When Does Buckwheat Mature? Introduction to the Best Harvest Time

Buckwheat generally matures in the autumn, in September-October. However, because buckwheat is a crop that can be planted in all four seasons, the specific harvest time still has to be determined by the sowing time.

In China, buckwheat is sown in all four seasons: spring sowing, summer sowing, autumn sowing and winter sowing, also called spring buckwheat, summer buckwheat, autumn buckwheat and winter buckwheat. From sowing to maturity takes about 2 and a half months. In the dry-farming areas of northern China and the high-cold mountain regions with one crop a year, spring sowing is most common; in the winter wheat areas of the Yellow River basin, summer sowing is most common; south of the Yangtze River and in the coastal Central China and South China regions, autumn sowing is most common; in the subtropical regions, winter sowing is most common; in the southwestern plateau regions, spring sowing or autumn sowing is used. The specific suitable sowing date for each production area should be based on the maturity (growth period) of the variety, the local frost-free period and the effective accumulated temperature above 10°C, with the basic principles of having the full flowering stage of buckwheat avoid the local high-temperature period (above 26°C) while ensuring maturity before frost. For example: the hilly areas north of the Yinshan Mountains in Inner Mongolia and the Bashang area of Zhangjiakou in Hebei are early-maturing spring sweet buckwheat areas in China; sowing should not be too early, as early sowing is prone to damage from late frost and late sowing is prone to damage from early frost, and the suitable sowing period is from late May to early June. Another example: in eastern Gansu, the Weibei area of Shaanxi and the areas along the Yellow River, and in central and southern Shanxi, where wheat and other crops are harvested earlier, buckwheat is also sown earlier, generally in mid-July. In the low-altitude areas of Aba Prefecture, buckwheat is sown in July, while in the high half-mountain areas it can be sown from mid-April to the end of June; buckwheat in Yunnan and Guizhou is mainly grown in low-altitude areas below 1700 m, generally sown in early to mid-August; in the flat dam areas of southwestern Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong and some places in Hainan, winter buckwheat is grown, generally sown from late October to early to mid-November. In the high-cold mountain areas of the southwest, the suitable sowing period for tartary buckwheat is from mid-to-late April to early May.