Organic Common Buckwheat - Ferme de Sainte Marthe seeds - Fagopyrum esculentum

The Buckwheat, also known as black wheat, is an annual plant about 80 cm (32in) tall, cultivated as a cereal and as green manure. It has the ability to smother adventive plants while protecting the soil from rain leaching. This green manure is distinguished by its cleansing and loosening power, and is particularly well-suited to heavy, acidic, compact soils and humid climates. It is sown from late May to early June at a rate of 5 to 10 grams per m2.

Widely used in permaculture, green manures have many benefits: they enrich and loosen the soil while preventing the establishment of adventive plants. They also have the advantage of forming a vegetative cover that protects clayey soils from rain compaction and sandy soils from leaching. They can be sown throughout the year, and can be incorporated by shallow digging or left in place as mulch before they go to seed.

Green manures can be used in vegetable gardens, but can also be used in poor, degraded, or compacted soils, for example before planting a hedge.

Gardener's tip: just like with vegetable crops, it is important to consider rotations for green manures: don't always sow the same ones in the same place!