Chufa- Is it worth it?

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poorcountrypreacher
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Re: Chufa- Is it worth it?

Post by poorcountrypreacher »

Gil, I've seen old extension service pamphlets on growing chufas for hogs. They are an important crop for human consumption in Spain; I don't understand why they never caught on here.

They will grow anywhere that has 120 days without frost. The ground freezing doesn't hurt them once the crop is made. They will obviously be unavailable to the turkeys during snow and ice, but they will be there waiting for them as soon as it thaws out.

Chufas are by no means the only answer to providing turkey habitat, but they are an important part of my management plan. Prescribed burning on a 3 yr rotation is worth more, but no reason you can't do both. I also have a lot of land in annual clovers.
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soiltester
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Re: Chufa- Is it worth it?

Post by soiltester »

Wow .. looks like you've got a fairly drained loamy type soil to work with .. no wonder there's no hope for my red sandy hard pac crap here :thumbup:

Have you had nutlets drown out before you could get them worked in the spring to regrow??


poorcountrypreacher wrote: February 2nd, 2019, 12:29 am A healthy stand of young chufas from this past summer:

Image

These plants were pulled up to check tuber production later in the summer. The tops are still green and they are far from mature, but they have already produced a lot of tubers:

Image
ever wonder where the white goes when the snow melts??
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poorcountrypreacher
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Re: Chufa- Is it worth it?

Post by poorcountrypreacher »

Soiltester, my experience has been that I usually don't make any in places where water will stand in wet weather, so the tubers drowning out seldom happens.

I grow them in 2 different counties and have tried them on different types of soil. A well drained sandy loam is best, but they will grow anywhere that doesn't have moisture extremes. Too wet kills them, and so will too dry. I have grown them in heavy clay but it's not ideal.

Any land that will grow corn will probably grow chufas.
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soiltester
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Re: Chufa- Is it worth it?

Post by soiltester »

That's what I thought would be best a sandy loam or loamy sand and that's what my MI buddy has, but no drainage .. end of trying that again and same fer' here with no water at the right time :banghead:
If I can't plant in late fall or winter to get good soil moisture going into spring, then I don't!!

You lucky guy :thumbup:

Don't know how they do it here in SC but our laws state, no nutlets disturbed before and during spring turkey season or considered baiting .. :roll:

Then again, I'm in a dry area most generally at peak growth times :banghead:
ever wonder where the white goes when the snow melts??
Longspurs
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Re: Chufa- Is it worth it?

Post by Longspurs »

I think the OG thing was more about hunting over the Chufas as bait. No one said it was wrong to plant them, but you could substitute corn for Chufas with the same benefit. How many think it's ok to shoot Gobblers that follow hens to a corn feeders like they do in Texas?
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hookinembig
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Re: Chufa- Is it worth it?

Post by hookinembig »

I have planted Chufa several times specifically for turkeys and I will give you my experiences:

1st time: I also live in VA and at the time we had a lease in Appomattox VA. We planted the chufa in mid spring because of the long growth time. By the time the fall season came around the grass had grown up and we thought that 1/8 acre of plot was no good. About a week after the hunting season ended we went back to the property to pull some stands off and it looked like a mortar field where it had been torn up by the turkeys. So we knew we were on to something.

2nd time: We planted roughly 1/2 acre plot in Buckingham in the early spring and the rain was timed perfect and we started getting some growth. We planned to work on controlling the weeds and other grasses this time but we ended up not having too. We had a group of turkeys and especially one specific gobbler(videos and pics from trail cams) come through and dug up every single chufa nut we planted. We attempted to plant it again but with the same result.

Each nut/tuber can grow up to 100 nuts off of each plant but it has to make it to full maturity. We haven't tried again for a year or so because it was a waste of money other than feeding the turkeys but I can save a lot of money and just feed them scratch feed if that's my goal if they wont let the tuber(50-100 nuts per plant) get to full maturity. We have switched back to winter rye, oats, winter wheat and some greens for most of our plots now. The soil is to bad to grow clover.

