Author Topic: how is your chufa coming on.  (Read 1710 times)

ACE

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how is your chufa coming on.
« on: September 16, 2017, 08:19:37 »
I sprinkled a few nuts? in an old chicken manure bucket full of potting compost. Kept them wet as I read that they are marginal plants, now I have a bucket with a good head of hair. I don't want to hook them out yet as they look really healthy. Do they die back or are they cropped when still in the green. I expect curiosity will get the better of me and I will go firkling and see what's happening. I expect they can be cropped and replanted. What are you doing with yours?

squeezyjohn

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Re: how is your chufa coming on.
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2017, 09:40:14 »
Hi ACE ... I had a furtle around in my most successful looking bucket a few days ago.  It's a mixed bag of nuts ... literally.  Some are quite a decent size while others clearly have only just been formed and are tiny.  The bonus is they're much nicer fresh - a whole lot less fibrous and more the consistency of a water chestnut.

My inclination is to move the bucket in to the greenhouse and only harvest properly once the foliage dies off in the winter ... I reckon that like a lot of tuber-type crops a lot of the bulk gets put on in those last few weeks of dying back.

mat

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Re: how is your chufa coming on.
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2017, 12:50:39 »
Hi. I've not grown them, but in my 'Growing Unusual Vegetables ' book, it states

 "The tubers are ready when the plants have been cut down by frost, or when they are starting to yellow."

Photo of pages are below, if this helps?  Book is by Simon Hickmott.

Edit, sorry, I am not sure why this site rotates my portrait photos to be landscape... hope you can read or rotate them!!!

terrier

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Re: how is your chufa coming on.
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2017, 00:23:52 »
What did you use for seed? The Tiger nuts sold for snack food are twice the price of tiger nuts as fishing bait. I remember we youst to eat these 'nuts' like sweets when we were kids and I'd just about forgotten about them. Looking on the net, there are a number of different sorts of tiger nuts to choose from, I'd never thought of trying to grow them in this climate though.

squeezyjohn

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Re: how is your chufa coming on.
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2017, 16:11:49 »
I presume the ones for fishing bait are not food-grade ... maybe having been sprayed with preservatives ... but it they grow your nuts should be safe to eat.

I chose some of the posher spanish ones that are quite rounded rather than some of the longer ones you can get to try growing.  The ones I have picked so far are certainly smaller than the ones I planted!

squeezyjohn

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Re: how is your chufa coming on.
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2017, 16:14:13 »
Even if they come to nothing, the plants are a nice mid-length sedge which could be quite attractive in a garden along with taller grasses or flowers.  The plants themselves seem perfectly happy here in Oxfordshire.

terrier

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Re: how is your chufa coming on.
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2017, 17:23:12 »
The ones we ate as kids were more like shrivelled up wasps    :munky2:

ACE

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Re: how is your chufa coming on.
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2017, 06:55:16 »
Mine were a handful of fishing bait I got from an angler who was sat by the lake chewing some. I am going to have a look around the banks next time I am walking that way. Now I know what the plants look like I bet I find some growing wild from the anglers ground bait they throw around. They are classed as marginal so the edge of the water gives them the ideal growing conditions plus the warmth of the water will hold the frost back a foot or so from the edge until it gets really cold.

 

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