags
Quailman
Well-Known Member
No doubt it has value as I've been planting it on and off for almost 20 years. I definitely like the short maturity date, giving you an opportunity for a double crop in the growing season. Deer definitely seem to prefer it (at least on my farms), and it's a prolific seed producer for turkeys, doves, etc. But would I rank it high from that aspect as far as a food plot species to plant? Probably not, but as you mentioned, it's great at reducing weed competition, increasing organic matter, etc.
I would also never plant it as a single species IF I was wanting a quality summer food plot. It would always be in a mixture.
Also glad to see the price coming down a little!
I have a mixture I'll be planting this summer that consists of laredo soybeans, iron clay cowpeas, sorghum, millet, sunflower, and buckwheat. Looking forward to seeing how well it does.
