buckwheat

[danno]

Just got 100lbs of buckwheat seed to plant this weekend.  .60 per lb

[1reb]

Buckwheat honey soon

Johnny

[dpence]

Cool, I have some too, but not a 100#...LOL.  Makes darker honey, good stuff though.

David

[davedill]

danno,

how many acres of buckwheat do you need to plant to sustain a hive to get "pure" BW honey?

Go Penguins!!!!

Dave

[doak]

How many acres would not have as much to do with it as what else is in the area that the bees would prefer over the buck wheat.

Organic Gardening says that one acre will take care of 100 colonies. I don't know!

If you plant the buck wheat so it will come into bloom when there is nothing else to amount to much,
Which would be July and August in central Ga., unless you have some Kudzu close by.
Buck wheat, once it starts, will bloom till frost cuts it down. Makes a good cover crop to till in to the ground in the fall. Plus the bonus of getting honey from it.

Remember, what you can plant should be planted so it will bloom during a dearth.  Then you have a better chance of getting that kind of honey more on the pure side.
JMO and I'm sticking to it. :)doak

[danno]

I will plant 2 acres with 100lbs of seed.  I found out from a friend that tried it a few years back. He planted 15 acres and placed a couple of doz colonies in the middle.  Although he did get some dark honey,  for the most part the bees ignored it for better things

[Cindi]

Dan, bear in mind that buckwheat blooms six weeks from the germination of seed.  There can be many crops of buckwheat during a growing season, dependent upon temperatures, first frost kill and so on.  THe bees may have ignored that buckwheat because there was definitely something more enticing to their sweet little noses.  Have that great and wonderful day, love and live, health.  Cindi