Buckwheat · London, England, United Kingdom
When to plant buckwheat in London
Main outdoor window
21 Apr - 5 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 April
In London, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
30 Jun - 20 Jul
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in London
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Sow direct
21 Apr - 5 May
One week after your last frost.
Harvest
30 Jun - 20 Jul
Buckwheat through the year
Against the frost risk in London
Why these dates
Sow after the last frost, any time up to about eleven weeks before the first. Because it matures so fast it can follow an early crop and still finish, and it smothers weeds while doing so.
Killed outright by the lightest frost, which is exactly why it works as a summer cover crop that clears itself away in autumn.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Buckwheat are timed for direct sowing 1 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for London.
The median frost-free season here is 219 days, against 70 to 90 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in London
Other grains to time
Growing buckwheat in London
When should I plant buckwheat in London?
Aim for 21 Apr - 5 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 12-26 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will buckwheat be ready to harvest in London?
Expect to start picking around 30 Jun - 20 Jul, based on 70 to 90 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will buckwheat tolerate?
Killed outright by the lightest frost, which is exactly why it works as a summer cover crop that clears itself away in autumn.