Chuf, landing and care

Many are called "earth almonds" because of a special taste and aroma. This plant can be raised on any plot, Chuf is unpretentious and delight with excellent harvest.

Chuf or earthwood - a perennial plant belongs to the family family. Tubers - edible. The aroma and taste of nuts resembles almonds, so the plant has a second name, which is more on the hearing - earth almonds.

Chuf: What is this plant, description

Chifu is grown in many countries. In Egypt, the plant is known to people since ancient times. But in Russia, this culture began to grow only at the end of the 18th century. Then the Chuf was assigned another name "Zimovnik" and "Fly". At the moment, this culture is rarely found and massively grown, even though it is a universal culture, nuts are very nutritious and healthy.

If you look at this plant, it looks like a wilderness, because of this similarity, it is difficult to distinguish the chief from the source. Not many know that there are delicious fruits on the rhizomes - edible nuts.

Chuf grows the bushes, heights up to 80 cm, but you can meet the plants with a height of 40 cm. The leaves from the earth almond almonds are growing with beams of 3-10 leaves in each.

Each rhizer has more than 400 nuts, the length of each no more than 3 cm, the width - barely reaches 1 cm. The tuber has a rigine peel, which is not separated. White meakty has a sweet taste. Nuts can be oval or egg-shaped. They are very nutritious, the tubers contain up to 27% of fats, sucrose up to 20%, starchy substances - no more than 30%, there are vitamins E and C, protein, trace elements. Eat cheese tubers in the cheese. If you fry nuts and grind, you can get a substitute for coffee and prepare vegetable milk from this raw material. In Spain, this product is called "Orashad" or almond milk.

Picture of Chufa

Varieties of chufa

At the end of the last century, in the 80s90s, new varieties of chunks were replaced by breeding scientists:

• "Culinary" - one of the most damned varieties;
• "Confectionary" - delicious, sweet fruits, yield grades;
• "Pharaoh" - the fruits of medium size, differ in high nutritionality, the yield variety.

The newest grade, led in 2014 in England "LLORGETA MAXI" - high yield, with 50 bushes you can collect about 5 buckets of large nuts.

Pluses of Chuca

The plant is unpretentious, perfectly coming up on any soils. Read more about the benefits of growing chufs:

• excellent survival rate;
• decorativeness - Long leaves of the plant give the site well groomed, will decorate any flowerbeds and free plots. You can plant tubers both in beds and outside the site, because when the Chuf creates, a beautiful green canvas is formed, which can decorate any plot (for example, an empty place near the fence). Chuf looks like a weed, so there is no one to steal this plant, except for it can destroy pets (goats, cows, pigs - they like the above-ground juicy part) or wild boars, they like the taste of tubers;
• minimum waste - from leaves can be made an aromatic pillow or use to prepare beverages to strengthen immunity;
• from the fruits you can cook drinks, oil, add nuts shredded to powder, salads and other dishes before serving. Nuts can be frying, cooking and bake.

Preparation of a section for growing chuf

As already mentioned, the ChUFA is perfect for any soils. It can be planted in the country area, to arrange a flowerbed, to highlight the place near the fence and any plot for growing an earthen almond. But to get a good harvest of nuts, you need to listen to the opinion of professionals:

1. Chuf loves heat, so choose such a landing site of chufs: an open, well-lit plot, ideal: southern face with a slight bias. If it does not work, the half is suited, but then the growth of tubers will be slowed.
2. Requirements for soils: peat, light, sandy, chernozem, sandy. A smaller yield will bring Chuf if growing a culture at the salt lands (in Kalmykia), heavy clay (Ryazan), sandy (Volgograd region), Suglinka (medium Volga). It is undesirable to grow walnut chofa on wetlands and saline soils. Low yield will be on the soils in which there is a chalk in large quantities.
3. Drafts are undesirable, because yield also depends on this.
4. Humidity - moisture this plant loves, but undesirable to plant chofa on a wetland. Based on this, undesirable irrigate watering.
5. Landing deadlines: the end of the spring when the night frosts will be afraid. The best time for landing is the middle or end of May.

