Harvesting flower seeds

FordIndustrialOwner · Aug 9, 2018

Does anyone have any experience (or know of anyone that does) harvesting flower seeds. I have a hobby farm and am thinking about planting
zinnia for harvesting the seeds and reselling. I have 40 acres and like specialty crops. I've had good success growing zinnia just for fun
(my wife and Brittany love them) using my little Allis-Chalmers C and a 4-1/2' disk. The problem with zinnia seeds is that they are a bit
fluffy compared to a grass seed or something like a chia seed.

Here are my questions:
1) What is your experience harvesting flower seeds, and what kind and what machine did you use?
2) What flowers are most easily harvested, and if so, what machine did you use, and what advice do you give on harvesting?

Uniballer · Aug 9, 2018

Most commercially available varieties, except for heirloom varieties, are hybrids: they will not breed true.

What's the Difference? Open-Pollinated, Heirloom & Hybrid Seeds

There are people out there whose hobby is saving/preserving seeds from heirloom and traditional plant varieties. Google for them and you will learn a lot.

FordIndustrialOwner · Aug 9, 2018

I did a lot of Googleing, but did not have any success regarding anything on machine harvesting. It is all about harvesting by hand, and
migrant workers are not my bag.

Uniballer · Aug 9, 2018

Not flower specific, but may give you ideas of where to look.

https://prairieecologist.com/2014/09/22/our-new-mechanical-seed-harvester/

https://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Seed-Harvesting_V4a_printspreads.pdf

http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/ad232e/AD232E04.htm

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11355-017-0341-y

https://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf08242353/pdf08242353dpi72.pdf

http://www.magnificentmeadows.org.uk/assets/pdfs/Lessons_Learnt_harvesting_storing_and_sowing_seed.pdf

https://patents.google.com/patent/US4373322

http://light4food.com/en/products/seed-and-pollencollector

gene bender · Aug 9, 2018

seed cleaning,packing clean seeds,getting a permit to sell ect building for equipment and the list goes on

Uniballer · Aug 9, 2018

I thought this was a great article. Although it is old, it touches on a lot of issues still faced by the industry, including climate, cross-pollination, etc.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e41a/dd4fb526920c84f445a748a8cd79258515c5.pdf

JL Ray · Aug 9, 2018

I'm not an expert, but have been told that they use modified corn pickers. I don't know what it is they are modifying. As for planting them. I have used my little two row JD planter to plant them for years. The same planter I use to plant my sweet corn just go up a size on the plates for the bigger seed. Normally plant big strips and black oil together. Black oil is what is normally sold for birds. Both seed in the planter at the same time. Because there in the hopper together the black oil are just a bit thicker, but, I'm OK with that. I don't harvest them. I leave them for the birds. The black oil mature earlier than the big strips and the birds will have them all gone by end of August. The big strips will last till end of November.
I'm in lower Michigan. Everyone love to see the patch. My wife and I got married in front of a patch and we were just ask if another couple (which we don't even know) could do the same. And the answer is of course they can.

jeffcat · Aug 9, 2018

Here is what I did the beginning of July. The field behind me i have propogated the pretty Coraopolis flowers. Used to hand pick the seed pods and then spread them around. Now the are hundreds and hundreds of them. I take my garden tractor, my super dooper trailer, my Generac portable, my Bissell steam cleaner, and a 40 foot pool cleaner hose. Go out and start sucking the seeds from the pods. Got 5 one quart zip lock bags this year. I have started to spread some along backroad shoulders this year. Useing a carpet vac like this when you are done just open it up and pour out the seeds.

Crazy Horse · Aug 9, 2018

Marigolds are bulletproof and easy to grow and cultivate seeds from, not sure about a commercial level or how much demand there would be. I used to collect my own marigold seed and don't remember a lot of cross pollinating, I always ended up the next year with the same thing. They are still searching I think for a pure white Marigold ...... they come close but not pure white yet (I don't think).

FordIndustrialOwner · Aug 9, 2018

Thanks for this. I've been wondering if I can use an Allis-Chalmers All-Crop 66 or 72 to harvest flower seeds. They will harvest grass
seeds.

jddrawbar · Aug 9, 2018

Big wild flower farm here (several hundred acres) and the owner has designed his own equipment to harvest. It's basically an elaborate vacuum system. He has been doing this for probably 40 yrs. and sells seeds all over the world.

casecollectorsc · Aug 9, 2018

Use to combine hundreds of acres of sunflowers every fall back in the 80s. Sunflower head which had a small reel to pull the cut heads into the combine. Could go like a bat out of heck as there isn't much volume going thru the machine. Price took a drop and everyone went to soybeans. Easy to combine but only weigh about 22 pounds to a bushel so you don't use much wind on the machine.

Harvesting flower seeds

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Uniballer

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Uniballer

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gene bender

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JL Ray

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