SUnflower field prep/planting

[BR549]

yea that's about the excuse we got too! Another thing was if they had a roundup sunflower and you plant beans or corn behind it the next year you have so much volunteer come up in it with no or only very expensive ways to kill it out!
As far as the fertilizer goes you can use either liquid or dry. We just fertilize ours when we do the corn so we use liquid. Dry will cost you more!

[Wingman]

Are you telling me to put out liquid fertilizer instead of granular? What's the best way to put out liquid fertilizer if we might be limited on equipment. We were thinking about just renting a big hopper that we can pull behind the tractor, and do all the fields at once.

The seed company will usually let you use their knife or coulter rig if you purchase the liquid fertilizer from them. I like to wait until the sunflowers are about knee high and put out the Nsol with the knife rig. That way all of the fertilizer is put out very close to the roots in each row. Another way I've done it with good results is to spray the liquid fertilizer with the burndown herbicide before planting.

Putting out pelletized nitrogen in high air temps (above 90) results in some of the nitrogen evaporating into the air. If you can put out your dry nitrogen below 90, it would be best.

But do not make the mistake of spraying liquid nitrogen over the top of any growing plant...it will turn to hay in about 24 hours!

I planted on May 9, sprayed pre-emerge on May 12, put out Nsol sometime in early June and sprayed select in early June. No pre-harvest spraying done because pretty much everything was dead from the drought. I was able to catch most of my morningglory, cocklebur and coffeeweed problem with the Roundup right after I planted the sunflowers. However, some of it came up later in the season and I just let it go.

[Goose]

This was my first year to use Spartan with Prowl and I was extremely impressed. The Spartan is fairly expensive, but I think it was worth it. It kept the morning glories at bay until into August when the plants started to dry down & more sunlight got down to the dirt, then they came on sum, but nothing like previous years using Prowl & Cotoran. I applied the Prowl/Spartan/Roundup mixture the afternoon after I planted that morning & let a rain incorporate it. I usually run a cultivator thru at about 18-24" high, but no need with Spartan.

Also, I have used both granular and N-Sol and the N-Sol works much, much better. Sanders or UAP or whoever you are working with can usually provide you with the rig.

Also, the Spartan eliminated the need for the last spraying because the vegetation was not bad at all (assuming that you plant early enough for the flowers to be dried down on time......try to be planted no later than 5/10 and you should be ok)

[TODO]

The advice given so far is right on; however, ive grown sunflowers for a whole lot cheaper than $100/acre...that being said, they didnt win any blue ribbons, but the doves didnt seem to mind. This past year i had about twenty acres of peradovicks, about half on sand and the remainder on buck; i planted on 40'' hipped rows to keep the feet dry on the tougher ground...behind the planter sprayed round up, dual, and zorial, they stayed fairly clean except for redvines. Plowed a couple times, no fertilizer, bushogged, killed doves. I spent about $600 on seed and chemical. Most of my equipment is older than me so that really wasant a cost.

If i had the money and time to baby them, I would plant clearfield seed, spray when needed, and fly in fertilizer several times and just plow it in....then maybe squirt um with sodium chlorate at the end of the season.

One thing to keep in mind is getting the correct seed spacing. You can burn up a $150 bag of seed in a hurry if your dropping them to close togeather. I think with the clearfields you only need a couple seeds per foot.

[Corn Doc]

If you choose to broadcast nitrogen fertilizer, granular ammonium nitrate (34-0-0) would generally be the best choice.

Urea-based nitrogen fertilizers, such as granular urea (46-0-0) and UAN solution (N-sol or 32%) will readily volatilize into the air if not incorporated into the soil by either rainfall or tillage. That is why farmers normally inject N-sol into the soil, particularly after mid-April.

Once nitrogen fertilizer is incorporated into the soil, there is little or no difference in availability to plants between fertilizer sources.

[Wildfowler]

Re-reading some of this info recently, I think we may have planted our sunflowers too close together.

At a rate of 7 - 8 lbs of seed per acre, what is the spacing that should be expected between individual plants that have now sprouted? Should there be one sprout every 3 or 4 inches, or should it be 12 plus inches?

Thanks.

[Wingman]

Depends on what plates you are using. I am using corn plates, probably not the exact size needed for the sunflower seed, but sometimes I get a bunch of plants together then a gap. There may be 8-12 seeds in as many inches, then a gap of a few inches, then more seeds.

It doesn't look as uniform as hill-dropped cotton, where every few inches you may have 4 seeds, then a gap, then 4 seeds, then a gap....

Also keep in mind you won't have 100% germination most of the time. My seed tags said 80% germ. If you plant 100 seeds in a row, 20 of them won't come up.

I've never worried much about plant pop. per foot of row. I leave that to the guys trying to make a living off of bushels and bales.

[Wildfowler]

Wingman, you pretty much described exactly what our planting looks like. The farmer used the same planter that was used to plant corn the same day.

Maybe I won't worry about it. Thanks.

[Wingman]

I wouldn't worry a minute about it. I planted roughly 9.2 pounds per acre. Factor in 80% germ(what my seed labels said) and I'll have approximately 7.4 pounds/acre to sprout.

Much better looking heads than when I was using soybean plates planting about 15 pounds per acre Same planter settings; changing to corn plates cut my rate almost in half.

Fact is, you really should use whatever seed plates for the size seed you are planting, and that may change from year to year for the same type seed. Seed one year may be larger than seed grown the next year in drought conditions or whatever. If the seed is smaller, more seed are gonna fall through the openings in the plates than larger seeds. I would be concerned if planting 3,000 acres of cotton at $150 sack. Not really worried about planting 3 bags of peredoviks on 19 acres.