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Subject: Market Farming
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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
-
[Market-farming] SUNFLOWERS,
Windsoap, 07/20/2003
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- [Market-farming] Sunflowers, Liannan88, 07/20/2003
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