I have a decent crop of chufa coming along if I can continue to get some rain. I need some bad right now so maybe I’ll get some.

The grass and coffee weed had gotten bad in a 3 week period but hopefully I have that taken care of now. I sprayed 1.5 weeks ago and the herbicide looks to be taking care of that problem.

That's a great looking field, Squeaky! Did you plow them, or just depend on the herbicides? That field will carry a bunch of turkeys through the winter.

I made a pic of my little experimental plot a few days ago. I sprayed it once with Clethodim and Milestone, but still had some morning glories. I sprayed them a second time with just Milestone. Two weeks later, the only weed is carpetweed. It has gotten 4 oz of Milestone, and some of the leaves show evidence of herbicide damage. I would not wanna ever use more than what I have done.

Mr. Steve I sprayed with clethodim and milestone. I had grass and coffee weed bad. This is an old crop field and the weed seed bank is off the charts. I got the bright ideal I would bottom plow this section of the field. The soil had become compacted and I wanted to break that hardpan and bury all the weed seed so deep it would never see the light of day. Well I accomplished one goal but failed miserably at the other. I’ll stick with my no-till planting in the future. Much easier to keep weeds in check when planting using that method. Hopefully the clethodim will take care of the grass as the milestone decimated the broadleaf weeds.

Nice little plot you have there also

I mixed 20 oz. of clethodim and 8 oz of milestone to 60 gallons of water for this plot. I don’t have my sprayed calibrated but have used this rate successfully in the past. I was careful not to over lap plus I had rain in the forecast Incase I did apply extra by over lapping by accident. It appears I got good coverage and the rate was effective. I had to spot spray two small areas at the end of a couple rows. It was due to me shutting off the sprayer before I was completely to the end.

Both plots look good. I've got one more to plant tomorrow morning. The ones I have planted already are doing ok but are kind of spotty looking. I'll be spraying for weeds and grass on most tomorrow afternoon.

Looks good fellas, turkeys and coons hammered mine. One of my plots only got about 50% germination

Has anyone tried and had success with Section Three? I have looked around and cannot fine 24db, the co-op said it was restricted but they could get it.

Squeaky, I think you are increasing your yield by planting in rows, especially in a field that was in chufas the year before. It looks like you have a lot of volunteer chufas between the rows. Is that what I'm seeing? Back when I used a planter, I would plow them once to cut back on the volunteer competition and and then spray a few days later. Of course, I quit doing that because it was too much work, so can't blame you if you want to avoid it too.

I wish that someone would do some research on chufas in AL and release the info for turkey management. The nwtf has published some info on what they use in SC, but it just seems like info some of their people developed from growing them for their own use. Their herbicide program will produce a patch of weeds in AL. Just a couple of years of genuine research would tell us far more than what we can learn on our own in a lifetime. I think that would be more useful than spending every research dollar studying hunting.

Mr. Steve there are some volunteer chufa in this patch. I did not replant last year due to fact I made so much chufa the first year that I had a strong volunteer patch last spring. I do have some nutsedge grass in this field also so some of what you are seeing is that. I replanted this year as you can seen. I will also agree that row planting does seem to produce plenty of chufa.

Your herbicide program has been spot on for me. The information you graciously shared with so many has definitely shortened the learning curve for many of us. I know your advice has helped me tremendously

You will be money ahead to leave 24db out of your herbicide program for chufa. One little mistake and you risk wasting a lot of money and ruining a lot of hard work. Order you some milestone and greatly reduce your risk. Yes it’s expensive but a little bit goes a long way.

https://www.keystonepestsolutions.c...9?zenid=904000862af918abb93f3a710661b2fa

2,4-Db is not restricted, unless they have done it very recently. But good luck convincing any of them in the co-op system of that if their computer shows a restriction. I tried to buy something, forgotten what it was now, and the clerk pulled it up on their computer and it was listed as restricted. I took out my phone and quickly found a site that showed that it wasn't, but it didn't matter. Someone above him made a clerical error and he wasn't about to buck the system. I just went to the store on the other side of town and bought it the same day.

You can either do that, or listen to Squeaky and buy Milestone instead. A quart costs $90, but that is enough to do at least 16 acres, and it will keep for years. That's really an insignificant cost compared to your planting expense, not to mention that it is much superior to 2,4-Db on chufas.

I've never used milestone and have never had an issue using 2-4DB squeaky, why do you suggest leaving it out. I've grown the finest chufas I've ever seen and sprayed them with cleth and 2-4db. I'm curious as to why you suggest leaving it out of the mix?

Because it’s been proven by PCP and I’m sure many others to cause damage to chufa if a mistake is made on application and or rate. I suggest sticking with milestone as to eliminate/reduce herbicide damage from using 24db. If you feel comfortable/confident then by all means use it. It’s not worth the risk to me to save a few dollars by using a Herbicide that has proven it will cause/kill my chufa.

Turkeymaster, thanks for bringing this up so I can clarify. I used 2,4-Db for broadleaf control for around 30 years, and I know like you that you can grow fine chufas with it. I just always thought that there must be something better and spent a lot of years looking for it. I seemed to always have trouble finding the right dose of it to get complete broadleaf control without damaging the chufas. It seemed that the window was very narrow, and would vary from year to year and even field to field.

A quart per acre would seem to do a good job one year, and then the next year I would get more rain and it would not work so well. Also, my fields at my farm have been in almost continuous cultivation since 1820 and I have a seed bank of every weed that will grow in the area. 2,4-Db would not control some of them. Ground cherry just ruined a couple of my fields, so I decided to increase the dose with this as result:




That field got some rain after that pic and actually made a crop, but I hate seeing results like this. Dr. Youngblood, the Vet in Selma, came up with the idea of using Milestone in chufas and I have copied his work. I find that it kills a lot more weed species, and the window on the amount you can safely use is much wider. I haven't seen a ground cherry plant since I started using it.

Understand that my weed situation is worse than that of most places, and if 2,4-Db is working then there is no need to switch. I just like to publicize the things that have worked for me because every good idea that I have started with someone else's work. Big time farmers have the full force of both government and corporate research behind them, but us chufa growers have nothing but ourselves. So everyone please share your success, and failures too.

i was just curious and didn't remember anyone explaining it to that extent. The onlly time i feel like ive damaged my chufas with an herbicide, i felt like it had to do with the Cleth. Looking back at it, it could have been the 2-4db instead.

I sprayed with 24d a couple weeks ago, about 1 1/2pints on a half acre. I messed around and let a bunch of broadleaf weeds get a little too high. The 24d wilted them a bit but in a week or so they were perked back up and looking good. I was not satisfied with the results but I reckon it was my fault for letting the weeds get too tall.

How about morning glory, I can grow a fantastic crop of morning glory. Will the milestone take it out?

When I run out of 24db (possibly this afternoon) I'll be using Milestone in it's place. Like squeaky said my recipe came from pcp and has worked fine for several years but if he says milestone is better I'm switching.

Milestone should kill morning glory since it’s considered a broadleaf.

I have a buddy with a clover patch right next to a chufa patch. Will milestone or clethodim damage the clover?