Sowing Buckwheat without Tilling?

[bluelacedredhead]

I've pretty much finished planting the garden. But need to sow a covercrop of buckwheat at one end to keep the weeds from re-invading.
My husband mowed the weeds down to ground level. But it's a large area that needs to be sown.
I suppose that I should work it up to plant the buckwheat, but I was wondering if it's necessary?
What do you think my chances for decent germination would be if I just cast seed (heavily) over the mown area and then watered?

[TastyofHasty]

Hi Bluelaced,
Obviously, I have no expertise in the area; but yesterday did a search on Masanobu Fukuoka & found this 1978 Mother Earth News article about him ... (you are probably already familiar with these articles 'cause your idea about mowing & then sowing on top is just like what he says he does)...

http://www.motherearthnews.com/top_articles/1978_July_August/The_Amazing_Natural_Farm_of_Masanobu_Fukuoka

And then there's this 1982 Mother Earth News article about him: http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1982_July_August/The_Plowboy_Interview__Masanobu_Fukuoka

If you DO just sow your buckwheat on top, let us know how it turns out, okay? It would be very interesting.

[cReAtIoN gRoAnS]

Don't know about everyone else but when I planted mine it worked well to disc it under....or to cover it a bit...course I did a pretty big section so used a tractor.

But I would "plant" it.

Later!
Chad

[winter_unfazed]

Buckwheat basically is a weed, so it should grow OK without tilling.

[TastyofHasty]

Upon re-reading the article about Mr. Fukuoka, it appears that he DOES cover the seed ... with straw from the previous harvest. And the timing is important. He says at one point,

If seeds are sown while the preceding crop is still ripening in the field, those seeds will germinate ahead of the weeds. Winter weeds sprout only after the rice has been harvested . . . but by that lime the winter grain already has a head start. Summer weeds sprout right after the harvest of barley and rye . . . but the rice is alreadv growing strongly. Timing the seeding in such a way than there is no interval between succeeding crops gives the grain a great advantage over the weeds.

And about growing vegetables by just tossing seeds into the area he wants them to grow in:

The important thing is to know the right time to plant. For the spring vegetables, the right time is when the winter weeds are dying back . . . and just before the summer weeds have sprouted. For the fall sowing, seeds should be tossed out when the summer grasses are fading away . . . and the winter weeds have not yet appeared.

It is best to wait for a rain that is likely to last for several days. Cut a swath in the weed cover and put out the vegetable seeds. There is no need to cover them with soil: Just lay the weeds you have cut back over the seeds to act as a mulch and to hide them from the birds and chickens until they can germinate. Usually the weeds must be cut back two or three times in order to give the vegetable seedlings a head start . . . but sometimes just once is enough.

... well, I'm pretty sure that would work for roquette (a/k/a aragula, a/k/a "rocket"). Hoo doggie, I am going to have a lot of roquette seed next year. Too bad I'm the only one 'round here that LIKES roquette. Wonder if it would work for broccoli, radishes, whatever else we might have a lot of seed of(?) BTW ... does anyone know a good website for buying buckwheat seed?

Guessing ... at the time when the summer grasses are fading away ... is that ... maybe late August(?) (around here, zone 6b).

[bluelacedredhead]

Tasty, thanks for the info.
I did exactly as the article you cited recommends. "It is best to wait for a rain that is likely to last for several days. Cut a swath in the weed cover and put out the...seed". It's rained every day since my original posting. So whether it's buckwheat growing out there now interspersed with the weedlings, time will tell.

[TastyofHasty]

Cool, Bluelaced!

[johno]

Fukuoka also sometimes pelletizes his seed with clay. If I remember correctly, he mixes it with clay and presses it through a screen to make it so. In this line of thought, couldn't one just scatter a thin layer of soil after scattering the seed, then cover with straw?

Sorry this idea is a little too late...

[TastyofHasty]

Bluelaced, just wondering ... how did the no-till buckwheat planting go?

[justdoit]

Tasty, we get our buckwheat through a farm feed store that orders in other types of seed. We have found it in Green Forest, AR in the past. Call around and ask. You won't find it until spring.

Watch your buckwheat and when the seed from the first flowers have matured you can till it in and a new crop will grow up from those seeds. This is a favorite trick my DH uses all the time to replant for more 'green manure'. Four crops are not hard to do here. MK

[flowerpower]

I planted some in a bucket. It did really well. It flowered and got seeds.

[stonysoil]

i have the one straw revolution book .. it would be ideal to grow that way but its not as successsful in my northeatern climate.. and i get some pretty invasive weeds.. jerisalem artichokes and quack grass that nothing can compete with.. it would be great to grow through a living mulch

[felicia curl]

Buckwheat seeds are also available from Territorial Seed Co. in Oregon. Nice plant very pretty

[Carolina-Family-Farm]

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g158/CFF1111/?action=view&current=Picture054_edited.jpg

This patch was scattered with a hand crank seeder on fresh tilled ground and section hared under.

