
BUCKWHEAT 
Characteristics 
Buckwheat is a quick germinating, short season (10 to 12 weeks) 
cereal requiring moist, cool conditions but tolerant to acid and quite 
infertile soil. It can make use of relatively insoluble minerals in the 
soil and when plowed under, decays quickly, leaving those minerals 
in a form readily available to other crops. It blossoms over a long 
period, and flowers in bloom during periods of high temperature 
are generally blasted so they produce no grain. 
Buckwheat is not an important crop in world agriculture nor in the 
total agriculture of United States, but is important in certain local 
areas. Pennsylvania and New York each produce about 30 percent 
of this country’s production of 6 to 8 million bushels from 500,000 
acres. The general trend in buckwheat acreage has been down- 
ward since 1918, in which year more than a million acres were 
grown. 
Uses 
Buckwheat may be grown for grain, as a green manure crop, as a 
weed destroyer, as a soil renovator or as a honey plant. 
Varieties 
Most of the buckwheat grown in the United States is either. Jap- 
anese or Silverhull. . 
Japanese is generally preferred because it grows taller, and 
produces a higher yield of both grain and straw. The seed is 
larger in size, brown in color, and triangular in cross section. Itisa 
little more inclined to lodge. 
Silverhull has a smaller, glossy, silver-gray seed which is more 
nearly round than triangular in cross section. The plants are 
smaller, the stems not so coarse, and the leaves smaller. This 
variety is not distributed by the Eastern States Farmers’ Exchange. 
Selected Buckwheat is a natural mixture of Japanese and Silver- 
hull varieties, to be used principally as a soil improvement or green 
manure crop, although some prefer this blend for grain production 
because the mixture extends the blossoming period. 
Culture 
Time of seeding may be calculated at 12 weeks for growth before 
the average date of the first killing frost in the fall; from June 20 to 
July 10, depending on local conditions. The later the seeding with 
assured maturity the better, because more of the blossoming period 
will come after the hottest summer weather with less blasting of 
blossoms. 
