Chufa

What do you guys spray your chufa fields with?

Tread lightly my friend. I sprayed mine about a month ago and almost wiped it out. I think I oversprayed. Friend of mine told me and still swears he sprays with 24d. I used grazon and clethodim, and just about burnt it up. I still have a pretty good stand left but it looks like crap compared to before. I would suggest whatever you use, do not overspray, use a little less rather than a little more.

An ounce of Milestone and 10 oz Clethodim.

My little patch that I've posted about has already made a bumper crop this year. We've had 2 consecutive good chufa growing years.

Preacher, ive had two consecutive bad years but I am figuring out what not to do and that is priceless.

24d is a no go, it'll kill chufa. 24d b(butyrac 200) is ok for broadleaf weeds in chufa

I wish we'd remove 24db from the 24d family. It's nothing like amine or ester

I’ve us d 2/4db and clethodim with not so good results on coffee weeds so I’m going to preachers milestone mixture

You are a smart man! I’ve used Mr. Steve’s advice many times and he’s never steered me wrong. He’s a wealth of knowledge and I try to soak up as much as I can learn from him. I suggest anyone wanting to grow chufa successfully follow his advice.

I couldn't agree more! I'm switching from 24db to milestone when I run out.

PCP how many gallons is your mixture for?

The one ounce of Milestone and 10 oz of Clethodim are for one acre. It doesn't matter how much water you use, within reason. I used to cover an acre with a 55 gallon sprayer, but I have used a 25 gallon ATV sprayer for the last decade or so. Just figure out how much land your sprayer will cover with a tank, and use those rates.

In the 25 gallon sprayer I also add a pint of surfactant to the mix. That makes for a simple mix of just 3 ingredients and it controls most everything.

Let me give credit where it is due - Dr. Youngblood in Selma was the first that I know of to try Milestone on chufas. All I have done is copy his work and tell people about it. Clethodim is just a cheaper alternative to the nwtf recommendations for grass.

Just to be clear;

1 oz of Milestone and 10 oz of Clethodim for one acre. Let say you have 5 acres to spray over a 1200 acre property and you have a 50 gallon sprayer. Would you need to spray one tank per acre and just keep going back and refilling the tank?

I've been very successful at killing chufa and not so much at keeping it alive.

Heck no. Calibrate with the right tip/ ground speed and pressure for 10 gal per acre volume and knock her on out.

PCP how early do you spray them? Do you spray them 1 time?

And should he use a quart of surfactant with 50 gallons? I've been given conflicting advice over the years on the amount of surfactant to use. I have used a pint to 25 gallons the past few years. It seems to work ok, but you never really know if you are getting maximum use of your herbicides. Would there be any benefit from also putting crop oil in the tank?

Lance, I have started just spraying once about 30 days after they come up. I used to spray twice, but that was before I heard about Milestone and started using it. It takes about 90 days to make a crop. I've noticed weeds and grass getting worse at about 75 days, but I think the chufas are gonna make whatever they are gonna make by then. With every spraying you do some amount of damage to the crop, so I think I come out better with just one.

All of this is based on a broadcast planting. If you have a planter and can plant in rows, you might be better off to plow them once early and spray later. I have made crops just by plowing and never spraying at all.

Different surfactants call for different rates. A non ionic typically calls for 1qt per 100 gals water. Most crop oils or MSO will be 1 gal per 100 gal water. I'd errr on side of using non ionic. It's softer than oils etc but still gives required sticking to waxy surfaces

Thanks, it sounds like I am on the high side with a pint to 25 gallons? I buy whatever the co-op in Selma has in the way of a non-ionic. It used to be that it said 80-20 on the label, but the last jug said 90-10. There was a time when I knew what those numbers meant, but I have forgotten and I think will just let it stay that way. The last thing I ever wanna have again is a job, so better to be ignorant.

But what I was wondering is would there be any advantage to adding crop oil AND non-ionic surfactant to the same tank? I understand that they work a little differently, so would it make my herbicides more effective to use both together?

I remember that Dr. Youngblood used crop oil with one chufa herbicide, but I've forgotten which one. He sprayed them separately, and I ain't doing that. Whatever I use is going into one tank

There are non ionic plus oil blends. Those are good too. Dyne Amic is one of mine that's blended. Biggest thing to remember is grass herbicides like cleth need oil based. All others just require non ionic so a blend in the tank would satisfy both in a tank mix situation vs straight product spray

Thanks, I'll start putting some oil in the tank next year

PCP, You have been good to share chufa herbicide with me in the past. I have always had great success except when I used crop oil instead of non-ionic surfactant. The time that I used crop oil I had pretty significant chufa damage. Could have been a coincidence, but I have never used crop oil again and have stellar results.

That's great info. Were you using 2-4Db or Milestone when you had damage?

2onz Milestone and 10onz Clethodim

Thanks. My guess is that the oil made the Clethodim more effective. If that is the case, then maybe I could add a pint of crop oil to the tank and get by with only 7 oz of Clethodim. How great it would be if there were some organization or agency that would conduct some useful research and answer such questions. Instead, they are still trying to determine if gobblers set on the eggs.