Does anyone have any advice on planting chufa? This will be my first time to try to grow it. I'll be planting with a drill.
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Take special care to cover all the seed, limit spillage, and plant just prior to rainfall. Last spring I planted a couple of half acre plots an old fashioned two row corn planter which does a middling job of covering the furrows. The turkeys found the seed, followed the rows, and wiped out both plots. It did not help that it stayed dry for weeks following planting.
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Quote from: Bill on May 04, 2023, 09:51:42 AM
Take special care to cover all the seed, limit spillage, and plant just prior to rainfall. Last spring I planted a couple of half acre plots an old fashioned two row corn planter which does a middling job of covering the furrows. The turkeys found the seed, followed the rows, and wiped out both plots. It did not help that it stayed dry for weeks following planting.
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Will do. Thanks for the advice.
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Not sure where you are located. I'm in the piedmont of South Carolina. I've had my property for 12 years. The only time I've had a pig problem was when I had chufa in the ground and I swore it off for that reason. Of course I'm a glutton for punishment and have a few of my larger clover plots that need to be redone and will probably put them in chufa this summer.
Here is the note on my phone I keep with chufa planting instructions/steps:
- Glyphosate to kill everything
- Plow after everything is dead
- spray Treflin @1.5 qt per acre
- fertilize @17-17-17 @ 200/acre
- Plow
- Plant (I can't remember seeding rate but I do heavier than what the internet says)
- spray Poast/24db a couple weeks later To manage grass and weeds
The chufa will come up as green sprouts and turn brown in the fall. Once it turns brown the turkey (and pigs) can't resist it. In my case, due to the pigs, I didn't have any chufa left late winter/early spring. I did have some volunteer chufa come up the following year
If you have hogs, even occasionally, they will find them and destroy them. We had to stop planting them as the hogs would find them and they'd be gone in one night.
My only problem with chufa was the clay I was planting it in. I think it had a hard time getting through the soil after a hard rain packed the dirt. I think sandy soil would be ideal.
We are in clay country too, but we run a pulverizing disk through ours a few times a season and it works well.
Bushhog,spray ( Glyphosate) wait two too three weeks and disc. Plant 1.5 to 2 inch deep. Apply 10/10/10 and wait til it's get up good. Give it another round of 10/10/10 just before rain. Spray grass killer (clethodim) on it and or broadleaf killer 2,4db (butyrac 200) do not mix the two, if needed. And DO NOT USE 2,4 D IT WILL KILL CHUFA. Weeds and grass can really hurt your plot if left alone. Alot easier to spray if it in rows that you can go down without hitting crop. Not so much if you broadcast.
Can you just turn it under with a disc or does it need to be drilled? Don't have that.
When to plant in North Florida/South Georgia? No hogs seen on property and if I do, it is my home place and we can have fun with that too.
You can definitely use a disc
Plant a lot. They will wear it out once they find it.
Would it be better to plant multiple plots? Perhaps two 1 acre plots or a single two acre plot.
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I would definitely plan on doing 2 plots.
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Thanks
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Get your soil tested for best results
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The seeds are not uniform and for this reason we have always broadcast chufa and not used a drill or planter. If you do this you will need to increase your rate because you will have some that don't get covered. You can cultipack and it will help with this.
I know a cultipacker would work, but dang I hate to buy a $800 plus attachment for one use. I was wondering if a light depth disc would turn them under okay. I use my disc for multiple things, and my box blade, and my root grapple, and my bucket. Tractor implements keep piling up!
Quote from: g8rvet on May 05, 2023, 02:05:21 PM
I know a cultipacker would work, but dang I hate to buy a $800 plus attachment for one use. I was wondering if a light depth disc would turn them under okay. I use my disc for multiple things, and my box blade, and my root grapple, and my bucket. Tractor implements keep piling up!
A cultipacker isn't necessary. I spray, bush hog a couple weeks later then disk heavily. Broadcast chufas and 200lbs of 13-13-13 per acre then I adjust my disk blades to a very slight angle and disk the chufas in. You'll still have several that aren't covered but you'll have plenty that are. I usually plant south MS in mid June and try to time it just before a rain. Hogs will destroy a plot! Raccoons will do a good bit of damage also if not kept in check. I trap heavily so they aren't much of a problem on my plots.
