Sunflowers

[Poncherello1976]

Next year I have said that we will grow a patch of Sunflowers as a fund raiser for the local school. People can come and pick a bunch for a fiver or something like that. Need to work on the details. What variety would be a good bet? Not too tall, and not a massive head either. We had some last year in a wildlife strip that grew to almost 9ft, though I do not know what variety they were. Just after a sensible all rounder.

 

[carpenter1]

Speak to @Great In Grass he will sort you out

 

[Will 1594]

Go get a couple bags of bird seed ,chuck them in with bild bird seed stewardship mix , ,get a couple of stale seed beds , drill end june , just before ,an inch of rain , and wait , they will come ,
Lad near here grows 500 acre for the flower heads ,all sown at different times ,so staggered picking , all look to be dwarf ,size
This was great in grass mix ,and added an extra bag of sunflowers , ,if you spray them they dont like gramminicides

 

[Farmer Roy]

 

[Poncherello1976]

As said I have grown them in a game cover mix before, and will be doing similar again in the spring. In the patch of sunflowers I will probably put some phacelia as well, as I have some seed left over from previous years. I do not know off hand what varieties these sunflowers are, but there are at least a couple of varieties in there.
As

 

[nick...]

I normally buy a bag of bird feed sunflowers and put in with mix.allways grows well too
nick...

 

[Mr Charisma]

Next year I have said that we will grow a patch of Sunflowers as a fund raiser for the local school. People can come and pick a bunch for a fiver or something like that. Need to work on the details. What variety would be a good bet? Not too tall, and not a massive head either. We had some last year in a wildlife strip that grew to almost 9ft, though I do not know what variety they were. Just after a sensible all rounder.

We have planted the odd acre of PYO sunflowers for charity ,
2 years ago I had a mishap when I was drilling beans and left a 6 meter empty strip down the field , I ordered a bag of sunflower seed and by the end of flowering had raised £800 for Breast cancer , unfortunately we couldn't open up the plot for general public as it was to far out of the way , so we just picked flowers and put them in buckets around the local villages .
A few years back we grow a plot of sunflowers which was opened up to the general public and that was a great success .

A couple of tips , get a good mix of different seed types so that you have different sized seed heads , although most folk want smaller flowers for putting flowers in a vase , kids just love looking for the biggest flower head they can find .
Sunflowers aren't just for the flower , the heads make excellent bird feeders .
Plenty of seed houses will give you all the info you need on variety.
And lastly don't be tempted to plant anything else in the plot , makes for difficult walking.


we have had a lot of family fun opening this up to the public , I hope you do as well

 

[Cobblers]

Thinking of growing some sunflowers purely for charity as you have done Mr Charisma and have a few questions as I am a complete novice here .
Would an acre provide adequate flowers ?
How much would you recommend charging ?
How many weekends do you open for ?
thanks in advance

 

[YELROM]

Thinking of growing some sunflowers purely for charity as you have done Mr Charisma and have a few questions as I am a complete novice here .
Would an acre provide adequate flowers ?
How much would you recommend charging ?
How many weekends do you open for ?
thanks in advance

I think @Charles Quick grew some for charity

 

[deleted user 837354]

It is interesting in the picture above that sunflowers seem to tolerate some competition better than the maize in amongst the mixture??

What herbicide options are available for sunflowers?

 

[Will 1594]

It is interesting in the picture above that sunflowers seem to tolerate some competition better than the maize in amongst the mixture??

What herbicide options are available for sunflowers?

 

[cquick]

Really the bigger the field the better for an event, the punters really loved the size of the thing and how they could almost get lost!
I scratched in some bird seed sunflowers @7kg/ha, buckwheat @10kg, peas @30kg and sorghum @5kg mid June and opened for one weekend late September. Made £35k for Kidney Research in those 2 days.
£5 entry including 6 stems, 50p/extra stem. Bring your own shears/scissors. Paths were mown with a one way system and designated picking area.
My priority was soil health and we only opened up once we realised what we had, however next year we will probably use a similar seed mixture, adding some Phacelia too.
@deleted user 837354 I doubt there's many herbicide options, but if you're harvesting the lot it shouldn't matter if there's a few weeds in the understorey? Doesn't seem to bother the sunflowers at all. Apparently you can use PDM but no clue on legality.

 

[Banana Bar]

Go get a couple bags of bird seed ,chuck them in with bild bird seed stewardship mix , ,get a couple of stale seed beds , drill end june , just before ,an inch of rain , and wait , they will come ,
Lad near here grows 500 acre for the flower heads ,all sown at different times ,so staggered picking , all look to be dwarf ,size
This was great in grass mix ,and added an extra bag of sunflowers , ,if you spray them they dont like gramminicides

500 acres for heads?

 

[Will 1594]

500 acres for heads?

And stems yes , 8 to 9 million heads a year

 

[marshallfarm]

500 acres for heads?

L&D flowers rent a bit of land off us for sunflowers. They are around the 500 acre mark i believe. Excellent entry for wheat.

 

[Cobblers]

Really the bigger the field the better for an event, the punters really loved the size of the thing and how they could almost get lost!
I scratched in some bird seed sunflowers @7kg/ha, buckwheat @10kg, peas @30kg and sorghum @5kg mid June and opened for one weekend late September. Made £35k for Kidney Research in those 2 days.
£5 entry including 6 stems, 50p/extra stem. Bring your own shears/scissors. Paths were mown with a one way system and designated picking area.
My priority was soil health and we only opened up once we realised what we had, however next year we will probably use a similar seed mixture, adding some Phacelia too.
@deleted user 837354 I doubt there's many herbicide options, but if you're harvesting the lot it shouldn't matter if there's a few weeds in the understorey? Doesn't seem to bother the sunflowers at all. Apparently you can use PDM but no clue on legality.

35 k is a massive achievement Charles ,great effort , how many acres did you put down ? Must have been a few just to accommodate all the punters

 

[cquick]

37ac field of flowers, it was Linseed but that never got going, so we put the cover crop in just to keep the soil alive. We had an adjacent 15ac stubble field for parking, we used about half of it.
If you're expecting big numbers make sure you have the ability to take card. We have all the publicity, signage and payment systems already due to our PYO fruit business which made working at this scale feasible

 

[Neddy flanders]

sunflowers you buy in florists never seem to drop petals. sunflowers i grow in the field have dropped petals between cutting and getting home???!!!

 

[cquick]

sunflowers you buy in florists never seem to drop petals. sunflowers i grow in the field have dropped petals between cutting and getting home???!!!

They're probably treated with an ethylene inhibitor.

 

[deleted user 837354]

37ac field of flowers, it was Linseed but that never got going, so we put the cover crop in just to keep the soil alive. We had an adjacent 15ac stubble field for parking, we used about half of it.
If you're expecting big numbers make sure you have the ability to take card. We have all the publicity, signage and payment systems already due to our PYO fruit business which made working at this scale feasible

Let me know when you do it again and I will bring the wife and kids. They would love running around in it and getting lost.

Also we will attack your PYO with gusto, love a summer strawberry.