Cover Crop: Manor buckwheat

  CERTIFIED ORGANIC SEED (3 lbs)

(Fagopyrum esculentum) Need a summer cover crop in the garden? Fast-growing buckwheat is a succulent that can be grown as a green manure crop, adding nutrients and organic matter to the soil. It improves the tilth of the soil, preparing the garden bed for transplants. It takes up phosphorus from the soil and making it more available for other crops. A fast growing broadleaf, its quick germination and vigorous growth makes it an excellent smother crop for weeds. Its heavy flower set and nectar is very attractive to pollinators and other beneficial insects and provides excellent habitat; a “pollinator pasture,”especially for honey bees!

Planting buckwheat
In the spring or early summer scatter the seed over the garden bed at about one pound per 500 square feet or three ounces per 100 square feet. Rake and water it in to get good soil-to-seed contact for quick germination.