In closing is Chufa a great plot for turkeys, yes but if they realize what it is it will be gone. Its hard to keep them off of it until fall but if you can it will provide a awesome food resource for them. I have read that you should add gypsum to the soil to help them dig it up in the hard clay we have but it didn't appear they had any issue doing that without it.
Cut N Run
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Re: Chufa- Is it worth it?

Post by Cut N Run »

There's a guy who plants several acres on his lease here in Central N.C. that does pretty well for him. His plot is in soil with a pretty high sand content. He has a nearby pond to irrigate from if the chufa needs it. There aren't any wild hogs here (yet) and he says you will get the chance to see every turkey that lives in the area.. Raccoons can be bad about digging it up. The first year he had it in the ground, he disced the first couple of rows to introduce it to the turkeys. Now, it pulls in birds like a giant magnet. It definitely provides a quality food source through winter, especially if there's been a weak mast crop year.

Jim
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poorcountrypreacher
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Re: Chufa- Is it worth it?

Post by poorcountrypreacher »

hookinembig wrote: February 2nd, 2019, 8:33 pm I have planted Chufa several times specifically for turkeys and I will give you my experiences:

1st time: I also live in VA and at the time we had a lease in Appomattox VA. We planted the chufa in mid spring because of the long growth time. By the time the fall season came around the grass had grown up and we thought that 1/8 acre of plot was no good. About a week after the hunting season ended we went back to the property to pull some stands off and it looked like a mortar field where it had been torn up by the turkeys. So we knew we were on to something.

2nd time: We planted roughly 1/2 acre plot in Buckingham in the early spring and the rain was timed perfect and we started getting some growth. We planned to work on controlling the weeds and other grasses this time but we ended up not having too. We had a group of turkeys and especially one specific gobbler(videos and pics from trail cams) come through and dug up every single chufa nut we planted. We attempted to plant it again but with the same result.

Each nut/tuber can grow up to 100 nuts off of each plant but it has to make it to full maturity. We haven't tried again for a year or so because it was a waste of money other than feeding the turkeys but I can save a lot of money and just feed them scratch feed if that's my goal if they wont let the tuber(50-100 nuts per plant) get to full maturity. We have switched back to winter rye, oats, winter wheat and some greens for most of our plots now. The soil is to bad to grow clover.

In closing is Chufa a great plot for turkeys, yes but if they realize what it is it will be gone. Its hard to keep them off of it until fall but if you can it will provide a awesome food resource for them. I have read that you should add gypsum to the soil to help them dig it up in the hard clay we have but it didn't appear they had any issue doing that without it.
Turkeys destroying the plot before it has a chance to get started is a common problem, and it is especially bad on smaller plots. I try to make the plots at least an acre at my farm where I am serious about providing turkey habitat, and I have planted as much as 3 acres in one plot. I've decided that I don't have enough turkeys to justify having more than about 1.5 acres in a single plot. If I plant more than that, they aren't able to get a lot of them and it's just a waste.

I've had as many as 6 plots scattered over 700 acres, but I planted just 4 this past year. One of those is only .5 acre, but it's 1/2 mile from the next plot and it draws in different turkeys. I've found that if I scatter the plots around on the farm it draws in the most turkeys. The chufas will always just be a supplement for them, but it's a supplement they really like and I have no doubt that it makes turkeys expand their range so that some who would have not used my place will now spend at least some time on it. And if they get in the habit of using it in the winter, they might also use it in the spring when we are hunting them.

I live in a different county from my farm and have only 20 acres here. The plot in the picture is only .25 acre and it is about 200 yards from my house. I plant it mainly just to watch the turkeys, but I am not above hunting him if a gobbler appears during the season. I decided to go all out with the little plot this season and used even more lime and fertilizer than recommend. I usually plant about 50 lbs of seed per acre, but I used the whole bag on the 1/4 acre plot. I did that because of the problem you experienced - everything wants to eat the chufas as soon as they come up. Turkeys will eat a lot, but so will coons. If you look at the picture, you can see that there aren't any growing on the right side near the woods. Those were wiped out by squirrels. Turkeys will leave them alone once they get about 4" tall, but those danged squirrels kept digging them up all summer.

Anyway, the way to combat critters digging up the chufas too soon is to either plant bigger fields or put out way more seed than recommended. Good luck if you try again.
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