Chuf: landing rules

Chofa can be grown from tubers and from seedlings. The second way is less popular, because as a result, when transplanting into open ground, not all plants are coming. Consider both methods of cultivation to choose the optimal one.

How to grow chofa from seedlings

Follow these recommendations:

1. First you need to prepare the soil, make mineral feeding for growing seedlings. If the tubers are small, without feeding can not do. It is necessary to make such a nutrient mixture into the soil: urea, potassium sulfate, magnesium, superphosphate in equal proportions.
2. The planting material is pre-soaked in water temperature, leave one day. To speed up the soaking process, each tuber must be wrapped in a piece of gauze. You can withstand from day to 3 days in water room temperature. During this period, it is necessary to change the water several times (up to 5) in order to avoid puments of tubers.
3. Prepare tanks for landing: Pour the soil with a layer of 10 cm. After soaking, the chuff seeds are planted into the pot, but not more than 3 seeds in one container, blocking at 5 cm, truthing the soil.
4. Pots with crops exhibit on a warm, well-lit window chassis, they monitor the pots not hit the straight sun rays. The temperature in the room should be +23 degrees during the daytime, at night - not lower than +15 degrees.
5. The first sprouts will appear 14 days later, but if the light is not enough, shoots may appear later. It is undesirable to be allowed, so it is necessary to freeze the plants with a lamp.
6. As it grows, you need to water young seedlings only water room temperature. Water with soil drying, not allowing stagnation. Swimming - 1-2 times a week.
7. Young, not yet faster seedlings need to be filtered by bird litter, you can make an ammonium nitrate or superphosphates (on a 10 liter tablespoon), and you can also be filtered with a cowboy, diluted with water (at 2.5 liters of water 1/3 of a glass of cow).
8. 14 days before disembarking in open ground, Chufa seedlings need to teach to new conditions: to carry out an open air, leaving first for 15 minutes, every day increasing time, and also to reduce watering.

How to grow chofa from tubers

The first way is troublesome, will need more time to grow plants. Consider a second option to grow an earthen walnut Chuf:

1. Before you begin to plant tubers in the middle of spring, everyone needs to be carefully checking for no rotten sites. All visible damage must be cut, tubers can be carefully cleaned.
2. Before boarding, lowered for several minutes into a weak manganese solution for several minutes, you can rinse in manganese solution, then drain the pink water and pour the tuber with warm water, leaving for 20 minutes.
3. After such a preliminary preparation, you can land in the open ground. Requirements for landing: The end of April is May, when the night freezes will be afraid.
4. Before boarding, you need to explode the soil by preparing the wells. The depth of each no more than 7 cm, the length and width - taking into account that it was placed in each hole 3 tuber in a step of 12 cm. Such a distance is optimal for it to be comfortably inhaling each bush.
5. The planting material must be placed in the prepared wells, blocking at 5-7 cm, trigger the layer of land.
6. The growing season is about 150 days.

Chuf loves the sun and warm if the summer was hot, wait for a rich harvest. Fruit collection - in mid-September, and if the summer is cool - in October.

Care and cultivation of chufs

Chufa Earthen Almonds - the plant is unpretentious, loves the sections well lit by the sun, moderate watering.

