Top 10 Advantages Of Using Buckwheat Hulls As Natural Mulch
Whether you’re into food crops or your garden for aesthetics, you may have to apply mulch to your garden at one time or the other. You can opt for grass clippings, hardwood and softwood chips, bark, leaves, evergreen needles, newspaper, pulverized rubber, and landscape fabrics.
Each mulching material has its unique set of characteristics, making it more or less advantageous than the others.
For this piece, you’ll get to know the advantages of using buckwheat hulls as natural mulch:
1. Nonabsorptive
Buckwheat hulls don’t absorb moisture. So, whatever little rain falls, you’re sure that the moisture reaches the soil. Also, when watering your plants, you don’t have to worry at all about the likelihood of moisture not reaching the soil.
That’s very helpful during the dry season when both rain and irrigation water is scarce, and you’re struggling to use only a little every day to last you the entire dry season.
2. Easy To Apply
Buckwheat hulls are very tiny–you can fill your palm with hundreds in just a single scoop. That means they’re able to penetrate even those difficult spots around the plant’s stems.
As a result, the mulch cover becomes almost 100%. They don’t leave any spot uncovered, too, which might act as a weak spot for evaporation of soil moisture. In this same sense, they’re usable with any kind of plant–be it a shrub, herb, or big tree.
Read More: Top 10 Benefits Of Using Mulch In Your Garden
3. Neat Appearance
Everybody likes their garden to look pretty. And, looks aren’t limited to the leaves and flowers alone. The soil beneath also matters a lot. Even if you have to mulch the soil, there should be no compromise on beauty.
Buckwheat hulls effortlessly give you one of the prettiest-looking gardening surfaces. Their uniform size and black-brown color make it just the perfect organic mulch. Even if you use it for indoor gardens or potted plants, your visitors are bound to find the look pleasant, just as shown in this video.
4. Doesn’t Pack Down
With buckwheat hulls, you don’t have to worry about them getting water-logged and heavy. You understand that some types of mulch increase the pressure on the soil, making it less porous to moisture and air. However, that’s not the case with buckwheat hulls as they never pack down. Therefore, the soil will always allow oxygen and water to reach the roots.
5. Smother Weeds
Due to the uniform cover they provide, buckwheat hulls are very effective in smothering weeds. The hulls deny the weeds sunlight and carbon dioxide, and the result is death in their thousands. This property makes them suitable for vegetable and flower gardens, for which you’d usually not want to see any weeds growing.
6. Pollution-Free
Buckwheat rarely suffers from insect and disease infestation. As such, growers don’t use herbicides and pesticides for their protection. As a matter of fact, there are no pesticides and herbicides in the market specifically designed for buckwheat farming.
Thus, when you use the hulls for mulching, you’re almost sure that you’re not introducing residual chemicals into your soil. Such chemicals can leach into the soil, which will end up polluting groundwater or nearby streams.
7. Anti-Erosion Agent
Again, the intricate cover that buckwheat hulls provide ensures that raindrops don’t directly hit the soil, preventing splash erosion. The hulls, in combination with the plant roots, may also prevent sheet erosion. They effectively reduce the speed of surface runoff, thus preventing the washing away of the top layer of soil.
To intercept wind erosion, you may want to regularly water your garden with the buckwheat hulls intact. Even though they’re light and susceptible to be carried away by strong winds, just a little watering makes them hold their place even in the face of strong winds.
8. Prevents Frost Bites
During winter, ice may pile up around the plant’s base, killing them. That’s especially true for younger plants whose stems are still tender. You don’t want to keep pouring warm water on the plants to melt the ice as others do. If you don’t get the temperature right, you can shock and kill the plant there and then.
You can use a thick layer of buckwheat hulls on the soil to protect the roots from ice damage. They help moderate the soil temperature to warmer levels. On top of that, you can prop up branches around the plant stem to prevent the accumulation of ice and snow around the plant.
9. Increases Soil Fertility
With time, the buckwheat hulls you leave on the soil decompose into organic matter. The nutrients present in the hulls become part of the soil, and the plants benefit from these nutrients.
In addition to that, organic mulch improves the structure of the soil. A soil that once had poor water retention capabilities sees significant improvement with the continuous application of mulch.
10. Prevents Plant Diseases
When soil splashes onto the leaves of plants, they risk developing life-threatening diseases. It’s no wonder farming experts refer to this as the kiss of death. For plants like tomatoes, you have diseases like blight and leaf spots, which are the causative agents present in the soil. When the soil splashes onto the leaves, the diseases instantaneously transfer to the leaves.
Also, leaves covered with soil can’t breathe as adequately as they should. Likewise, sunlight doesn’t fall on the food-making cells. The result is reduced photosynthesis, which means slowed growth for the plant. You can avoid these problems by having an inch-thick cover of buckwheat hulls on the soil.
In Conclusion
Using buckwheat hulls as a natural mulch has several advantages. Most of these stem from the physical characteristics of the hulls, but their chemical composition is also helpful. Therefore, don’t hesitate to order loads of buckwheat hulls for your garden.
The good thing is that they’re lightweight, so you won’t run into any problems transporting them. Continue using them season after season, and you’ll see for yourself their positive impact on your garden.
- Chemical/Odor Free-- organic buckwheat hulls that promote air circulation for a natural cooling effect
- Organic buck wheat naturally conforms to the shape of your head, neck and spine to maximize comfort and support
- Can be adjusted to improve alignment and reduce snoring for higher quality sleep
- Organic and Refillable-- customize the amount of buckwheat hulls to your personal needs. Great gift for those wanting to try something new for better sleep!