Can you spot the rabbit in this pic ?

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g158/CFF1111/?action=view&current=Picture079_edited.jpg

[TastyofHasty]

Wow, that's a lot of buckwheat! Yeah, I saw the rabbit! You do learn to look "through the greenery" in the country.

More questions about buckwheat: about how much buckwheat (grain) do you get from each plant? When do you harvest it? And -- How do you harvest it? And -- how do you store it?

[Carolina-Family-Farm]

TastyofHasty:

Buckwheat here servers two proposes.

.1 Late summer feed for a growing number of bees.
.2 Green manure for alternating gardens

We don't harvest any of the buckwheat, we just keep roto-tilling the buckwheat under and it produces a new crop in a few weeks. This is a very valuable feed source late in the summer for the bees and a great way to build up the land.

This summer you could hear the bees in the buckwheat a long way away from it; my dad said he didn't know that there were that many bees in the whole county .................... :D

[TastyofHasty]

I have about 3 cups of buckwheat seed ... I wonder ... if I threw some out into the grass in early spring (but not now, 'cause it would get eaten by all the hungry little critters out there) ... would it be able to compete with the established grass?

That's the question re. "sowing buckwheat without tilling," eh?

We ARE working on getting the elderly tiller we bought at a garage sale going. Something about a "carburetor diaphragm." Mechanical types know this stuff. We are fortunate to have a "mechanical type" living in the neighborhood ... but he is in high demand & hard to come by.

In the book Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, she talks about how they harvested some grain or other by cutting the stalks and (I think) making them into shocks to dry in the field ... then bringing the shocks of grain into the barn & hitting 'em with flails (she describes how to make flails)to knock the grain onto the floor ... then "winnowing" the grain by pouring it into another container in a wind, letting the wind blow away the non-grain bits. I LOVE that sort of old-timey country stuff. A lot of work, but satisfying.:)

The thing about buckwheat is ... it's supposed to contain RUTIN ... which works in the body to support Vitamin C. So all those old-time folk who ate buckwheat pancakes & other buckwheat stuff were making themselves HEALTHY ... unbeknownst to themselves. And mebbe that's partly why us present-day folk are lacking some of that old-time healthiness ... hey ... from what I'm reading (googling now) ... it also helps strengthen veins & capillaries ... like hawthorn, maybe?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutin
It can combine with cations, supplying nutrients from the soil to the cells in plants.

http://www.vitaminstoday.com.au/rutin-vitamin-tabs-p-785.html
Rutin comprises a major part of the bioflavonoid group of nutrients, occurring together in nature with Vitamin C. Bioflavonoids contribute to many of Vitamin C’s actions such as immune system support. Bioflavonoids themselves are often supplemented for problems where improved capillary strength is needed, such as bleeding gums, easy bruising and bleeding ulcers worsened by weak capillaries. Less than twenty years ago the use of Rutin in restoring capillary fragility and permeability to normal was clinically established. Since then, more than 1000 scientific publications have appeared all over the world dealing with Rutin as a Vitamin P-like substance and its particular therapeutic applications. Rutin is known to be useful for decreasing bleeding from weak blood vessels, and therefore may be useful in the treatment of varicose veins, haemorrhoids, excess menstrual bleeding, postpartum bleeding, nosebleeds, and diabetic vascular weakness.

[Carolina-Family-Farm]

Normally when we roto-till it under a lot of the seeds are still on top, birds flock to the field in droves. I think your buckwheat would be fine if you covered it with a light layer of compost just to hide it from birds looking for a free lunch.

I love hearing about the old time ways myself, if I could sign up to back up a 100 years mine would be the first name on the list. :)

[TastyofHasty]

if you covered it with a light layer of compost just to hide it from birds looking for a free lunch

... compost is mighty hard to come by 'round here ... I tried starting a compost pile, but now just toss any 'compostables' right onto the top of the garden areas. Chickens scratch around in it, rain soaks it into the ground ... I missed getting the leaves off the road this year (road grader got to the road before I did). Went and ordered that carburetor diaphragm thing for the tiller ... should be "in" in about two weeks. Here's hopin!!

[uncasrabbit]

Needs milder temps and rain to get going. I still get volunteers from an area I seeded three years ago. I have some of them blooming now in 90 degree weather. Best honeybee plant ever. The local feed and seed runs out of this, hard to keep it stocked in our area. If you combine buckwheat with millet, you have I believe all the essential amino acids and more than enough vitamins/minerals to equal the nutrition of any serving of meat. Buckwheat is a fruit, by the way. Good for non-gluten diets. Good in general for lots of uses!:)

[herb girl]

Wow, thanks for reviving a great old post, good reading.