Sunflower seed question

[maggies_lens]

Hi everyone, just a quick question. A friend has given me a large bag of sunflower bird-seeds. The bag has ripped open and I need to get rid of the seeds pretty quickly as I don't want to feed the local mice population - the birds kenna take any more, Captain! :) I know I can pop the seeds in a container but I was wondering, if I plant them out

Comments

[trika]

As long as the seeds are still viable, they will grow. Just don't expect the flowers to be as pretty as those grown as ornamental sunflowers.

We have bird feeders and there are usually a couple of seeds that make it into the garden and if there's nothing already growing in the spot where a seed comes up, I'll let it stay. If I didn't mow my lawn, I'd have a forest of them under the feeder!

[maggies_lens]

LOL! I know that feeling, the birds scatter the seeds all over the place and I always get interesting stuff coming up :)

[leeneh]

You could put them in the freezer and take them out for the birds next winter.

[maggies_lens]

Could do...I generally buy a native bird mix tho which is better for the birds here than stuff they didn't eat before settlement. Mind you, the cockatoos are LOVING the sunflower seeds. I think they are getting just a little too fat on them at the moment :D

They'll grow great!

[waywalker]

LOL Love the Scotty imitation!

My little girl feeds out chickens sunflower seeds. We have them in a mobile tractor, which lets me move them around the yard to eat bugs and fertilize. Every time she feeds them the bird seed we end up with sunflowers in large clumps in those areas.

If your climate supports sunflowers (I apologize for my ignorance as I know little to nothing about Australian climate), they should do well!

Re: They'll grow great!

[maggies_lens]

I think the native birds who have been eating them are almost too fat to fly now ;) That sounds awesome re the clumps left to grow after the chooks have finished :D I'd love to have chickens, but a bit hard with a pet Greyhound... Australian climate can be highly varying depending on where you are. The tropics are the most famous, but we also have alpine, and the further south you go, the cooler it gets. Here in Melbourne winter is cold and wet, but summer is just BLERGH hot and humid. We get the works :P But yep, sunflowers grow very well here :)

[pundigrion]

I don't know your climate, but they grow like mad everywhere I have lived, ranging from super hot to cold to perpetual rain. They may not germinate right away if the conditions are not what they want, but some months down the road, long after you have forgotten about them you'll have loads.

I threw our gerbil bedding into the garden as mulch for lasagna gardening and we have lots of sunflowers without meaning to now. We have chickens and let them play in there to turn the soil in spring and fall when we don't have many plants, but they seem to have missed a few.

[maggies_lens]

Lasagna gardening? :D I think I understand what that entails, but I LOVE the name! So far it seems everyone thinks it'll work, so I'm off to sow them out now. Thanks! ^-^

[pundigrion]

It hasn't worked as well for me in rainy climates as it does here sadly, but it still is a very fun name! Good luck with a happy sunflower harvest :-)

[g_dawgmckickass]

Often sunflower seeds meant for birds are treated with a growth inhibitor so they don't sprout in the bag, or in the bird feeder. There is a chance that they wouldn't grow, but it's worth a chance!

[maggies_lens]

I was wondering about that, but this is a very cheap no-name brand so I wonder if they have bothered. Last time I got this brand I got flax and wheat and goodness knows what else springing up all over my lawn :D I'll give it a go and see what springs up ^-^