All About Sunflower Seeds

S Rogers wrote:As beautiful as they are useful, the sunflower's seeds shockingly didn't get one single vote!!  The seeds are considered the fruit of the sunflower, consisting of edible kernels surrounded by a black shell.  These seeds can produce 4.4 million calories per acre.

That's a big wow. But I read that sunflowers are aleopathic and not to plant them near any other vegetables. Is this true?

I grow them to feed to my chickens each fall when they molt. I forgot this year and egg production dropped drastically during molting season. I can’t say that missing the protein and oils is the cause but we didn’t notice any real drop off the past 4 years.

I‘ve always had troubles with aphids on my sunflowers, which then spread onto other veggies. Have you had that happen? Did you find a good solution?

Lexie Smith wrote:I grow them to feed to my chickens each fall when they molt. I forgot this year and egg production dropped drastically during molting season. I can’t say that missing the protein and oils is the cause but we didn’t notice any real drop off the past 4 years.

https://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/feeding-chickens-sunflower-seeds.html

Here’s a cool link that goes into why sunflower seeds are good for chickens as a treat! They have a ton of beneficial vitamins for them.

I love sunflowers and their seeds. Just an hour ago, I harvested sunflower micro greens for lunch. So easy to grow and everyone can have a winter garden

I love sunflowers too but I have a hard time making use of all their uses because first you need to dehull them. Sure, when you are snacking on them, it's not a big deal to break them open one at a time with your teeth, but how in the world do you prepare enough seeds to make sunflower butter or to throw into your baking or press sunflower oil?

Also I have a big problem getting enough to grow because everyone from slugs to deer like to eat them until they get at least a foot tall. When I first started gardening, I would plant 40+ seeds and get 0-4 sunflowers. It was very sad. 😢

Now I start them inside and get about a 20% success rate- 100% usually sprout but I can't keep them inside too long without them getting stunted so they are still pretty yummy for the wildlife when I set them out.

This year I actually had a little help from the wildlife... I had a long row of decorative, multi-headed sunflowers last summer (the deer ignored them to eat my row of Hopi black sunflowers instead) and this summer I had about five of the decorative variety pop up around the garden.

Some pictures of my sunflowers this year. One had a weird double sided bloom. There were two heads on the same fleshy receptacle. One had orange petals and the other side had red petals. It was really cool looking, like a sunflower sandwich, but difficult to take a picture of.

These are the sunflowers planted by a friendly vole, mouse or bird.

I too am interested in how to hull enough to use for anything. I wondered about that with pumpkin seeds also but found that there are several varieties of hulless pumpkin seeds. That made it simple for pumpkins. There has to be an easy way to hull the sunflower seeds or they couldn't afford to do it commercially

Hello there! You all grown native sunflowers from the wild? I'm looking for more seeds of the downy, sawtooth, tall, woodland and the common sunflower which has been widespread and been considered a weed in some areas for my gardens next year and beyond. My greatest concentration is on wildlife and indigenous people who once inherited my area centuries ago. You have some of that stuff?

I grow sunflowers, for seed for my chickens mainly. We eat sunflower seeds, but I buy those because I could not find a way to hull them other than taking a minute or so to hull each damn seed. Surely there IS an efficient way to hull a lot of sunflower seeds...anyone know what it is? I don't have trouble with varmints usually because I grow sunflowesr within fenced gardens; I compost all the parts within one pile that goes for a full year, that seems to get around the allelopathic issues.

I like sunflowers for snacking.  Birds like attacking sunflowers seeds here, Golden Finches.    I guess it's not time to invest in fine mesh.

Saralee Couchoud wrote:I too am interested in how to hull enough to use for anything. I wondered about that with pumpkin seeds also but found that there are several varieties of hulless pumpkin seeds. That made it simple for pumpkins. There has to be an easy way to hull the sunflower seeds or they couldn't afford to do it commercially

This just tweaked me go online and see what was out there for hulling.

There is a $20-$25 little 'toy' for doing this on Amazon. See the customers complaints about this device BEFORE you buy one.

There are a tremendous amount of commercial machines to do the hulling, but even the smallest would take up a very large space from your home or garage.

There was one area that suggested to use your grain mill after experimenting with the settings.

SO, here is an opportunity for someone to DESIGN some sort of mill or hulling machine for sunflower seeds. Might make a great business opportunity for someone!

Jesse Glessner wrote:

Saralee Couchoud wrote:I too am interested in how to hull enough to use for anything. I wondered about that with pumpkin seeds also but found that there are several varieties of hulless pumpkin seeds. That made it simple for pumpkins. There has to be an easy way to hull the sunflower seeds or they couldn't afford to do it commercially

This just tweaked me go online and see what was out there for hulling.

There is a $20-$25 little 'toy' for doing this on Amazon. See the customers complaints about this device BEFORE you buy one.

There are a tremendous amount of commercial machines to do the hulling, but even the smallest would take up a very large space from your home or garage.

There was one area that suggested to use your grain mill after experimenting with the settings.

SO, here is an opportunity for someone to DESIGN some sort of mill or hulling machine for sunflower seeds. Might make a great business opportunity for someone!

Yeah, I spent some time searching online a couple of year ago without luck. The under $100 contraptions basically are just glorified nutcrackers. Two pieces of plastic come together to crack the seed like your teeth would, one seed at a time, and you still have to take the shell off. I think they were designed for older people who have teeth problems and can't bite a sunflower shell to crack it.

