Drying sunflower heads for wild birds?

I don't know where to post this, so I'm posting it here.

Here's the story:

We feed sunflower seeds to our bird buddies through our long winter. The ones they drop/lose grow all over the place, and the goldfinches and pine siskins love them before they fly south. It's now a perpetual system, provided there's enough disturbed soil for the sunflowers to sprout.

The chickadees and nuthatches remain through the winter -- and bring us great joy. With the "sunflower tree" type, we just cut the stalk and hang it from a string in the trees. The birds might not want it now, but they certainly will in the depths of February.

There are always some single-head sunflowers in the mix. These can be a foot across. I have yet to find a good method of drying them so I can put them out in the winter. They have a dense rind on the back of the seed head, and I cut that off to expose the spongy stuff so they will dry out. Otherwise they rot, or become so tough that the birds can't pick out the seeds. Part of the problem is that due to our short season the inner seeds are not fully formed so they are stuck in pretty tight.

Anybody have a better method?

I wonder, if the seeds are not mature are they doing the birds any good? Is there enough meat there?

By the way, your method sounds a lot like mine. I have bought seeds and planted them, years ago, and now I just sort of ignore them among my other plants. They reseed naturally. This year I made an effort to encourage them and ended up shading out just about everything else in that garden. But it was pretty.

Thom Bri wrote:I wonder, if the seeds are not mature are they doing the birds any good? Is there enough meat there?

Good question. There is good seed, undried, in the outer rim of the sunflower head but the inner half is probably not useful.

I am severely disinclined to drop these on the ground and fuel an increase of the local rodent population. We are already at war, and a ruthless reckoning is immanent.

I note that much of the inner half has been pollinated and has not gone mouldy, so it may be viable as seed even if not for bird feed.

If you're only doing the heads, and not the whole stalk, you could, after taking off the back, put them in the oven at the lowest possible temp - preferably under 110°, to keep it 'raw' and only dry it out. If your oven doesn't go that low, try turning it on, let it heat to it's lowest temp, then put the head(s) in, and leave the oven door open an inch or so. If needed, you can stick a something in the door to block it open. Then, just leave it overnight. It should cut your ding time, drastically.

Thanks. I suppose an oven might work, but I'm not willing to spend one penny of electricity for this project.

I'm focused on finding smarter natural methods for preserving the seed heads.

I've even wondered about cutting them into long biscotti slices. Drying is all about surface area. And aesthetics are not a concern for a hungry bird below zero.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Thanks. I suppose an oven might work, but I'm not willing to spend one penny of electricity for this project.

If you have a car and a sunny fall day, you have a low-temp oven.

I am following this because I have sunflowers in my yard (winter sunflowers???) that got 12 foot plus and I want to save seed. I have never managed to get good seed out of a homegrown sunflower, unfortunately, they always go moldy first.

Have you tried just leaving the heads on the plant to dry?

We take the seeds out of the head first. My son has been saving Sunflower seeds for a number of years now. Most of the time (due to the mold issue) we take the seeds out first and then spread them out on a cookie sheet to dry. Your hands get all sticky, but we have had no problems with drying it this way. This method does not use any electricity, but does use up some of your time to break apart the heads and rub the seeds out with your thumb.

Tereza's car idea is genuinely smart. I've done the shed-rafter thing before but still lose some to mold if autumn stays damp. Going to try the car this year, hadn't thought of it.

Anne Miller wrote:Have you tried just leaving the heads on the plant to dry?

That would be easier, but it takes a long stretch of favourable weather. I find the stalks weaken during the winter and get knocked to the ground, feeding rodents not birds.

Matt McSpadden wrote:We take the seeds out of the head first.

Waaay too much work for bird seed. If I was saving it for human food, though, that is what I would do.

Tereza Okava wrote:If you have a car and a sunny fall day, you have a low-temp oven.

Yes! I use this for a variety of drying activities. It works quite well. My black hatchback smells more of clovers and rosemary than "new car smell" (off-gassing vinyl, ew).

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Matt McSpadden wrote:We take the seeds out of the head first.

Waaay too much work for bird seed. If I was saving it for human food, though, that is what I would do.

I agree if it's just going to feed chickens or wild birds or something. I think in those cases I would probably do what was suggested and just cut/break it into slices or pieces so it dries better. We take it out of the head first and dry it on cookie sheets for saving the seed for next year's sunflowers.

I have a screened shelf I made, 2' x 8', that I suspended from the ceiling of my garage to dry various veggies on.  (I am in what is called:  "high desert", so quite dry).
For the last couple years I have taken a dozen or so large sunflower heads and let them dry there and doled them out to the birds over the winter.  I cut the heads off with about a foot of stalk and use that to tie it up and that lets it hang down and the birds do their thing.

I always leave several sunflowers to just do their thing in the garden.  Some do fall over during the winter, so don't.  Vary few have seed in the heads come spring.

I am assuming you don’t irrigate.  It sounds as if there’s a lot of water in the air and soil, hence the very slow drying, and the mold.

If you did water them, you could cut the water.

Is the mold actually something that renders the seed inedible?

How would it work to grow something with smaller seed?  Milo, sorghum, millet and broom corn come to mind.

Cutting off the back cover is a good idea. Have you tried quartering the seed heads before drying?
If ours are too big, I cut them in half or quarters before placing them in the PVD (Passive Vehicular Dehydrator).