Market Farming

[Janet Bachmann <janetb AT ncat.org>]

My experience is that buckwheat does not stand up to mowing and does not 
have enough biomass to be a good mulch like sorghum-Sudangrass.  But it 
does grow very quickly from seed, is flowering within 30 days, and has 
mature seed at about 45 days.  At that point, if you mow it or lightly 
disc it in, you will get another lush green cover crop, unless it is too 
late in the season and it gets killed by frost.  An organic market 
gardener in Missouri told me 15 or so years ago that he got 3 buckwheat 
cover crops in a summer in this way. 
Janet Bachmann
NW Arkansas also (zone 6 or 7)

Steve Diver wrote:

> I've got a buckwheat cover crop that is lush green
> and starting to flower.   
>
> Can you cut buckwheat a few inches above
> the ground -- letting the tops fall over as a mulch,
> to encourage re-growth from the stems -- the same
> way you can manage sorghum-sudan grass?
>
> Steve Diver
> Northwest Arkansas
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