Black oil sunflower seed/Feeding question...

[AlHawk]

Anybody tried to plant their own seed and grow these sunflowers in a Florida garden? I come from the midwest where sunflowers were all over in varying heights and colors.

I bought some black sunflower seed and will be planting this spring. Just wondering what my expectations should be.

 

[CluckznDuckz]

Anybody tried to plant their own seed and grow these sunflowers in a Florida garden? I come from the midwest where sunflowers were all over in varying heights and colors.

I bought some black sunflower seed and will be planting this spring. Just wondering what my expectations should be.

We've grown sunflowers in our yard and our birds loved them. Very little work or care to get them to grow, unlike most things in Florida.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Mammoth or the Peredovic sunflower will come up when planting from your black oil seed bags. The Russian Mammoth every knows is the 9 footer with one huge head sunflower. The Peredovic is 5 feet with multiple medium sized heads. It depends on the source the company got seeds from previous year as to what comes up. For years I buyt 40lb bags of Agway black sunflower when they have pre winter sale. First year planting in spring remainder of bag Mammoth came up then two years in a row when planting rest of bag as border the medium multi head came up then had a year of mammoth then back to multi-head and so on. There are only two major plant sources of black oil, you'll get one or the other and random as to which each year from same company.

About the easiest thing to plant is sunflower. I remove sod or till then scatter by hand as sparse and even as possible. You'll be amazed at what a few left over pounds can cover for planting. Ideally you'd go back and thin them out so there are plants every 14-18 inches. I just hand scatter as loose a spacing as I can manage then rake it all in, water and walk away. That's the extent of it until harvest.

 

[Chris09]

Mammoth or the Peredovic sunflower will come up when planting from your black oil seed bags. The Russian Mammoth every knows is the 9 footer with one huge head sunflower. The Peredovic is 5 feet with multiple medium sized heads. It depends on the source the company got seeds from previous year as to what comes up. For years I buyt 40lb bags of Agway black sunflower when they have pre winter sale. First year planting in spring remainder of bag Mammoth came up then two years in a row when planting rest of bag as border the medium multi head came up then had a year of mammoth then back to multi-head and so on. There are only two major plant sources of black oil, you'll get one or the other and random as to which each year from same company.

About the easiest thing to plant is sunflower. I remove sod or till then scatter by hand as sparse and even as possible. You'll be amazed at what a few left over pounds can cover for planting. Ideally you'd go back and thin them out so there are plants every 14-18 inches. I just hand scatter as loose a spacing as I can manage then rake it all in, water and walk away. That's the extent of it until harvest.

If your planting Black Oil Sunflower Seeds then you will get Peredovic Sunflowers ("Black Oil Sunflowers"). But keep in mind you will not get true Peredovic Sunflowers from planting seed that are from the feed mill/ store and meant to feed livestock and birds.
The Peredovic Sunflowers used today a hybrids and will not grow true unless your growing seed meant for germination.

Russian Mammoth Sunflowers have a striped seed not black and are not Black Oil Seed.

 

[AlHawk]

If your planting Black Oil Sunflower Seeds then you will get Peredovic Sunflowers ("Black Oil Sunflowers"). But keep in mind you will not get true Peredovic Sunflowers from planting seed that are from the feed mill/ store and meant to feed livestock and birds.
The Peredovic Sunflowers used today a hybrids and will not grow true unless your growing seed meant for germination.

Russian Mammoth Sunflowers have a striped seed not black and are not Black Oil Seed.

I bought Peredovic Seed from an online seed company. They are ALL solid black with no stripes. They are Planting Seed quality not feed store seed. I have a variety of sunflower seed from a friend that are striped and I'm going to plant those too. I'm going to plant at the same time I plant my tomatoes (1 Mar). That should have them flowered and seeding before it gets OMG hot in July.

thx

 

[patsy334]

Are all BOSS sold in shells? Chicken eat

I sprout BOSS for my hens and they can't get enough of it. Sprouting raises the protein to 25% and cuts some of the omega-6 out. I started sprouting a wheat-BOSS mix for winter feeding supplement, but because the egg quality and production has been so good, I am going to continue year round. It takes maybe 10 minutes a day but the benefits are great.

This is be a "dumb" question: Do you have to shell BOSS?

 

[GC-Raptor]

I add Black Oil Sunflower Seeds to my Scratch Grains.

As long as they have access to Grit, they'll digest all the seeds in my mix.
I offer Poultry Grit separately. . If your chickens have access to unfrozen ground with plenty of hard pebbles near the surface they may not need additional Grit. Mine are in a large pen with limited Grit. GC

 

[Sally PB]

No, they eat it shell and all.

I used to eat salted sunflower seeds, shell and all. My mom said my stomach probably looked like a porcupine. Maybe I used to have a gizzard. Or maybe... I'm part chicken!

 

[Sheryll_woods]

I take 1/2 cup BOSS cover them with water. I set mine on the table and no lid. Cover with a dark towel for 8hrs. Now rinse well and drain I set mine in a small box with a table lamp and it sprouts over night rinse well 2 times a day to keep bacteria from forming. They should not stink. If so rinse again. Start a new jar every day till you have 5 on the 5th day you can feed the first one you started but replace it with a new jar to start more.

 

[Debbie292d]

BOSS is one of the best sources of high amounts of Selenium and Vit E (wry neck deficiency) together. Our older chickens free range and head to under the wild bird feeders that only have BOSS and one has nyjer seed. Yes, they are hanging out where wild birds, squirrels, chipmunks, etc., with mites and lice are. We use DE in the coop twice monthly, so if the chickens drag any of that back into the coop at night, it's being killed, as ours never get mites.

For tiny chicks, we grind up some sunflower hearts and sprinkle a very small amount in their food every few days. We have silkies prone to wry neck and never had one with it. We bought a mortar and pestle on Amazon for this and crushing pet pills.