Sun Flowers?

[RLong]

I'd like to put in a couple of acres of Peredovich Sunflowers this year. I can't find any seed locally. I can find it on line and I've found a few places that sell the seed at a reasonable price. The problem is the shipping, that costs as much, or more than the 50 lbs. bag of seed.

My question is . . . can I buy a 50 lbs. bag of black oil sunflower seed that is being marketed as wild bird seed and plant that and get a crop? I'm questioning it because there are several varieties of sunflowers that fall in to the black oil category and they are mostly hybrids. The Peredovich to my knowledge, is an open pollinated variety. Also is there a process they put the wild bird seed sunflowers through that could render the seed useless for planting?

Thanks in advance.

Rick

 

[Jordan9682]

I would think it would grow just fine, I don't see why they would do anything to it.

Buy a small bag of bird seed and try it out

 

[nybirdman]

My experience the last two years with"bird seed sunflowers"Black Oil they grow a plant/flower but no seeds.Go fiqure.I purchased a few seed pacs of sunflowers and they grew great,so its not the soil.I have used "mixed" bird seed with decent results but still no sun flowers.

 

[PMA]

I used to plant sunflowers for dove hunting and I bought the sunflower seeds from Walmart. They came up fine and produced a lot of seeds. Killed a lot doves over them.

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[CliffordK]

I planted some.
The black ones produce small sunflowers.
The striped ones also worked. For whatever reason, I tended to get a variety of sunflowers when using the striped sunflower seeds. A few big ones, lots of smaller ones.

 

[RLong]

Thanks for your replies. Your experiences have confirmed what I've heard/read about sunflower seeds.

If you buy seed each year from a seed dealer, the seed should be fine and grow and produce sunflowers with seed heads.

Because the "wild bird seed" sunflowers, oil type and gray-striped, are hybrids, if you plant them they will revert back to one of the parent or grandparents type. That's why they grow different plants and seed heads. Some are big and some are small, but they are not uniform in plant size or seed head size. Or the plant will grow, but not produce a seed head.

I've also heard/read that some varieties are either treated, or bred so the seeds are sterile.

Thanks again!


Rick