How to plant sunflowers?
- Thread starter split toe
- Start date
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Spray, throw, and mow. Cost whatever a bag of black oil sunflower bird seed cost and a few ounces of gly.
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Catscratch
5 year old buck +
It doesn't take long for them to look like this once the deer find them:
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Catscratch
5 year old buck +
It the same field as the first pic. The deer hammered it but the sunflowers recovered well. I think it's because I had other stuff planted in close proximity of that field and the deer seemed to do a rotation, taking pressure off the plants once they had been hit.
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Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Lol. I have no idea. I spread a little and then get down and look at how thick it is. Once it looks like the seed is about 6in apart I go with it. I do a lot by "feel" with my plots.
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farmhunter
A good 3 year old buck
how much thatch do you end up with? Ans do you mow when its still green or when its browning up?
I'm going to try next year - did you fertilize at planting?
I'm going to try next year - did you fertilize at planting?
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Lots of thatch, probably three inches thick. I don't mow until it's brown and dead. It mows easier and I think the seed finds its way to the dirt better when it's broadcast into standing dead plants.
I haven't fertilized the sunflowers but I did the millet this yr because it was yellowing. It was the first time in many yrs that I've bought fert. (besides an experiment with liquid fert.). Planned rotations take care of most of my fert. needs.
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I haven't fertilized the sunflowers but I did the millet this yr because it was yellowing. It was the first time in many yrs that I've bought fert. (besides an experiment with liquid fert.). Planned rotations take care of most of my fert. needs.
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farmhunter
A good 3 year old buck
Thank you - I'll look forward to trying it!
StickTime
5 year old buck +
I can't say for certain. I had a healthy bed of thatch get moved down after I seeded, and it rained for a week straight after i seeded so germination should not have been a problem (it wasn't for the BW). Its possible that the deer ate them as soon as they began to sprout but I never was able to even identify a single sunflower stalk, let alone a flower. I wondered if it was the seeds I used? because i even had a few stray corn kernels fall off the atv when I was moving and they grew too
Tap
5 year old buck +
I've been trying to do rag doll tests on all seeds that I plant. That will take any questions of seed viability out of the equation. I usually have a very high percentage of viable seeds, but it's good to know exactly.
There are "low viability" seeds that are sometimes sold. Welters sells a low-germ Kura Clover seed.
BTW, sunflowers tend to germinate faster than any other seed that I've tested. Sometimes within 2 days.
Exclusion cages are another important tool for monitoring success or failure of plantings.
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StickTime
5 year old buck +
I keep meaning to use an exclusion cage and never get around do making a few. After pulling my cards for the first time in a month I realized that our deer herd is much larger than I initially thought so I'm thinking they just crushed it. I'm going to plant them again in the spring with the BW but I will use a cage this time!
Semisane
5 year old buck +
Last Fall I had black oil sunflower in my planting mix - the stuff sold as birdseed at a Dollar Store. They were first to germinate. They got to about three inches tall and then were wiped out in less than a week. Clearly they are a great draw to the plot. My plan for September is to add a HEAVY dose of sunflower seed to the planting mix expecting that they will bring in the deer but won't compete with the other seed because they will be gone by the time the other stuff gets going well.
This year I planted sunflowers in a summer mix I did on 3 ac. 50 lbs of sunflowers and never saw a one. Thought maybe it was bad seed but tested some I had left in the bag and it was over 90%. Deer had to have ate every one of them in less than a week between my buddys visits to the farm.Next year they get the e-fence.
