When?

I would think June/ early July. Good luck.

We plant ours in May. Usually the 2nd or 3rd week in May.

If i could only plant 1/2 acre, would it be worth it? I have a good population of turkeys. Its not uncommon to see flocks of 10-12 hens and that many gobblers, regular.

yes! chufa will hold the birds on your property.

I've heard once the soil temps reach and maintain at 65 you can plant them, we usually try and plant ours around the end of June or first week of July depending on the rain. Blumsden, I definitely think it would be worth your time. I only get to plant roughly 1 to 2 acres on 1000 acres every year and even that small amount helps hold the birds. Planting Chufas along with our established clover has doubled our bird population and they don't leave when season starts

We planted ours in July. Planted almost 1.5 acres.

In North Florida we plant ours in May.

We have planted chufa since the 60s, and I've tried from March 10 to the first week of August. The ideal time varies from year to year. Last year, my fields that were planted early - which was late May - did far better than the patches planted in late June. That was entirely due to the fact that it rained in the early summer and didn't rain in late summer.

The later you plant, the better the chance that some will last til turkey season. But I've also found that in my area I'm more likely to get sufficient rain if I plant in May.

So the best solution is to vary the plantings and plant some early and some late.

The year I planted a patch in March was because I had leftover seed and thought I could put it in the ground and it would come up whenever the soil was warm enough. It worked to an extent, but didn't get a very good yield. I'd say May 1 is the earliest I'd plant in central AL. You can't get much later than August 1 or you won't have the 110 days needed to make a full crop.

You can grow a lot of chufa on a half-acre; I'd give it a try!

I have a 5 ac. spot next to a pasture and hardwood flat. Going to plant it in chufa. But if it is planted in June and matures in Sept. shouldn't the wildlife would have eaten it by spring? Do you need to replant every year or every other year?

With 5 acres, I'd sure vary the planting times; divide it into at least 2 zones, maybe 3. That will give you a better chance of at least part of the field making good, and also give you a late patch that will have a better chance of having some chufa left in the spring.

And yes, they will eat a lot of it before the season and be gone. To me, the biggest advantage of chufas is giving the turkeys a safe place to spend the winter. They are gonna split up and scatter in March anyway, but if you still have a few chufas there's a good chance some of them will remain in the area.

If you make a good crop, you can regenerate them naturally the next year by repeated discing. I've had fields go 5 years or more without having to add new seed. Weeds become a big problem and that becomes the real challenge to keep the plot going. There are much easier to grow on new ground.

Good luck with it!

PCP, the reason that they are easier to grow on new ground, is it because there are no established weeds?

That's the main reason. Also, there are weevils that get into chufas in fields that have been growing them several seasons and they reduce the tubers available to the turkeys. By how much, I don't know, but I've never seen them in new ground. Chufas also pull a lot of nutrients out of the soil and its better to rotate them with something else. But the weeds are the big issue; you can get by without herbicides on new ground.

If I had plenty of good land, I'd rotate the fields every 2 years. I don't, so I try to grow them in the same fields year after year. I do have one field big enough to rotate it with part in corn and part in chufa.

What about the soil? The area I had in mind stays wet after Dec. till March, will chufa nuts rot? But it's dark rich soil, It is a set a side plot planted in beans every other year.

How about ph? If it does best in new ground, then i'm guessing low ph is not a problem? My personal property is a well drained, sandy, rocky property. Beginning ph is probably around a 5.

Ph is not as important with chufa. My experience with planting them is to get them in no later than June 15, and the earlier the better. The issue becomes rain and heat. They come up better if planted earlier. Later, they can come up thin and you may have a weed problem.

Also, if you are going to plant new ground, I HIGHLY recommend spraying everything with gly, discing it when it's dead. Waiting two weeks for germination of weeds you turned up when discing, then spray gly again. Weeds are your biggest problem with chufa because of the time of year they are planted. The post-emergent herbicide is pricey. I have used 2-4DB with mixed results. NOtice I said "DB". don't put 2-4 D on chufas.

I plant the 1st week of Aug. Less weed competition.

I'm in south Al. I wait as late as possible to lessen the amount of weed competition. Weeds start to go dormant toward the end of Aug. Can't wait past the 1st week of Aug though. Must have 90-100 days of growth to grow the tubers before the 1st frost

You would probably make a lot of chufa and the tubers would rot before turkeys eat them. They don't like to scratch when it's wet.

I've sent in soil samples and got same lime rec as for corn. I will say I've grown decent chufas on soil I know needed lime. Not always able to keep it ideal.

I've used all sorts of herbicides, but I think the best are clethodim for grass and milestone for broadleaf. I think a fellow could do pretty good with just these 2, though I usually mix in some more. My weeds are bad. They laugh at 2-4,DB.