How to Grow Buckwheat Greens in Australia

Buckwheat greens are the young shoots of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum, family Polygonaceae), grown on a tray of mix and cut to eat raw. The whole seed keeps a dark, woody hull that stays hard after soaking, so it is not a jar sprout. The greens are mild and tender, ready 8 to 12 days from the soak, and sprouting the seed like hulled groats is the common mistake.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Sprouting it in a jar. Whole buckwheat sprouts in a jar, but its hull stays hard, so the jar crop is not good to eat. Sow the soaked seed on mix and cut the greens above it.
2. Sowing thick and keeping it wet. Heaped seed, a closed cover and soggy mix trap humid air at the base, where mould and brown, collapsing patches start. Spread one even layer and water the mix from below.
3. Cutting too late. Once true leaves grow beyond the two seed leaves, the stems turn tough and bitter. Cut while the seed leaves are open and green.

When to sprout

A tray on the kitchen bench grows in any month. It does best near 21°C and grows well a little cooler or warmer. The seed germinates from about 7 to 40°C. Cold slows the tray, while warm, humid air gives mould its best chance.

Food safety

The warm, damp start that sprouts the seed also suits bacteria, and bacteria carried inside a contaminated seed cannot be washed off.

• Use whole buckwheat sold for sprouting. Seed sold for sowing can be treated with fungicide, and this seed is sold untreated. Groats sold as food are hulled or roasted, not this seed.
• Wash your hands first. Wash and rinse the tray, jar and tools, then sanitise them before the first batch and between batches. Use a dishwasher that can sanitise, usually its longest, hottest setting. Otherwise, soak them in very hot water (77°C for 30 seconds). Or use plain unscented household bleach at 25 mL to 10 L of cold water for 30 seconds, made up fresh each day. Let them air-dry.
• Soak and rinse the seed only in water fit to drink.
• Bagged mix can carry Legionella bacteria. Follow the warning on the bag: wet the mix down, wear gloves and a P2 mask, and wash your hands afterwards.
• Keep cut greens in a fridge at 5°C or colder, on a shelf above raw meat, poultry and seafood. Cook greens for anyone at higher risk until steaming hot and eat them straight away. Leftovers are cooled, kept in the fridge, used within a day of cooking and reheated until steaming hot.
• Mould, slime, brown patches or a sour smell end a tray: compost the mix and greens, and wash the tray. Greens can carry harmful bacteria while looking, smelling and tasting normal, so none of those is a test of safety. More signs are in sprout problems and safety.

What you need

You need a shallow tray with drainage holes, a solid tray beneath it, and a second tray upside down as a cover with air holes. Add seed raising mix, clean scissors, a spray bottle and buckwheat sprouting seeds. For the soak and rinses, use a sprouting jar or a jar with a mesh lid.

Pale, hulled buckwheat groats sold as food are a different product. With the hull already off, they need only a short soak and sprout in a jar in about a day.

Soaking and Sowing

Start the soak in the evening; the seed is usually ready to sow a day or two later.

1. Rinse the seed in the jar and pick out any chaff, stones or broken seed.
2. Cover it with two to three times its volume of cool drinking water. Soak it for 8 to 12 hours, the shorter time in a hot kitchen, as seed left in water can sour.
3. Drain, rinse and drain again, and never soak the seed twice. Leave the jar upside down at an angle to drain and breathe.
4. Rinse and drain every 8 to 12 hours until most seeds show a tiny root tip, usually after two or three rinses.
5. Fill the tray with about 3 cm of seed raising mix, water it through and let it drain. Spread the seed in one dense, even layer and press it lightly onto the surface without burying it.
6. Put the cover on and leave the tray somewhere dim.

Mist the seed under the cover once or twice a day until the roots grip, then water the mix instead. Due to quarantine restrictions and our shipping policy, we cannot send buckwheat sprouting seeds to Tasmania.

Day by day

To water from below, fill the solid tray, wait until the mix surface looks damp, then tip out the rest. Direct sun dries a tray fast, so check it often. In humid weather, run a fan on low or open a window nearby.

Cutting and Storing

Buckwheat greens are ready at 5 to 10 cm tall, with both seed leaves open and green. Clear the hulls first: they are hard and not eaten.

• For the last day or two, cover the tray loosely with clear plastic and mist the tops, which softens clinging hulls. In a humid kitchen, keep the plastic on for hours, not days, or skip it and brush the hulls off.
• Stop misting 8 to 12 hours before cutting, so the leaves are dry.
• Tip the tray and gently brush your palm back and forth across the tops.
• Cut with clean scissors just above the mix, leaving roots and spent seed behind.
• Just before eating, rinse the greens under cool running water and pick off any hull still clinging.

Seal dry greens in a clean container and refrigerate them as Food safety describes. They keep only a few days, so cut what you need and leave the rest growing. They are usually eaten raw in salads and sandwiches, or cooked as Food safety describes.

Buckwheat leaves and shoots contain fagopyrin, which can make skin sensitive to sunlight. Reports link it to very large amounts, such as greens juiced in quantity. Firm limits are not known, and one study estimated under 40 g of sprouts a day as a sensible intake. Eat them in modest serves, and stop if your skin reacts to the sun.

Common problems

White fuzz at the base. Root hairs are an even white fuzz along the roots only, and they collapse when misted. Mould can be white too, but it grows in cobwebby patches over seed, hulls and mix, stays when wet and smells musty. If it is mould, deal with the tray as Food safety describes.

Sour smell, slime or brown, collapsing patches. The tray has stayed too wet and still. Deal with it as Food safety describes, and see Three mistakes that matter.

Patchy or no germination. Seed sown dry, seed that dried out under the cover, or old seed are the usual causes. Sprout the next batch to a root tip first.

Pale yellow shoots. Shoots grown under the cover are pale and green up quickly in bright light. Move a tray that stays pale somewhere brighter.

Tips

1. Sow a small tray every two or three days for a steady supply.
2. Store dry seed sealed in a cool, dark, dry cupboard, where it can keep for a year or more.
3. The microgreens article covers sunflower and other tray greens grown the same way.