How to care for the plant:

• specially make feeding when cultivating Chufa is not necessary, because on the roots of the plant there are bacteria well absorbent nitrogen. In addition, after harvesting, the microclubry remains in the soil, which, after decomposition in the soil, is saturated with nitrogen. This feature allows also to improve the structure of the soil, as Chuf is a good predecessor for growing most cultures;
• watering - 2 times a week after landing, but not more often. If there were abundant precipitation, there is no need to water the plants. Take a pause within 1-3 days;
• if the summer arid - watering increases, but not more than 3 times a week. If moisture in the soil in excess, the roots can be rotated and fungus may appear;
• it is advisable to dip chofa when it reaches 15 cm in the first time and the next one - when it grows up to 40 cm;
• ripens earth almonds at the end of September. From the moment of landing and before this period, it does not require much care. It is only necessary to ensure that the soil do not swam in the summer heat. When you see that the tips of the leaves began to push, the soil should be pouring;
• if summer was hot, the crop can mature 2 weeks earlier. Cleaning plants can be started in mid-October. How to understand that it is time to collect a crop? If you see that by the mid-end of September, the leaves began to push the leaves, you need to check one bush. It must be carefully soaked with a pitch, stretch along with the tubers, smooth. Nuts are laid out on the street, leave to the appearance of light wrinkles, then cleaned in a cool dry room, at a permanent storage place;
• one of the features of tubers: with proper storage (dry room, temperature from +10 to +18 degrees), tubers can be stored for 3 years, taste quality and germination are preserved.

Reviews of crust growing

Olga: " I learned about the plant from the old magazine, I really wanted to grow at the cottage.Chufi seeds boughtin the store, it was a shredded nodule, there are only 8 things. Price per little bag 30 rubles. At first, I decided to put a few trials, soaked on the 2nd day. Both came up, but one better went to growth, the other is not very, due to the fact that there were other plants on the windowsill, creating a shadow. Pereavilled in May, the summer was rainy and cold, I live in the suburbs. Worried that the crop will not. Running nuts had to dig up, the earth was risking, literally to the touch chose nuts, laundered in warm water. My modest result: a handful of nuts, up to 1.5 cm. The taste is pleasant, sweetish. I liked it, on the next summer I will plant more. My advice: Choose such a place at once so as not to confuse with weeds, since the above-ground part of Chufs looks like ordinary weed grass».

Maria Ivanovna: " Chofu loved for a long time, I remember how my grandmother grown the grass similar to the Essay, on his garden. Then I did not attach great importance to this plant, I loved to help my grandmother more. And 5 years ago I remembered the tubers, I bought a few, I was looking for new varieties of chufaBut only one species is presented in the store - Dutch. I planted on my site, watering, fertilizer did not introduce. Chuf grew as a beautiful green carpet, next year I will allocate another place for her to be a decoration of the garden. Collected the harvest in the same way as potatoes are digging, only when the leaves began to turn yellow and squeeze (in my case, in the first days of October). Then dried the tubers until they began to harden and were covered with furrows. He kept in a cardboard box, tried to make a milk, soaked several tubers in the water, then rubbed between his palms to clean, crushed and dispelled with warm water from the kettle in proportions 1 part of the nuts, 4 parts of the water. I insisted the day, strain, rubs through the corticle, large pieces of nuts, added a bit of cinnamon, the pinch of vanilla and cane sugar. It turned out a delicious drink, I drank it chilled. Since the chifu can not gnaw just like this, it can be grouped into a powder in a coffee grinder and brew, like coffee. But to get a fragrant drink, the tubers are preferably to first roll in the oven, and then brew. It will be a coffee drink. I advise you to try to grow chofu on your own site. The plant is unpretentious and will always delight good harvest!»

Diseases and pests Chufa

• The plant is practically not subjected to pests, but sometimes the root rot is attacking, which develops in wet soil. Highly affected plants, it is advisable to delete and immediately burn. Swimming and dipping will help prevent the damage to the root rot.
• Ants can destroy Chofu immediately after landing. Therefore, choose a plot where there are no ants and when landing carefully examine the prepared wells, so that there were no anthills near. If the ants did not notice, and near there are anthills, red minced ants love to rummage the core of immature tubers.
• Even the plants were very loved by a wire, polarms and ants. If there is access to Chuf Pets, goats and cows can enjoy green parts, but the pigs will produce sweet fragrant nuts.