Planting sunflowers?

RBoots

Well-known Member
Since this is tractor related, I will be using my IH and Oliver tractors to plant a few acres of sunflowers this year. Question is, how do I do that? I have a Kinze 6 row no till planter that has JD finger pick up units on it, would that work? I know I can use bird seed black oil sunflower seed to plant, but also at what population? I'd like to actually try to combine some at the end of the year (have to figure that out later probably), and need to know if I can basically plant with a corn planter and combine with a corn head? Or should I just broadcast them on, disc them in, and disc them over after the birds eat them, and vow to not waste anymore time with an idea like that?
Thanks!

Ross
 
I just dump seed in my 7200 Deere planter and plant them,dont change any settings. Tried to run them with my corn head once and stalks were to fat to fit thru stripper plates.( In the days before HYD adjustable deck plates.)
 
John Clark used to grow a bunch of them over here. He bolted some plywood "snouts" on a grain head as row dividers to keep them from falling off when they were cut.
 
They sell plates that go on the corn head. They bolt up where the deck plates go. it is a simple knive design that cuts the heads off. I use an old john deere row crop head. You can put pans on any platform head but they are a little pricey. You want to take in as little of the stock as possible because it shatters and can over load the sieve. I harvest them at night so the stocks are tougher and it helps with the dust they produce. The dust is a serious fire hazard and you need to keep the machine clean.
 
Thanks for the info Jeremy. Good to know the tip of running them at night. I have an extra Gleaner row head, so that would be easy to use or modify. What exactly do the pans in a grain table do?
Thanks, Ross
 
Good idea, thanks Randy, I'll have to keep that in mind as well in case my corn head trials don't go well. I have an extra Gleaner grain table as well I can do whatever with.
 
What is a Milo guard? Just a special guard for the sickle on a grain head, or a special type stripper plate for a corn head?
 
Thanks! So the planting shouldn't be too bad, no adjustments needed so that'll be nice, I'm sure I'll be planting them about the same time or just after planting the corn here as well. No hyd adjustable deck plates here, we're old school lol. However, we do have some spare heads that I'll never use, and can build them any way I'd want to, to get them to work correctly.

Ross
 
Sunflowers for harvesting are shorter than the ones you usually see in your local gardens. Might want to check on that. The heads are usually a bit smaller in diameter also. This is based on the ones I saw all over the great plains states over a 5 year period. Most were in KS,NE,CO.
As for harvesting. I would plan to use a row head. They have the knives in the row unit for cutting the stalks. I used a 9600 with pans on a cutter bar head. Was a pain as the reel was just a pipe with an arm on one side of it to swat the heads back to the auger. The heads seemed to shatter some with that setup. The row head you would have more like a head for chopping corn stalks for silage.
 
The pans extend out past the sickle a foot or two to catch any heads that fall forward. They vary in width depending on what you want. With the platform and pans you would not have to plant them in rows, but it is easy using the planter to put them in. A neighbor has a platform with pans and a special reel that is smaller in diameter with a different style finger setup. It works great, but I cannot justify the expense right now.
 
We planted a few sunflowers last year in flower beds. They got over 10 ft tall before they fall over. So it's a good think to plant the smaller sunflowers.
geo
 
I would like to get a handful of seeds to plant in the garden for the honey bees. Wife said a little package was over $4.00. She didn't buy them. Is that seed that high?
 
RBoots,

Since you're in Michigan I hope you have a plan for minimizing the deer damage. A lot of folks don't realize just how much deer LOVE sun flowers. When the plants get going good the deer come along and chew the tops off. It must be some kind of a treat for them as they sneak into our yard at night to eat the ones in the wife's flower garden. I put in a big patch (75'x150') of them (Giant Russian) once figuring I'd have more than I'd ever need. WRONG! got maybe twenty or so heads. Just a friendly heads up. JD
 
I have a customer who plants about 200 acres of sunflowers every year. I check his JD 7000 finger meters for any wear, put in new brushes, and he plants them. Singulation, plant pop, planting depth not near as important as with corn....the meter fingers are not designed for those seeds but they do a good enough job as he gets a good stand and a good crop every year.
LA in WI
 

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