Buckwheat after Forfeit 280...a short term, fall planted, cover crop

 Buckwheat (Fagopyrum sagittatum Gilib), classified as a 'superfood' by some, is not wheat in the true botanical sense, but it can be a useful cover crop. Here, we are planting it as a short term transitional cover crop in the experimental vineyard at the Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center. The intention is to get it germinated and then allow it to grow until it is killed by frost. If, and that is a big "if", it blooms, it may be used as a late season forage for bees and other pollinating insects. At any rate, after a hard freeze, we will come back and seed the vineyard to an overwintering cover such as winter wheat, triticale or cereal rye. Our overall goal is to keep the ground covered and to cycle in as much organic matter as possible, while mitigating wind and water erosion of our precious soil. 

Looking down a vineyard row middle on Tuesday September 8, 2020, after application of the herbicide Forfeit 280 (glufosinate-ammonium) three days earlier.

Each row middle has a swath of cover about 6 ft. wide x 288 ft in length (actual row spacing is 10 ft) with vines spaced 4 ft apart within the vine row). The herbicide was applied with a hand-pumped backpack sprayer and required one full backpack per row (~ 3 gal). There were 11 row middles, for a total of 33 gal of herbicide/water mixture applied over a total area of ~20,000 sq ft, once headlands and some outside areas were spot sprayed. Consequently, a relatively high total amount of spray mixture was applied, with the amount of herbicide per acre applied falling somewhere within the labelled rate of 48 to 82 oz per acre. The approximate cost of the applied herbicide was ~$26.00 - $48.00 and it took me about 4 hours (unpaid managerial labor, or a figure of $15.00 could be added in) for an estimated labor cost of ~$60.00. The buckwheat seed was about 1.50 per lb and 100 lbs cost ~$125.00 to have it shipped from Clovis, NM. The approximate out of pocket expense for the project was about $383.00 dollars, not including the time and skill of NMSU Viticulture Program Coordinator, Daniel Goodrich to transport the tractor and seeder to Los Lunas, ASC from Fabian Garcia ASC in Las Cruces and his time operating the tractor on site (about 2.5 hours, including unloading, calibrating the seeder and reloading the tractor)

Daniel Goodrich, NMSU Viticulture Program Coordinator about to head down the vineyard row middles seeding buckwheat with the Great Plains seeder (no-till) at Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center.

A view of the 'business end' of the Great Plains seeder before it is lowered to the ground.

Interestingly, dandelions (Taraxacum spp.), were minimally impacted by the application of Forfeit 280 herbicide (glufosinate-ammonium). In this photograph, they are still quite green, despite the dead grasses surrounding them that were sprayed with the same herbicide at the same time, three days earlier.  

Some damage to grape leaves as result of over spray of the Forfeit 280. Not to worry, it is not systemic and if your vines are trained up as they should be there will be typically be minimal damage.