Food Plots Sunflower Planting

[19_A_CPT]

Anybody have better luck planting sunflowers than I ?

When's the best time for a Sunflower planting to be ready for Labor Day?

What's the best technique?

 

[CATCHDAWG]

I think the second week of May is the "official" date to get them in the ground for Labor Day. I only plant a acre so my technique is pretty basic. Mow, burn, disc, broadcast and cultipack.
Chaneylake is the flower guru around here.

 

[Chaneylake]

May 1 is ideal planting date.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Chaneylake is the king of sunflowers

 

[PossumSlayer]

A lot of water till the tap root is long. Ours were around 10' tall this year

 

[Chaneylake]

A lot of water till the tap root is long. Ours were around 10' tall this year

I buy short stature early maturity seed.
Plants are about 42 inches tall and are mature at 89 days from planting.

 

[buckaroo]

I have a lot of those huge, striped seed sunflower seeds from last year, think Im planting them, hope doves like them, may add milot

 

[Chaneylake]

I have a lot of those huge, striped seed sunflower seeds from last year, think Im planting them, hope doves like them, may add milot

Sometimes the large striped seeds are to big for the doves.

 

[deerfever]

Mine are not fancy at all, I burn down , till and broadcast black oil seeds. Although cheap and probably not the best the doves seem to like them just fine. I always plant the first week of May and they are ready for opening day. Chaneylake has by far the best fields I have ever seen, I always look forward to his pictures.

 

[eddie c]

I buy short stature early maturity seed.
Plants are about 42 inches tall and are mature at 89 days from planting.

Any certain brand of seed? Thanks

 

[Chaneylake]

Any certain brand of seed? Thanks

WinnField

 

[eddie c]

Thanks

 

[Chaneylake]

Thanks

It's not the brand of seed that produces good results.
$50/bag or $300/bag doesn't matter to me. I can get the same results with either seed.

 

[eddie c]

It's not the brand of seed that produces good results.
$50/bag or $300/bag doesn't matter to me. I can get the same results with either seed.

I'm not a farmer but I do understand that there's more to it than turning dirt and throwing seed. The reason I ask is I figured we (lease members and landowner) may have to order the seed from the co-op. One of the members has been attempting to have good fields for several years but last year his planting didn't take. I showed him the picture of your field last year and they asked me to follow along to see your procedure to make ours better.
He pulled me aside later and told me that he had just been buying bird feeder seed for his planting.

 

[jmb4wd]

I'm with Chaney, good preplant practices with tillage and pre-emerging herbicide reaps huge benefits in a good crop.
Guy I plant for uses expensive clearfields seed. Are they worth price? I'm not sure but we've never had to replant and great crop for 4 years now

 

[Chaneylake]

I'm with Chaney, good preplant practices with tillage and pre-emerging herbicide reaps huge benefits in a good crop.
Guy I plant for uses expensive clearfields seed. Are they worth price? I'm not sure but we've never had to replant and great crop for 4 years now

the clearfield technology is "absolutely no good on marestail and pigweed" if you are using the recommended herbicide "Beyond"

what is amazing about the clearfield seed that I have used the past 2 years
is that the plants can grow through a light dusting of "Dicamba"

I bought a 1 gallon container of "Beyond" to spray over the top of our
clearfield sunflower plants. My final observation was that "sugar water might have been just as good"

 

[buckaroo]

I have planted birdseed and does great, also I have the big stripped seeds, will it be better for me to buy something else? Also thought about throwing some millet in

 

[eddie c]

I have planted birdseed and does great, also I have the big stripped seeds, will it be better for me to buy something else? Also thought about throwing some millet in

I'm not going to say it's a bad idea to use bird seed but the bird seed that the landowner used last year didn't even sprout. Maybe bad seed, maybe other factors caused it but we didn't even shoot last year. We're planning on trying more proven practice this year.

 

[DoubleTap]

How much sun a day should they have. I also have had in issue. I have a small food plot field surrounded my woods. I till, broad cast(with other seeds also), sow them in with a drag and drive over with the 4 wheeler to pack it down. Other seeds grow. But sunflowers .