Buckwheat growing conditions. Possible Climate where it grows+moringa+oranges?

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by michaelibre, Aug 14, 2013.

  1. michaelibre

    michaelibre Junior Member

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    Hi dear team,

    Has somebody experiences with buckwheat growing? Is it going well in Mediterranean climates or sub-tropics?
    how to separate easily shell from seed without machine?
    In which cimate, if there is, would be possible to grow Buckwheat, Moringa Oleifera and Orangesreally well?

    Thank you
     
  2. matto

    matto Junior Member

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    G'day Michael,

    Buckwheat grows well in the subtropics and is easily processed. Makes a great cover crop, fast growing and brings up phosphorus.

    Oranges and all citrus are ideal in the subtropics.

    Moringa is more suitable to dry tropics, but does grow in the subtropics once establshed. It does seem to be affected by high humidity but does establish in subtropical environments.
     
  3. void_genesis

    void_genesis Junior Member

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    I grow buckwheat in south east Queensland (27 degrees south in the subtropics). It is a daylength sensitive crop and flowers when the days are above a certain length, so you need to get it growing during the shorter days. There are different strains that require different daylength to flower so a temperate strain will not crop well in the subtropics (they get to about 5 cm tall and flower themselves to death). We plant it in late winter for a crop in mid spring. It seems to be pest free and seems to store very well (little tendency to go mouldy or get insect infested).

    It is relatively easy to harvest and thresh. For processing we grind it in a hand grinder into flour and then sift off the seed husks. It is more complex to prepare hulled seeds or groats. I haven't done it myself but apparently you can soak it to swell the grains, pop the seed coats, and then dry down the seeds again so they separate from the husks. Seems like a lot of work to me- we mostly use it for pancakes.
     
  4. michaelibre

    michaelibre Junior Member

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    Thank you, this already give me some idea. Specially the day-length factor is really important to understand!
     
  5. heftzwecke

    heftzwecke Junior Member

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    void, I have two questions:
    I don't know any source of buckwheat seeds in Australia were they tell you which strain it is - were do you buy your seeds?
    If you do need shorter days that means you sow it in late summer, is that right?
     
  6. void_genesis

    void_genesis Junior Member

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    I think I got my subtropical strain from greenharvest back when they listed two varieties in their green manure/grain sections, but I noticed they only seem to list one strain now. I would buy from as many sources as possible to begin and see what works under your conditions. I just put my crop in (a little late) so I should have a harvest in a few months if you want me to send you some seed to get started.

    The plant flowers as soon as the daylength goes above a critical amount, so you have to sow in the shorter days of winter so they plant can grow big before the days get longer in spring (though avoid frost). If you sowed in late summer the days are long enough to induce flowering as soon as they germinate, so you get tiny 5 cm tall plants that barely produce any seed and are impossible to harvest easily. In temperate zone you sow in spring after the frosts and the plants flower in the summer.


     
  7. heftzwecke

    heftzwecke Junior Member

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    Thanks! I would need a "cool" strain. I think I have read somewhere that it is planted in late summer??? But if it needs increasing daylength this would be either a wrong information or referring to another strain. If it cannot handle frost I cannot plant before mid October, we sometimes get late frosts (we had snow in October last year).
    What is really missing in Aus is a seed company which sells grain seeds to home gardeners.
     
  8. void_genesis

    void_genesis Junior Member

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    If you need a high latitude/cooler climate strain then I would look out for whole buckwheat (that still has its dark outer hull on) that is often sold in health food shops. Confusingly they call the type that still has the hull "unhulled" because the process of removing the hull is called hulling. Silly English language. Health food seeds normally comes from temperate china or eastern europe and short be a shorter daylength variety. I have tried planting them before in my subtropical place and they flower almost immediately even in mid winter.

    These guys do mail order:

    https://santostrading.com.au/bulkfood/grain_seed.html

    I read around a bit more in places like this (https://www.hort.cornell.edu/bjorkman/lab/buck/guide/whygrow.php) and growing it in a temperate climate seems quite different to my experience in the subtropics. Frost is lethal (we get almost no frost) so a late spring to late summer sowing is normal in the northern USA.





     
  9. heftzwecke

    heftzwecke Junior Member

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    We're in the Mountains. The climate is quite different. But the daylength is like Sydney. I didn't even know that you can plant buckwheat in Brisbane. The thing is I want to start to plant a bit more than just veggies, grains and dry beans. BTW there's an awesome Tas seed company which sells corn varieties and dry bean called Southern Harvest, not cheap though.
     
  10. void_genesis

    void_genesis Junior Member

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    I would always advise doing small trials and experiments of any plant you think you are likely to actually use. Between the local climate, soil and pests you will find what actually grows. I even did trials on multiple varieties of the same crop in order to succeed. For example I grew about 16 different maize varieties only to find that all but four of them were ripped apart by our local parrots. The remaining four had thicker husks around the cob and the parrots left them alone. If I hadn't have tried so many varieties I might have concluded that I couldn't grow maize. I have also noticed that tomatoes sold as the same variety by different companies are often different. My best drying tomato (Principe borghese) only came from one packet out of two purchased from different vendors under the same name- the other was decidedly ordinary.
     
  11. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    That's a very valuable observation genesis.
     

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