This person built a nifty dehuller out of wood.

And in contrast, here is an elaborate factory for sunflower seeds and oil. 😂

Blake Lenoir wrote: Hello there! You all grown native sunflowers from the wild? I'm looking for more seeds of the downy, sawtooth, tall, woodland and the common sunflower which has been widespread and been considered a weed in some areas for my gardens next year and beyond. My greatest concentration is on wildlife and indigenous people who once inherited my area centuries ago. You have some of that stuff?

Prairie moon nursery has a large collection of all kinds of wildflower seeds and their website also provide detailed information including the range map. Or you could check around the wilderness in your area and collect the seeds from native plants.

Instead of dehulling, why not do microgreen? These are the most popular microgreen

Also, Amish cut the head before they are ready. Since sunflower are ready when birds eat them, you can make sure to have some harvest by cutting the head (with some stalk and remove leaves) and dry it indoor. I've done it last year and it worked. I've got 80% germination rate. I probably could have waited a little longer.

Just a quick mention that sunflower oil has a pretty bad omega 6:3 ratio.

Especially important for pregnant women and people raising young children whose brains are growing to be aware, the brain is mostly fats, and the wrong kind makes for tissues that don’t function well.

There’s a thread here where permies are discussing how to get more omega 3 from their permaculture gardens.

https://permies.com/t/6358/kitchen/Permaculture-sources-omega-fatty-acids

And articles on line to study this further, so we don’t go off topic from this great thread, until we get a thread going about the omega 6:3 ratio itself, or someone else finds it and posts the link.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Just a quick mention that sunflower oil has a pretty bad omega 6:3 ratio.

Especially important for pregnant women and people raising young children whose brains are growing to be aware, the brain is mostly fats, and the wrong kind makes for tissues that don’t function well.

There’s a thread here where permies are discussing how to get more omega 3 from their permaculture gardens.

https://permies.com/t/6358/kitchen/Permaculture-sources-omega-fatty-acids

And articles on line to study this further, so we don’t go off topic from this great thread, until we get a thread going about the omega 6:3 ratio itself, or someone else finds it and posts the link.

Sunflowers were an important part of many traditional North American people before and after European conquest. In the last few centuries they have also become very popular snack and oil source across much of Eurasia. Given this long and widespread consumption, I feel like they are a safe and healthy food as part of a balanced diet.

Maybe if a person were eating them to the exclusion of all other fats, the balance could be worrisome.

Mk Neal wrote:
Sunflowers were an important part of many traditional North American people before and after European conquest. In the last few centuries they have also become very popular snack and oil source across much of Eurasia. Given this long and widespread consumption, I feel like they are a safe and healthy food as part of a balanced diet.

Maybe if a person were eating them to the exclusion of all other fats, the balance could be worrisome.

I absolutely agree, nothing wrong with them at all.  At the same time, the diets of people in industrialized nations create a different context.

This wonderful thread is about sunflowers in all their glory.  I don’t want to take it off topic.

Here’s a thread for exploration of the topic of health ramifications of the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio, for anyone who wants more information.

https://permies.com/t/210565/kitchen/Understanding-omega-es#1764455

I love to plant all kinds of sunflowers. I did plant them in my garden a few years ago. A lot of companion plant charts say sunflowers make a great companion. I did notice a lot of the veggies in that bed didn't germinate, or struggled. That's when I read about there defensive nature.  I still try to plant sunflowers every year. I just plant them close to the veggie garden, just not in it.

I really want to grow some perinatal sunflowers. I ordered one last year and it didn't grow. I think it was to hot by the time I got it, maybe I didn't water it enough.  This year I ordered the seeds. I hope to fill in some bare spots in our hedges.  It will be pretty, a good pollinator, and the birds.

I would like to grow black oil sunflower seeds for my chickens.  I buy them to feed the chickens.  I thought I would try to grow some of those. Has anyone tried it?

We should start a post with pictures of sunflowers. That would be fun.  Happy growing everyone

The gardeners in our community garden are growing both the black oil seed and striped sunflower seeds.

They cut the heads off and put them out for our chickens who are indiscrimate, the chickens will happily eat both types.

The smarter girls have learnt to hang around and wait for one of the others to do the hard work of pecking out the seeds, quite a few drop to the ground as the head is pecked at.

I grew some when I tossed a mixed bunch of seeds in an empty bed.
Only the sunflowers survived.
In retrospect, the sunflowers probably suppressed the rest of the seeds.
They grew well, with little care on my part.
The best part was the finches that showed up to eat the seeds.
Never saw them around before , but they were drawn right in.

Hulls make good additions to mulch material.  And?  I have a good friend who makes flutes from the stalks!  Sunflowers are a huge fave here.  

Great thread!

Lexie Smith wrote:I grow them to feed to my chickens each fall when they molt. I forgot this year and egg production dropped drastically during molting season. I can’t say that missing the protein and oils is the cause but we didn’t notice any real drop off the past 4 years.

We feed them to our goats as a treat.  They have lovely shiny coats from them.

I have standfast and black oil sunflowers and I am wondering if it will crosspollinate if I grow both?

Are there sunflowers varieties that takes much longer to get seeds than others? I've been able to grow stand fast in wintersowing setup. I wonder if I'll be able to grow black oil sunflower in my short grow season from wintersowing. I'll try it anyway but I'd like to have some insights.

Distance as in pea or as in cabbage cross-pollinate distance?