Dove Fields

[Rob7]

Tilled mid week, planted yesterday afternoon, sprayed prowl and spartan preemergent after planting. Ran out of the Clearfield sunflowers about 2/3 of the way through and switched over to a bag of Peredovik sunflowers I had bought just in case I ran out. Like Bigb stated the Peredovik seeds I got from SS were tiny and the planter was dropping 2 to 3 seeds per drop. Just went with it, it happened once before and the field was totally fine with (2) 7" heads in lieu of (1) 10" head where 2 plants came up at one location. Still planning to spray with lightning where the clearfields are planted and then entire field with Clethodim. Should be a good experiment to see if its worth it to spend the money on the Clearfields next year or just roll with the Peredovik.

 

[bigpuddin43]

I no tilled mine last monday and they are coming up already. was really hoping to hit the rain this week but we missed everything.

 

[bigpuddin43]

No tilled Monday the 9th. No rain yet but coming up pretty good in the clean ground. Sod is a bit spotty but rows didn’t close up as well. Very spotty in the knee high wheat gonna add row cleaners next year to help with that.

 

[bigbonner]

View attachment 100685
No tilled Monday the 9th. No rain yet but coming up pretty good in the clean ground. Sod is a bit spotty but rows didn’t close up as well. Very spotty in the knee high wheat gonna add row cleaners next year to help with that.

Mine is coming up and where I used the small seed , they are thicker than hair on a dogs back.
Bag said 80% germination and I added two pounds extra per acre to make up for the loss.
I think sunflowers come up better when it does not rain hard on them. Last couple years I would plant and it would rain for a couple days. When the soil dried out it would crust over killing plants.

 

[bigpuddin43]

especially in conventional till crust over is a big issue better to plant with good moisture and get them up before getting heavy rains. I can guarantee you were already over planting those small seeds probably planted doubles like crazy if your setup works well with bigger seed. mine are a little heavy I shoot for a seed every 8-10". bigger heads will make more seed than two smaller heads in my experience.

 

[bigbonner]

especially in conventional till crust over is a big issue better to plant with good moisture and get them up before getting heavy rains. I can guarantee you were already over planting those small seeds probably planted doubles like crazy if your setup works well with bigger seed. mine are a little heavy I shoot for a seed every 8-10". bigger heads will make more seed than two smaller heads in my experience.

I had to get the county no till seeder to plant with. . I could not come up with a plate that worked with these seeds.
Large dove fields are a pain to deal with and next year if things go right I will buy me a better combine and plant soybeans or corn.

 

[bigpuddin43]

good luck thats what I did this year. combine planter grain table and a couple gravity wagons. Just got 70 acres of soybeans planted last week. along with 3 acres of sunflowers and an acre of sweet corn.

I had to get the county no till seeder to plant with. . I could not come up with a plate that worked with these seeds.
Large dove fields are a pain to deal with and next year if things go right I will buy me a better combine and plant soybeans or corn.

 

[bigpuddin43]

Here are mine first was no tilled into sod. The second was beans last year. A lot of marestail in the bean ground. We hit it hard with roundup before they came up in hopes to set it back enough to get the sunflowers up and over them.

 

[Rob7]

Good looking fields bp. We've got some marestail as well, seems very difficult to get rid of. 2/3 of our field is planted in clearfield sunflowers and 1/3 in peredovik. Sprayed on Sunday. Sprayed entire field with Clethodim and then came back and sprayed Lightning where the clearfields were planted. Seem to have more weeds this year than last, hopefully this spraying will take care of the majority of them.

 

[hunt-4-life21]

About the only way I know to contain marestail is move fields and crop it for a year. There's nothing you can spray that will kill it and not the sunflowers. If you can move it for a year or plant all wheat (in the fall), come summer, spray it with 2-4d and I'll take care of it. Gly won't touch it if it's over a certain height.

 

[Rob7]

Looks like we'll get some much needed rain this week. Spraying seemed to work pretty good. Always worried until I return that I did something wrong and killed the sunflowers by messing up the spraying somehow, thankfully they are growing well.

 

[Drahts]

I didn't have anything to compare em to, but these Peredoviks I got to plant look to be a better size. Or do. you consider these small? I put bout 5# in with my Buckwheat for my bees, we'll see if they come up ok. I have to cultipack then broadcast them and re-cultipack and drag. Field will be e-fenced to keep the deer out for now.

 

[bigbonner]

I didn't have anything to compare em to, but these Peredoviks I got to plant look to be a better size. Or do. you consider these small? I put bout 5# in with my Buckwheat for my bees, we'll see if they come up ok. I have to cultipack then broadcast them and re-cultipack and drag. Field will be e-fenced to keep the deer out for now.

View attachment 101252

Those look like the big seeds. Here is a picture of sunflowers seeds. On the left was last year's seeds and they were good size and the righ is this year's seeds, they were tiny. They were about the same size as the hulled eating packs of sunflower seeds.

 

[Drahts]

BB I thought they were good sized and figured more the size you were expecting.
Hopefully they didn't wash away with these storms we got tonite. .

 

[bigbonner]

BB I thought they were good sized and figured more the size you were expecting.
Hopefully they didn't wash away with these storms we got tonite. .

My sunflowers came up better than I thought with the seeds being so tiny and the weeds grew even better.
Had a hard time finding Clethodim to spray with.
I finally found a gallon at Rural King at Maysville. I had some left over from last year and with this gallon I will have enough to spray.