How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Buckwheat

Have you ever come across buckwheat pancakes, buckwheat flour, or buckwheat honey and wondered what the buckwheat plant is? Is it anything like regular wheat found in bread and pasta?

Although it is often used similarly to wheat, buckwheat is not related at all. Unlike wheat flour, buckwheat flour is gluten-free. In general, this crop is unlike cereal grain crops. The seeds from a mature plant are ground up and used as flour for baked goods like pancakes. The flowers are known to benefit pollinators, and honey from hives of bees that utilize buckwheat flowers is sold as buckwheat honey.

Beyond food products, hulls from the triangular-shaped seeds are used to make buckwheat pillows.

One of the best things about including buckwheat in the garden is using it in rotation with other plants. Buckwheat plays a great role as a cover crop, attracting beneficial insects, controlling weeds, and improving soil health. These benefits and the care for growing buckwheat will be covered in more detail as you read on.

All About Buckwheat

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) was domesticated and grown five to seven thousand years ago in Asia. After originating in China, it spread to Russia and continued on to Europe. Eventually, buckwheat seeds crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the American colonies during their infancy in the 1600s.

Since then, buckwheat production has not been very popular, with many farmers contracted to grow it rather than choosing to. In the United States, production has been most popular in the northeast and eastern regions.

Buckwheat produced for seed rather than as a cover crop is mainly an export crop in the US. There are a few different varieties, including ‘Koto’, ‘Manisoba’, ‘Manor’, ‘Common’, and ‘Keukett’. ‘Common’ buckwheat has smaller seeds than the other varieties and is used for cover crop seeds and pancake mixes. ‘Koto’ and ‘Manisoba’ are two dominant varieties grown under contract in this country.

Characteristics

The buckwheat plant is a fast-growing, herbaceous, broadleaf plant with triangular, heart-shaped leaves. It grows to a height of two to four feet and tends to branch out more at the top of the canopy. While the plants grow tall, they have shallow roots. During growth and development, white to pink flowers bloom up until harvest.

For mature seed production, the flowers must be cross-pollinated. The flowering plant attracts beneficial insects like honey bees that help pollinate the flowers. The brown seeds are about the size of a pea and are surrounded by a thick hull.

The seeds are the primary source of culinary use for this plant. As a grain, the seeds are ground into buckwheat flour. The raw buckwheat groats (the seed inside the hull) are used in some regions in the same way as rice. Buckwheat is also commonly grown as microgreens.

Eating the leaves of this plant is not a good idea. Fagopyrin is a phototoxic chemical found in the plant that you do not want to consume. This chemical damages blood vessels in non-pigmented skin when exposed to sunlight.

One of the most exciting things about buckwheat is the chemicals released by its roots. These chemicals are called allelochemicals. Studies have shown that these chemicals work to suppress grass, weeds, and weed seeds, with plots including buckwheat showing overall reduced weed growth and weed dry mass.

While the chemicals last a short amount of time in the environment, ranging from hours to months, growing buckwheat in a rotation when you have an unused or fallow garden bed can help reduce weeds. 

If you want to grow the crop for seeds, planting in the middle of July for most places in the northern United States will yield mature seed before frost. Buckwheat can be sown at any point during the summer, and its fast-growing nature makes it easy to add in any rotation.

Buckwheat thrives in-ground, in containers, or in raised beds. When you plant buckwheat, it tends to take up the available space, making it a wonderful cover crop to plant in a fallow garden bed to fill space and reduce weeds. It’s also a perfect choice for any gardener who wants to add plants that attract native bees and beneficial insects.

Several methods for sowing buckwheat exist. The easiest way is to scatter seeds. This method is fast but less uniform, and the germination rate will be lower, so more seed will need to be applied. Another option is to make rows and plant seeds that way. The distance between seeds for this crop is less important than with high nutrient-feeding vegetable crops.

How to Grow

Now for the details of how to care for planted buckwheat. This next section covers the specifics of environmental preferences for this plant.

Light

Plant buckwheat in full sun areas, as it benefits from the long day length of summer (14 to 15 hours). Buckwheat is well adapted to the climatic regions of the northeastern United States.

Water and Humidity

Like most plants in the vegetable garden, watering in the morning is usually best. Avoid wetting the leaves to prevent disease, though disease is less of an issue for this crop. Check soil moisture and take note of weather patterns.

Since the roots are shallow, feeling and looking at the soil can indicate whether watering needs to take place. In many places, annual rainfall is enough for buckwheat.

Soil

Buckwheat tolerates a wide variety of poor soil conditions. The base soil texture can range in the percent of sand, silt, and clay, but the preferred soil is one that roots can easily penetrate. As mentioned, the root system for this crop is fairly shallow, making soils with hardpan surfaces undesirable.

Like most crops, well-drained soils are preferred. Unlike cereal grains like winter wheat and cereal rye, buckwheat can tolerate a pH range of 5 to 6.5. A pH of 5 is low for most crops, making this a good option for a variety of soils.

Temperature

This crop prefers warm temperatures of 70 to 80°F (21 to 27°C) with cooler nights. Buckwheat is incredibly frost sensitive, so planting before fall in many northern regions will kill it off at the end of the season. This crop performs well in USDA hardiness zones 3 through 10.

