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Buckwheat
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Fagopyrum esculentum
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Click here for a downloadable, printable pdf on Buckwheat.
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Close up of buckwheat flower
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Buckwheat as a geen manure crop, 28 days.
Molokai
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Summer or cool season annual broadleaf grain
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Uses
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- Biomass/organic matter source (Dry Matter: 2,000-3,000 lbs/ac/yr)
- Very fast establishing cover
- Quick regrowth
- Weed suppression
- Insectary plant
- Topsoil conditioner
- Phosphorous scavenger
- Low fertility crop
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Plant Highlights
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- EXCELLENT for suppressing weeds, for quick growth and establishment, for attracting beneficial insects
- GOOD for increasing organic matter and improving soil structure,
- FAIR for providing erosion control
- POOR for taking up & storing excess N, for animal grazing (production, nutritional quality & palatability), for providing lasting residue (residue breaks down quickly)
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Cultural Traits
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- Good heat tolerance
- Poor drought tolerance
- Fair shade tolerance
- Fair flood tolerance
- Fair tolerance to low fertility
- pH range 4.5-6.5 (NRCS), prefers 5.0-7.0 (SAN)
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Planting
Planting depth: 1/2 - 1.5 inches
Seeding Method |
- Drilled: Seed at 48-70 lb./A (1-1.4 bu/A)
- Broadcast: Seed at 60-96 lb./A (1.2-1.5 bu/A)
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Seed Cost: .28-.70 $/lb
Seed Availability: Readily available
Cultivars
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- Cultivars commonly recommended by the Hawai`i Natural Resources Conservation Service include: ‘Japanese’ and ‘Common’.
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Mix: with sorghum-sudangrass hybrids, sunnhemp
Soil Improvements
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- Poor for loosening subsoil
- Excellent at releasing P and K
- Very good at loosening topsoil
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Pest Control
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- Root knot nematode susceptible (NRCS)
- Poor disease suppression
- Very good allelopathic properties
- Excellent weed suppression
- Excellent for attracting beneficial insects
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Management Attributes
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- Poor trafficability
- Rapid establishment and growth ideal for short windows
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Notes
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- Buckwheat attracts beneficials such as hover flies, predatory wasps, minute pirate bugs, insidious flower bugs, tachinid flies and lady beetles. To provide beneficial insect habitat, allow buckwheat to flower for at least 20 days (to allow minute pirate bugs to breed next generation).
- Buckwheat is sensitive to herbicide residues from previous crops. To check for stunting or mortality, sow and water a small test plot.
- To prevent buckwheat from becoming a weed in following crop, kill it within 7-10 days after flowering begins, before the first seeds harden and turn brown.
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Uses in the Pacific Region
No information is available in this database on this topic.
Uses in Hawai`i
The Hawai`i Natural Resources Conservation Service Technical Guide Buckwheat (cv. ‘Japanese’ ‘Common’). Their specification describes Buckwheat as follows:
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- Tolerates acid/low fertility soils
- Minimum broadcast seeding rates of 60 lbs. pure live seed/acre;
- pH range from 4.5-6.5;
- Approximate growing time 30 days;
- Approximate dry matter yield 1.5 tons/acre;
- Approximate N content 18 lbs./T dry matter;
- Add 20 lbs. of nitrogen/ton dry matter at plow down;
- Optimum planting period year round at elevations between 0-4000 ft.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Accelerating the Adoption and Implementation of Proven Cover Crop Technologies in Hawaii by Dr. John McHugh, CropCare Hawaii (posted 7/07)
UC Davis On-line Cover Crop Index:
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/cgi-win/ccrop.exe/show_crop_9
PACIFIC ISLANDS FARM MANUAL: Buckwheat
http://agrss.sherman.hawaii.edu/onfarm/crop/crop0005.html
REFERENCES
1998. Managing Cover Crops Profitably, 2nd ed. Sustainable Agriculture Network, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, USA. pp. 212.
Online excerpts: http://www.sare.org/mccp2/
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Hawai`i Field Office Technical Guide, Section IV, Code 340 "Cover and Green Manure Crop" May 1992.
If you have used this plant as a green manure in the Pacific Region, please email us with COMMENTS and FEEDBACK about this plant description so we can continue to refine this educational resource.
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Last updated on 8/10/2007
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