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  • From: Liannan88 AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Sunflowers
  • Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 20:36:53 EDT

Wendy,

I had a wonderful "accident" happen this year that I plan on repeating next year.  Went to Petsmart & bought a 50-lb bag of "Mammoth Grey Stripe" Sunflower seeds (for wild birds) to plant along my fenceline as a privacy screen.  Knowing how much those hybrid "mammoth" seeds cost (per packet!) in seed catalogs, I didn't think the cheapies would produce large flowers, but I was wrong!  About a week ago, I harvested sunflowers the size of dinner plates & fed them to the chickens, who thought they were the greatest treat in the world.  Not every single flower was mammoth-sized, but most were, & the remainder were still very large & loaded with seeds.

To harvest, just wait until the flower droops over & all the yellow petals & the pollen-y (sorry, not a botanist!) stuff falls off the seed head, then cut the seed head off & feed immediately or let dry further.  I would leave a little stem on to keep the chickens from being able to easily flip the seed head over while pecking out the seed.

Next year, I plan on growing an extensive amount of my own feed, but realize that has little to do with market-farming, so if anyone is interested in some chicken feed recipes I got from a poultry board, e-mail me privately.

-Maridian Carlton
Bridgeport, TX



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