Perennial buckwheat seed

I have only been growing perennial buckwheat (Fagopyrum cymosum complex, also called Fagopyrum dibotrys) for a small number of years.  This perennial vegetable is mostly grown for its edible leaves, stems, and roots, while the annual species tend to be grown for their seed.  

Each year my perennial buckwheat flowers, but it seems reluctant to set seed.  In the few years I have been growing this, they have not set seed before.

I have a lot of plants, but they are all genetically identical, perhaps they have some sort of self pollination incompatibility, or perhaps the growing conditions were not right.  Based on what I am seeing now, I assume my clone is largely self-incompatible. 

Perennial buckwheat setting seed

I grew some perennial buckwheat in various different containers of soil, and I grew some in the soil.  Some was inside my greenhouse, some was growing outside.  I have a lot of plants, but they are all genetically the one clone.  I hoped growing them under different conditions may allow me to be lucky enough to get some viable seed.

This year, for the first time in my garden, the perennial buckwheat is setting seed.

Perennial buckwheat flowers are produced in huge numbers, the flowers are complete, they produce pollen, and they should be able to set seed.  For some reason, most flowers abort early.

The buckwheat inside my greenhouse flowered and was covered by many different insect pollinators over an extended period of months, yet not a single seed formed.  The perennial buckwheat plants grown outside in the soil are yet to produce a seed (I think this may be because it is a little dry where I grew them).  One container of perennial buckwheat growing outside is producing a few seeds.   

Sometimes when a plant is self-incompatible, if conditions are just right the plant can produce seed.  This plant is producing hundreds, if not thousands of flowers, over several months.  These flowers were visited by many different pollinators including honey bees, native bees, ants, wasps, flies, butterflies, beetles etc.  Some flowers opened in the heat, others with warm days and cool nights, others in colder temperatures.  Some were open when it was dry, others in rain, others with dewy nights or foggy mornings.  

Out of those hundreds upon hundreds of flowers I found a small number of developing seeds so far, and there is a chance more may be produced before the frosts arrive. 

Perennial buck wheat flowers

Perennial buckwheat produces a large number of flowers

The flowers are complete, should be able to produce seed, yet most abort

Self incompatibility in plants is not always 100%, even when there is genetic self incompatibility.  When a plant makes a huge number of flowers over an extended period of time, there is a chance a few might set seed.  That is likely what I am seeing here.

If the seeds are not eaten by something and are not destroyed by the nearing frosts, there is a chance none will be viable.  There is also a chance that one or more will be viable.  If I plant them, and if I am able to get at least one to grow to maturity, there is a chance that they will contain the same self incompatibility gene as the mother plant, and they won't be able to pollinate one another.  

Keeping all of that in mind, there is a chance that if I get a seed to grow that it will be different enough from the mother clone that they will be able to pollinate each other and I will be able to produce somewhat decent amounts of seed.  This is what I am hoping for.  

So many flowers, so few seeds

The one pot of perennial buckwheat that set seed

I had always heard that perennial buckwheat seed was much smaller than seed from the annual species.  So far it looks pretty similar in size to buckwheat groats I buy and eat.  Perhaps because this plant is producing so few seeds it is able to devote more energy into the seeds and they are larger than they otherwise would be.  

Only time will tell if I am able to get a genetically distinct second clone and am able to produce grain from my perennial buckwheat.  If I am able to get a decent harvest of seeds, I have no idea if they will be too small to be worth my time. 

While I would love to grow perennial buckwheat seed more reliably, I do grow this as a perennial leaf vegetable and as animal feed.  This vegetable is very good at doing what it does (ie growing rampantly and producing a lot of highly nutritious leaves) so if it never produced grain for me I will still gladly continue to grow it.  

Growing a nutritious leaf vegetable that most people would not recognise as being edible is not a bad thing to do.  Given how nutritious the leaves are, they also make a great addition to poultry forage.  All of this means even if I never get a decent amount of seed out of perennial buckwheat, it is still worth growing for the leaves. 

I will probably have a few small perennial buckwheat plants for sale soon.  If you are interested they will be listed on my for sale page.  That page will link to that month's for sale page, and I try to do a new blog post each month with the perennial vegetables I have on offer.  If I don't list something on my for sale page for that month, then I don't have it for sale that month.