Dublelung is correct. I cultipacker isn't a necessity, just good to use if you had one.
Quote from: g8rvet on May 04, 2023, 05:43:38 PM
Can you just turn it under with a disc or does it need to be drilled? Don't have that.
When to plant in North Florida/South Georgia? No hogs seen on property and if I do, it is my home place and we can have fun with that too.
I'm in nw Florida. We used to plant ours in July same time we planted our dove fields. Disk it up good. We broadcast it at 50lb/acre. Used a drag to cover and let the rain do the rest. Last season was terrible planting in our area since we ended up with a prolonged drought. We had a bachelor group of bucks destroy a plot. Eating all the seeds
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If you have the time and equipment. Plant it 1.5 to 2 inches deep, and you want lose very much too foraging animals. We don't have hogs here. Just crows.
We already have our plots bush hogged. Haven't been able to spray yet. Hopefully this week if weather is good. This year we are going to use a John Deere 2 row planter if the seed will work in ether the finger meter or bean meter. I don't have high hopes it will. I read it would and that it wouldn't.
Edit. Soybean plates worked flawless.
You might have trouble with that older 2 row Goblin. The difference in seed size tends to cause clogs at the plates. We have a new to us vacuum planter that my dad rebuilt so we are gonna try it. We tried an older 2 row a few years ago and it did not work.
Quote from: Shiloh on May 06, 2023, 12:35:44 PM
You might have trouble with that older 2 row Goblin. The difference in seed size tends to cause clogs at the plates. We have a new to us vacuum planter that my dad rebuilt so we are gonna try it. We tried an older 2 row a few years ago and it did not work.
Thanks. I may buy some used plates and modify them for next year. Hopefully I can find someone that has made it work and cam advice me so I don't have to start from scratch.
I managed to get the bush hogging done before the rain started. Hopefully we'll see some sunny days this week and I can get everything sprayed.
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I have a planter similar to the one above and I have planted chufa with it using the soybean plates. You will have to sift through the seed to get out all the big seeds. I poured mine out on a white sheet and picked through them. It's a pain in the butt but it can be done and that JD planter will work great. It seems like the chufa you get from the NWTF are way more uniform that the ones I bought from the Co-Op. Some of the ones from the Co-Op were as big as a quarter.
As for the light discing to cover the chufa, I have always adjusted the sections to run straight so it is not covering so deep and has done well for years this way.
Planted with the John Deere 7000 2 row planter 2 weeks ago. No rain yet since planted. But coming up good. The planter gets every seed at the right depth. Less seed getting eaten by wildlife. Used the soybean plates, had no clog ups from bigger seeds.
I had wanted to try some up in the north but the usual timing to plant in my zone would be now and it's just too dry. If we start getting rain maybe I'd get some in before the end of June
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Got 4+ acres planted last week. Followed procedure that's worked well in the past. Only thing missing is rain
Following the directions/procedure I do has worked well in the past but man it's labor intensive. Could be a lot easier with 2 tractors going at once
Quote from: ShortMagFan on July 04, 2023, 07:35:11 AM
Got 4+ acres planted last week. Followed procedure that's worked well in the past. Only thing missing is rain
Following the directions/procedure I do has worked well in the past but man it's labor intensive. Could be a lot easier with 2 tractors going at once
Care to share what your procedure was?
Assuming most guys drill this in
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Sprayed gly back in late may. Got a real good kill
Plowed the ground twice
Spread 17-17-17 @ 250lbs/acre
Spray treflan pre emergent @ 1.5 qt/acre
Plow to incorporate fertilizer and pre emergent
Spread seed
Plow to cover seed
Pain in the arse without 2 tractors. Tried to use a Texas hunter utv feeder I have to spread fertilizer and seed but it just dribbled out - didn't sling
44 days since planted. Very healthy crop. Sprayed broad leaf at 27 days. Then clethodim at 47 days for grass.
Looking great. I checked on mine today that got planted last week of June. Not as thick a yours but I was real happy with it given minimal rain since planting. Had 3 gobblers in one of the fields when I pulled in. Zero grass or weed competition
Good news is a real soaker of a storm is moving thru now
I have a bet with a friend about how long it will take the pigs to show up
I planted chufa several times in my place years back with great results.
But now we've got swine ... end of story...