Harvesting Sunflower Seeds
All About Harvesting Sunflower Seeds
For people who make their living from harvesting sunflower seeds, the timing is critical. When you have acres and acres of fields planted, you have to get the crop in when the moisture content is just right, before they get too dried out or birds ruin the crop.
In large, commercial operations, combines are used in harvesting sunflower seeds. These are the same type of combines used in the harvesting of wheat and corn. They have a variety of header attachments that can be adapted for sunflower seeds. If harvesting sunflower seeds is delayed too long, the seeds get overly dry and shell out when they are stripped from the head. The head actually passes through the combine and is stripped of seeds in the process.
Sunflower growers measure moisture, and harvesting begins when the moisture content is around 14-15%. The seeds are then placed in bins for storage and air dried down to 10% before taking them to market. The higher the moisture level, the faster the combines are able to go when harvesting sunflower seeds. The whole process is done with caution because a loss of just ten sunflower seeds per square foot means a hundred pound loss per acre. If you wanted to calculate that out, you would find that if you lost two hundred pounds per acre at ten cents per pound, you would have a loss of $20,000 right there.
The next stage in harvesting sunflower seeds is drying them out in bins. For this process, bins that have perforated floors are used. Ambient air dries out the seeds. When dried, the seeds are trucked to market from where they will leave to become either edible food for animals and humans or crushed and their oil extracted for vegetable cooking oil.
For backyard growers, harvesting sunflower seeds is much simpler. Rather than measuring moisture all that you need to do is check out the sunflower plants to see whether the backs of the heads have changed color from green to yellow or brown. By the time that they have, the heads will be hanging a bit from the weight of all the sunflower seeds. Don’t wait too long or some birds are apt to find your sunflower seeds and spread the word to all of their friends. Placing a paper bag over the head of the plant should deter most birds.
Cutting the head off of the stalk can be a challenge, especially if you are growing one of those new hybrids with a stem near ten inches thick. Try to leave a foot or two of stem on the head, and take them inside to dry--a garage works great. Try hanging the heads such as on a row of clothesline or something similar. When the sunflower heads are dry the seeds can be obtained by rubbing the plants together or rubbing your hand against the plant.
When you are done harvesting your sunflowers, you can eat them raw or roast them in your oven for a tasty, nutritious snack.