Cover Crop / Warm season
Buckwheat Cover Crop
Fast summer cover for empty beds before fall vegetables.
Not grown for table harvest in this context.
Seed spacing and maturity
- Days to maturity
- 35
- Germination temperature
- 55-90F
- Seed depth
- 0.5 inches
- Spacing
- 2 inches
- Row spacing
- 6 inches
- Start method
- Direct sow
Frost-date timing
- Direct sow
- 21 days after last frost
- Fall planting
- 8 weeks before first frost
- Succession interval
- repeat every 28 days
Action plan
- Can I plant this now?
- Use your local last-frost, first-frost, and soil-temperature checks before treating this crop as plantable today.
- Start indoors or direct sow?
- Direct sow into the final bed when the soil temperature, seed depth, and moisture are ready.
- How much space?
- 2 inches in-row spacing, 6 inches between rows, and 0.5 inch seed depth.
- Best companions?
- Use this as part of a diverse flowering or herb planting, and treat companion claims as site-specific rather than guaranteed pest control.
- Common failure modes?
- Cut before seed set unless volunteer buckwheat is acceptable. Moderate water until canopy closes. Average soil; useful for quick summer cover.
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Moderate water until canopy closes.
- Soil
- Average soil; useful for quick summer cover.
- Watch
- Cut before seed set unless volunteer buckwheat is acceptable.
- cover-crop
- warm-season
- quick-biomass
- pollinators
Browse context
- Cover Crop Catalog Category collection
- Buckwheat Family Rotation and family context
- Warm Season Seeds Season collection
- Direct Sow Seeds Start-method collection
- Beginner-Friendly Seeds Practical trait collection
- High Pollinator Value Seeds Practical trait collection
- Succession Sowing Seeds Practical trait collection
- Quick-Maturity Seeds Practical trait collection
- Fall-Planting Seeds Practical trait collection
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