Cut Flower Updates: September 5, 2025

It's hard to believe we're already past Labor Day! Flower fields across the state are packed with color as dahlias hit their peak production and fall blooms like celosia start to inch towards center stage. During crop transitions, or when preparing a planting bed for a different kind of production (transitioning between annual to perennial production, for example) short-season summer and fall cover crops can help keep the soil covered, anchored, and biologically active when a cash crop is absent.

Buckwheat is a favorite short-season cover crop that can work well in flower production. It germinates and establishes rapidly, producing large, broad leaves that shade out warm-season annual weeds. Its roots keep soil in place and help to scavenge nutrients like phosphorus from up to 10 inches down into the soil profile. And buckwheat's delicate white flowers attract pollinators and other beneficial insects like hover flies, lady beetles, and predatory wasps.

Buckwheat doesn't mind poor soils, though it will wilt in droughty conditions. It's easy to terminate with a mower, broadfork, or rototiller. Residue can be incorporated into the soil or laid atop the soil surface as a mulch. The stems are succulent and will break down quickly.

It can be direct sown anytime after frost in the spring, throughout the summer, and into the early fall – whenever you have a 4-to-6-week window in your planting schedule. Be sure to terminate before seed set to avoid unwanted reseeding. You can read more about buckwheat in this SARE publication, and dive more deeply into cover crops for flower farms in this article by Philadelphia flower farmer, Jennie Love.