Fertilizing

In general, fertilizing is unnecessary to grow buckwheat. It greatly depends on how nutrient-rich the soil already is.

In most cases, for home gardeners, fertilizers have been applied throughout the season, which means fertilizing buckwheat plants is not required. Organic and slow-release fertilizers work well because nutrients continue being released as the main crops finish growing.

Too much nitrogen can be problematic, as it causes the plants to produce less yield and more vegetation. If grown following legume crops such as peas, beans, clovers, and vetches, nitrogen is unnecessary because of the nitrogen fixation from those crops.

If fertilization is necessary, top dressing the area with a small amount of compost (around a half inch) would be ample. Using an all-purpose organic fertilizer is also sufficient. Buckwheat is a soil phosphorus scavenger and can access this nutrient better than other plants. Most of the time, fertilization is not needed.

Pruning

This annual crop does not require any pruning. Plants tend to branch in the upper section of the plant, and if you cut off the seed head, the plant cannot produce another one.

When utilizing buckwheat as a cover crop, cutting the plants down when they first start flowering is important. That way, the plant has not produced seeds that might be unwanted in the garden bed later. Dry plant material left behind can remain in place as mulch to protect the soil, or it can be moved to a compost pile.

Propagation

Buckwheat is propagated via seeds. The triangular seeds either have the hull still on or are just the buckwheat groat (the seed with the hull removed). Sowing buckwheat seeds directly in the soil is the best option for this crop, as its quick-growing time makes transplanting inefficient.

Be careful what you buy at the store, as some health food stores sell groats that are not viable because they’ve been toasted. Untoasted groats and unhulled buckwheat seeds can germinate.

Harvesting

Unlike crops like wheat or corn, where the whole plant dries before harvest, buckwheat is harvested while the plant is still green. This makes it difficult to decide when the harvest should occur.

The trick is harvesting when ¾ of the seeds have become dark brown and firm, which should fall about 80 to 90 days after sowing. Individual buckwheat plants will continue blooming and producing more seeds up until harvest.

Harvesting buckwheat involves cutting the plant and separating the seeds. Cut the plants and let them dry out on a bedsheet. Once dried, the seeds can be easily separated by threshing with a stick or broom. The seeds should fall out onto the bedsheet, where they can be collected. Another option is to separate the buckwheat seeds from the flowers by hand. Once separated, the seeds can be ground through a grain mill to remove the hulls.

Storing

Buckwheat can be treated like many cereal grains with regard to storage. Keeping the seeds cool and dry is important for longevity. Store in an airtight container for up to two months in the pantry and four months in the freezer.

Troubleshooting

As with any crop, small issues will pop up during the growing process. Thankfully, there are solutions to these problems!

Growing Problems

One of the major problems with growing buckwheat is drought stress because of its shallow root system. Consistent watering is important. Drought stress can cause poor seed set, wilt, and poor leaf growth. Observing the plants and monitoring recent rain patterns can help prevent this.

Another issue is planting the crop at the wrong time for its intended purpose. If your goal is to grow buckwheat for seeds, avoid planting earlier in the season. Flowering during periods of high heat without cooler nights leads to poor seed set, even if blooming buckwheat can be ornamental.

Pests

Buckwheat tends to have a limited number of pests and pest damage. Aphids and Japanese beetles are two insect pests known to impact buckwheat plants.

Aphids are a classic garden pest, but they do not cause significant damage to buckwheat to the point where it couldn’t produce a crop. They can spread disease, but the chances of impacting this crop are low. However, their presence is a warning that they could cause harm to other plants in the garden. Treat them with neem oil, insecticidal soap, spinosad, or pyrethrin.

Japanese beetles have mouthparts built to decimate leaves and can turn a beautiful green leaf into nothing more than latticework in an instant. A common choice to control Japanese beetles is pheromone traps, but they often cause more harm than good. Store-bought traps don’t make a significant difference in controlling the pest and may actually attract more of them, causing more damage. If you want to take an aggressive approach, opt for organic chemicals like pyrethrin. Crop rotation can also greatly help manage these pests.

Another important tactic in managing pests is going out into the garden and observing how high pest pressure is. In some cases, removing pests by hand may be a viable option. If you grow buckwheat as a cover crop, pest concern should be low since it won’t be harvested for grain.

Diseases

For the most part, buckwheat has low disease pressure. Powdery mildew, stem rot, and aster yellows are three plant diseases associated with buckwheat, but overall, buckwheat is a great crop to grow because of its limited disease concerns.

Powdery mildew shows up on leaves as light spots that look necrotic. This disease is not likely to cause problems with yields. Removing affected leaves will help decrease the disease in the plant population, as powdery mildew cannot be treated or reversed on already infected leaves. At that point, spray copper fungicide or neem oil to prevent further infestation.

Stem rot begins as brown spots on the stem that cause it to pale and dehydrate. The plant falls over, and the seeds fall off quickly. This is a limited disease with no treatment.

Aster yellows causes flowers to turn green and become sterile. The aster leafhopper spreads this disease, and it has a small impact on plant yield. Aster yellows also impacts other crops, so take caution when planting other susceptible crops nearby. This disease has no treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions