Buckwheat needs fairly warm weather to germinate and grow from seed, and that may not have been what Maine had. I seldom seeded Buckwheat around here (mid west Michigan) until mid June. I have knocked the plants down with a roller and not had them regrow, so in my experience the plants will not. However, others that post here have had different experiences. The Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania and people at Michigan State University have experimented with a crimper, a machine that knocks down grain stalks for use as mulch on a field, and found that worked quite well and no regrowth occurred from the plant roots.

Kimmq is kimmsr

Last year I planted buckwheat in a newly tilled 1000 ft/sq bed. It grew well but when it was time to cut it down in early July it was too wet and then I went on vacation and came home to a crop of buckwheat gone to seed. I cut it down with a weed eater. A couple weeks later the seed sprouted again and I let it grow for a couple weeks and then mowed it down and then tilled in mid august and broadcast Groundhog radish seed for a winter cover crop. Well there was a lot of buckwheat seed left after tilling so I had a mixed crop of buckwheat and radish. About mid September the buckwheat got to about 2' tall while the groundhog was about 1 foot tall so not wanting the buckwheat to go to seed again I took the weed eater in a chopped the buckwheat down just above the tops of the radishes. The remaining 1' or so of the buckwheat did not continued to grow much but it did set flowers again very low on the plant and went to seed. Still have some buckwheat popping up in that bed here and there amongst the sweet corn to this day.

One of the benefits of using buckwheat as a cover crop is easy kill through cold or hot weather. It's a cool crop that prefers spring-type temps. It does seed prolifically.

Thanks for your input. I've been plucking and composting the seedlings as soon as they've sprouted. I think I might be making ground!