Perennial buckwheat!

Perennial buckwheat!
https://www.asklepios-seeds.de/gb/fagopyrum-cymosum-samen-baumspinat-wilder-buchweizen.html
(not a paid promotion)
FYI, I have not ordered this plant (yet?) or even from this company, but buckwheat is awesome, and perenial is basically always better, so...

Thanks, I wasn’t aware of this plant.  I would love to acquire some seeds.... but looking for them, I can’t find any in stock anywhere.  Does anyone here have any they would sell?

i may have some, but they’d be at least 7 years old, as i haven’t played with them for a while. i got them from one of the germ plasm banks...i’ll have to dig out the seeds and see what they say.

greg mosser wrote:i may have some, but they’d be at least 7 years old, as i haven’t played with them for a while. i got them from one of the germ plasm banks...i’ll have to dig out the seeds and see what they say.

What was your experience with it Greg? What zone etc too?  If you find the seed and you think it might be viable, I’d play with it!  Thanks.

Yeah, that’s annoying. They’re out of stock.

Not sure if this one is closely related or not, but Baker Creek has a pink flowered buckwheat that they list as perennial:  Rose Red Soba
It's certainly beautiful and as I post this they still have it in stock.

Certainly looks different from Fagopyrum cymosum:

If you look down in the comments on those seeds there's another picture which looks much more like the "normal" type

Greg Martin wrote:Not sure if this one is closely related or not, but Baker Creek has a pink flowered buckwheat that they list as perennial:  Rose Red Soba
It's certainly beautiful and as I post this they still have it in stock.

that’s very interesting too, worth a try for sure, thanks!

first sweep of the seeds didn’t turn’ em up. i’ll look deeper later.

Here’s what i remember: I got two accessions, i think from a german seedbank, labeled as two different species, F. cymosum and F. dibotrys. As far as i know these are generally considered synonyms for the same species. They were very similar in growth, the only noticeable difference being a slight difference in leaf shape. i’m pretty sure that i moved from that spot before i had a chance to learn much about hardiness.

Greg Martin wrote:Not sure if this one is closely related or not, but Baker Creek has a pink flowered buckwheat that they list as perennial:  Rose Red Soba
It's certainly beautiful and as I post this they still have it in stock.

Just WOW! Looks like a must-try.
Haven't seen any listings for availability within the EU yet :(

I'll be avidly following updates from your growing trials!

I have found the perennial buckwheat very invasive when I lived in the French Pyrenees.

Greg Martin wrote:Not sure if this one is closely related or not, but Baker Creek has a pink flowered buckwheat that they list as perennial:  Rose Red Soba
It's certainly beautiful and as I post this they still have it in stock.

Planted a package of that last year in SW MI and got nothing for it. Not a thing. Total disappointment.

found ‘em!

looks like my memory was partly right (one was F. acutatum, not cymosum). seeds are from 2012, from the crop genetics seedbank in gatersleben, germany. i may try to plant some this spring, but if someone wants to trade me something cool for the rest, i will be amenable. i’m suspecting germination may be low after 9 years, and there may not be more than 15-20 of each available, so, caveat emptor. also, do consider what olga said above: they can be quite tenacious, to the point of being invasive. carol deppe mentions the same thing (specifically for F. cymosum, in that case) in breed your own vegetable varieties (pg. 127 if you wanna check it out)

Greg, what was the name of the seedbank?

the full name is ‘Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research’...but it gets abbreviated to IPK Gatersleben.

I have had Fagopyrum cymosum (perennial buckwheat) in my food forest for two years. It grew prolifically on the sun side of a raspberry patch, an apple tree and a silk tree in spite of being decimated by snails in the spring. I had one plant last year, which became 30+ stalks this year. Raw it is quite bitter (towards a dandelion taste), cooked it is wonderful. I made a palak paneer with it that tastes exactly like the version I make with spinach. I have been harvesting by cutting off the stalks to keep the growth down. I haven't tried harvesting seeds yet. The stalks are hollow, so I think they will make good insect hideouts if I leave them lying around in the fall. It seems like a perfect permaculture plant! My food forest is in Germany and I ordered my first plant from https://www.kraeuter-und-duftpflanzen.de. As far as I know, they only deliver within Europe.

I had F. dibotrys (bought as a plant) some years ago. Since I was a bit worried about invasiveness, I planted it in a corner by the drive from where it would have difficulty escaping (bordered by road, drive and house).  It came back for two years, never flowered and hasn't come back this year.  It may prefer it a little warmer than we get it (This week is looking like top temperatures for us this year at 20 degC), but it might have survived for me if I had actually fed it or given it reasonable soil.
I'm starting bistort (Persicaria bistorta see The Ferns info) as an alternative plant, which will certainly do better here as it is native and likes damp. It has edible leaves, roots and seeds too I believe. So far it's growing well, and seems to be self fertile, although spreads.  I've bought a second plant and hope to harvest some seed to try this year.

Hey Greg I ended up buying some of this and just threw some in some sawn in half milk jugs outside well before the snow had even melted in zone 5b.  I didn’t tend to it at all and we had some pretty late hard frosts, but this one made it and I transplanted it out.  Seems to have really grown a lot since the transplant and is happy.  I’ll be keen to see if it actually comes back next year…. I have my doubts but we will see, it did survive those hard frosts against the odds.  Either way I’m hoping to save any seed it produces and do perhaps better experiments next year.

Sorry for the in-the-dark pic but it’s dark out and I hadn’t thought to take a pic yet.

Where did you buy it, J? Are the seeds big enough to make into porridge?

I got the ones from Baker creek that Greg posted above.  https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/grains-and-cover-crops/rose-red-soba-buckwheat

Iirc the seeds I planted seemed like about normal buckwheat sized seeds, but this plant doesn’t have any seeds yet.  I’ll post a pic here when I get some from it.  I’m skeptical that they are actually perennial, but I’ll gleefully report back if this plant comes back next year!

Would love to have it but BC posts it’s only hardy to zone 5…..😩

Janet Reed wrote:Would love to have it but BC posts it’s only hardy to zone 5…..😩

Interesting thing! Round dock, also known as bitter dock, is a perennial of the buckwheat family that grows in zone 4, where I am. It’s seeds are technically edible, and they are shaped just like buckwheat seeds, although they are tiny. So, what if we could cross round dock with the other perennial Fagopyrum? With a little selective breeding we might get a plant that grows like round dock, but gives large kernels.