Chufa planting

How do most of you cover your when planting and how deep? Thanks

I disk mine in 2 to 3 inches deep with fertilizer and pre emergent and then run a cultipacker over the top.

We broadcast ours over tilled soil and then cultipacked. We had zero germination. I think we may have gotten bad seed because we got perfect rain.

Got chufas and soybeans in Saturday and a good rain Monday, so now it's just wait and hope

That's sure the best way to do it. I've never found a cultipacker I could afford so I just cover with the disk and pray for rain. We planted Saturday, so they should come up OK if the seed was good.

The guy who grows them for seed in FL told my dad that you can't plant them too deep.

a friend got me 2 bags from a coop in South al. there was no tag on the bag. I planted one of the two bags. picked up 20 seeds and they are currently in a dish rag outside for a germ test. 11 days and nothing so far. I really hope I didn't get bad seed

In the past I have broadcasted then covered lightly with a disk. This year I am trying something new, I have some plates for my john deere 71's that run the smaller NWTF chufa seed very well. Right now I'm dropping them at about 3" apart and I am splitting my rows so they are about 16" apart. I am using the same depth bands I use for planting corn.

Is 3" spacing to close?

Hopefully this setup will produce a more uniform stand.

I think that should produce great results if you get the rain you need. I don't think the 3" spacing is too close. I always lost a lot of young plants to varmints when row planting, so it's probably good to have them a little thick. How are you planning to control the weeds? I always just planted 36" rows and plowed them when I planted with a planter.

I'll spray Clethodim and 24D-B in a few weeks when the weeds are still young. I will spray with a boomless setup on my 4-wheeler. It's a lot lighter and damages less than using my tractor.

We planted ours with our grail drill this year so we will see how they turn out. Planted last Sunday after Saturday nights rain and then got that good soaker yesterday. Hopefully they do well.

broadcast and cover at least 1 1/2" - 2" deep with disc.

Planted a second patch yesterday right before another rain. Only 200 more pounds of soybeans and a late river bottom corn field and I can rest until mid July and then time to start dove and fall plots. Think I like planting and prepping as much as hunting, just kidding but it is a close second.

I planted last week with a 4 row planter. 5 inch seed spacing and 36
inch rows. I double planted some patches and single planted others.

Plan to cultivate to control competition. I have always broadcasted chufa
but wanted to try something different.

I will post pics if I have anything growing.

Good looking plots! Do you think the few skips you have are due to them not coming up or is it varmint damage? I always seemed to have more varmint damage when row planting, and sometimes turkeys were the worst. A turkey would start down a row and get the chufa from every plant.

But yours are past that stage and should make a great crop if you just get rain. Ours are about the same size and need a lot more rain.

I was in the Selma co-op Monday and bought the last bag they had and planted them Tuesday. It will be interesting to see if they can make before frost.

This is the first time I used a planter with chufa. I don't know what caused
the skips but I suspect turkeys. There was dusting bowls in the plowed ground
when I planted.

We are tired of fighting the grass and weeds and plan to cultivate soon.
I'm pleased so far but I think 36" inch spacing on the rows is too
wide.

I think next year I will go with 30" rows and either 2" or 3" seed
spacing. We are looking to buy a 2 row planter with cultivator
attachments before next year. That 4 row JD is to big for that
kind of work.

I think your late plot will make if it germinates soon. We won't get
a frost before Halloween.

Let us know if they make. You should have a lot less weed competition
by planting that late. I planted on June 15th for years but decided
to plant later this year.

I thought 30" rows would be the ideal row width for chufa, and since the centers of the rear tires on my tractor are 60" apart, it would have worked perfectly. Unfortunately, my ancient planter would not go closer than 36", so I was stuck with that.

If I had a decent planter, I would row crop all my chufa and use 30" rows. But a decent planter just costs more than I wanta spend so I'll keep broadcasting.

These were planted early June. I think the bare spots were caused by my spreader not working properly. Probably used way too many seeds, but I like them thick. Used a pre and killed the grass before with Gly. Absolutely no weeds.

We are going to nitrate and cultivate
chufas this weekend.

I bought enough ammonia for 100#s per
acre but I'm thinking 50#s due to the heat.

What yall think?

We not only have the heat, but drought as well. I'm not putting out any N unless it starts raining. I've never seen any damaged or burned by 100 lb of N, so I think you are OK to put that much. It's just that it's a waste of money if it doesn't rain.

We have been getting rain every week.

Hard to believe I know.

Got the chufas cultivated and put the nitrogen out. Got 1/2" of
rain 3 hours later. Couldn't have worked out better.

double post

Well, I planted my first 2 patches of chufas this year and would have to say I'm puzzled a little. I planted 1/2 acre in 2 different areas, one was a pre-existing field and the other in an old grown up area. I was able to disc and till the old field into a great seed bed, while the other was turned and disc but was to rocky for the tiller. Both patched came up great, but the field one had lots of grass and broad leaf. I sprayer both with a generic 24d and clethodium, which killed the grass and weeds. Problem is that it killed the chufas in one field but not the other. Any ideas of how that could happen?

2,4-D will kill the hades out of chufas. I can't understand how anyone recommends it on chufas. IF you are able to put out the perfect amount, it will kill the weeds and not kill the chufas, but that amount will vary from year to year and field to field. I'd guess that your chufas that survived were in better soil and probably in better condition than the others when you sprayed them. The rate you used worked in one field, but was too much for the other. I'd find another broadleaf herbicide before next year.

Good luck with your remaining patch.

Checked my chufas yesterday. All of that
rain helped a lot.

Beautiful fields! You gonna have some happy turkeys.

Thanks. I am pleased with them. We didn't make a good crop last
year.

Okay, so my one patch is looking great, do yall disc them up at some point in spring, bush hog, or anything at all? I'm excited to see if it helps hold them here, we have very few that pass through usually once a winter or early spring.

I don't disc but my turkeys know what chufas are. The problem I have
is with the turkeys scratching them all up before Christmas.

If you have turkeys traveling through you might want to disc one
strip and/or dribble some corn down the roads leading to your
chufa patch.

Once they find them they won't forget where they are.

I just ran one disk wide around the perimeter of our plots and the turkeys found them quickly, along with the coons, opossums and skunks. It was a chufa fest.