I have been growing about ½ and acre of buckwheat for several years.  As long as there is some moisture in the ground the bees (and other insects) are all over it in the am.
 
My honey is darker than that of other beekeepers in the area - might be the buckwheat.  I like the taste of the darker stuff anyway.
 
I bought the seeds from Pinetree Seeds in New Gloucester, ME (about 4 miles from my house).  It is black hulled.  I roto-till each spring and reseed.   www.superseeds.com/

Doug
 
 

>>> [log in to unmask] 10/22/03 10:34AM >>>
Bill,

Did the bees work your buckwheat well?  I bought a pound of buckwheat seed (black although not a particular variety) this spring from a nursury in Maine and planted a patch in my garden.  It grew and bloomed nicely all through the summer (it reseeds readily if not gathered promptly) but I only saw one or two honeybees on it throughout the whole season.  Even bumble bees ingnored it.  Buckwheat nectaries are supposed to be active only in the morning and I looked at all times of the day.

If anyone has buckwheat seed or knows of a mail-order source for buckwheat that bees will actually work, I'd certainly appreciate the info.

Waldemar Galka
Long Island, NY

Mike wrote:
>      I was perusing the BEE-L archives for sources and varieties of
> buckwheat to plant next spring as a honey source and came up with very
> little info.

I grew it for what it does really well and that is ground cover and
picked the ones that seeded best so I could have seed to plant the next
year. That was some ten years ago and forget the variety. It can
recapture a field that is weed prone and when plowed under helps a bit
to restore it and did that well.

My guess is whatever you plant will give you what you want. I doubt if
there is much difference in taste since it a small family. So I would go
for the variety that best suits your other needs, such as germination,
seeds and the like. (Which, in a place like Maine, is my starting
criteria.) And I would look up a local farm store and buy it from them
since that seed is usually best for the area. (Which is what I did, and
it was.)

The honey was not something I would rave about so I ended up with a lot
of buckwheat seed after the first year and never bothered with it again.

Bill Truesdell (who has never made buckwheat vinegar)
Bath, Maine

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