Northeast Buckwheat Growers Newsletter

2003 Field Day
New York Crop Research Facility

On display were Manor, Manisoba and Koto. All had grown about equally well, but the attendees saw more enlarging fruit on the Koto planting.		Click here to get the handouts. The PDF file will open in a new window.
That evaluation of seed set was the result of Thomas Björkman’s workshop through which growers (Picture below right) were able to identify the first branches to make seed, and later ones higher and lower on the plant. (Picture right) Where to look on the plant makes a big different in seeing whether the set is good. The seed at the top of the plant is some of the last to appear. This kind of examination is useful for determining whether heat blasting has really reduced yield, or if there is an extra large crop on the way.
A large part of the afternoon was spent on soil quality. Improving soil quality is the objective that puts buckwheat in many growers rotation.
Alan Erb of the Cornell Cooperative Extension Lake Plains Vegetable Team spoke about many aspects of soil health. He is a participant in Cornell’s Soil Health work team that is assessing soil health at cooperating farms across WesternNew York. We were able to see the dramatic effects that soil compaction had on the buckwheat stand. By digging small pits, Alan was able to deduce what practices had caused the compaction in the stunted parts of the field.
Bob Schindlebeck of Cornell’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences demonstrated their new optimized instrument for measuring aggregate stability. It is one of the important measures that the Soil Health work team is monitoring on farms. It tends to respond fairly quickly to changes in management. In tests on the demonstration plot, there were no measurable effects on aggregate stability after 5 weeks of buckwheat growth. It doesn’t change that fast! Bob explains the use of the device for measuring infiltration in undisturbed soil (right). For testing aggregate stability the device "rains" on soil oon a screen (far right), and mud runs through the screen if it is not in stable aggregates. The pans with the two soil to be tested are in the aluminum tray in the picture on the near right.
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