How We Sow Sunflowers By Hand
Hey guys welcome back to woodstreet farm Today we are going to plant our second Uh photo patch of sunflowers i call it The photo patch because we are away from Our main you pick area and if people Want to come over here when we’re open For picking and pick flowers from here That’s fine but the primary reason we Are putting a patch over here is for Photography and so we can book Photographers over here so this patch We’re going to split in half and we’re Going to do black oil sunflowers on half Of it those are the same sunflowers that We did in another part of the property a Couple weeks ago and then the other half Of this i’m gonna do in a blend of Sunflowers but i’ll show you later in The video what those seeds look like Because they’re completely different Than the black oil seeds first thing We’re gonna do is get some fertilizer on The ground and then we’re gonna retail This And then we can get planting [Music] The last week this plot was tilled i Actually uh plowed it first so it was Real rough and i just wanted to break it Up so i had this back gate way open so It would just do a rough till then the Tiller could just go through the Material as quick as possible and that’s Why if you look out over this plot now
It still looks somewhat chunky so i’m Going to drop this down now which just Involves Letting this chain out of its little Catch here And When that gate is closed as the tiller Is working that soil is going to stay Inside the tiller longer and give us a Finer till which is going to be a lot Easier to push that garden seeder Through once it’s all tilled up so let’s Get to work [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] So so i’ve showed this a bunch of times Before we’re just using the earthway Garden cedar here we’re going to start Out with the black oil seed i only did Half the plot so far we’re going to put A whole bunch of rows up and down in Line with the rows that i just tilled We’re going to go about 12 to 18 inches Apart we’re just eyeballing it and we’ll Fill this plot in and then i’ll show you The seed that i’m putting on the other Side Yeah because of your You can lift the whole machine up if you Have to So all those rows are done i actually Went to get water left my hat over there
And that’s why i switched hats and while I was gone my son finished up all the Roasts so that was awesome huge help We’re gonna do Half of this second half a quarter of This total plot now with these new seeds And here’s what i got So in this mason jar right here are Seeds that we saved from last year and We had this autumn beauty mix and we Also had another small seed packet Called a crazy mix and we kind of Planted them all together and then the Flowers that came up in those rows that We like the most we save seed from and Mix them all together in this jar so That’s what i have here so you can see There’s a variety of colors and sizes in That jar and because of that because It’s all different sizes we’re not going To use the garden cedar so these rows Are going to plant a lot slower than Those ones and that’s part of the reason We’re only going to do part of this Patch behind me today the other reason Is that there’s a staggered maturity Dates with these different flowers in Here i want to have these multi-colored Flowers blooming over here for at least Several weeks so we’re going to stagger Two halves over here and You know plant part of it today and come Back in about 10 days or so and plant The other half
So now the cedar’s empty we’re just Going to use this to define our rows and Then we’ll drop our seed by hand So we’ve got one road to find left the Cedar up there so after we drop the seed In the first one we’ll just bring it Back down and we’ll continue So Here’s the seed let me give you kind of An up close What it looks like And In that mix there See if that comes into focus in that mix We’ve got just all different sizes some Are striped some are not So there’s all different colors in here And i can’t wait to show you guys what This looks like when we get about six or Eight weeks from now when this uh starts Pushing Blooms just gonna drop them about every Eight to ten inches So every other foot My hand is about nine So Like that if summer six and summer Twelve it doesn’t matter just do it [Music] The last thing we do just use this Little metal rake here And i found that this works just fine You can just pretty much drag the rake Over the rows it puts just enough soil
On top of the seeds and everything’s Good to go I was just about to call it quits and i Remember there was a couple other things I wanted to tell you also i didn’t film A closing and say goodbye and thanks for Watching and all that good stuff so Here i am back at the camper getting Ready to Cook some dinner and move on to our next Thing for the evening The Second half of that plot where we were Putting the seed down my hand Took at least three times longer so it Was over an hour to do that section And it was less square footage the other Section took about 20-25 minutes with The cedar So you can tell that if you have a cedar And the seed that you have will run Through a cedar it is so much more Efficient than planting by hand but That’s what we had to do with that seed And i think it’ll work out just fine The other things i want to hit on in This video are um I always get some questions when i plant Sunflowers and i wanted to address a Couple of those questions here the first One is do we have a problem with Squirrels or birds eating the seed I have not experienced that so if you Saw my last video i showed uh how many
Of these sunflowers are coming up of the First patch that we did this year it’s Coming up great it’s coming up thick There’s no evidence to me that there is Significant bird theft or squirrel theft Going on In that patch the other question i get All the time is what do i do for weed Control and in those bigger patches like That Probably not going to do anything if There are any sections that are really Really bad or sometimes we get those Really tall Uh pokeberry bushes at least that’s what I call them it’s big fat green leaves With that they make purple berries If i get a lot of that i might go in There and pull them by hand and if there Are other sections that are really heavy With weeds and i think it needs Attention i might go in there with a Backpack sprayer and just spot spray up And down some of the rows but more than Likely for that type of patch i’m not Going to do anything When it comes to our actual u-pick patch Our spacing will be a little bit Different and we will have larger aisle Ways which creates more space for weeds To grow and in those sections i do more Weed control and in past years i’ve done It with picking by hand and with Spraying with a backpack sprayer up and
Down the roast this year we’re going to Experiment with some ground cover so We’ll see how that works and hopefully That eliminates a lot of that chemical And a lot of the manual labor involved In weed control for us so thanks for Spending a little bit of time with me Guys i appreciate you i’ll catch you on The next video and i will absolutely Keep you posted in future videos of how These flowers are doing so if you don’t Already subscribe hit that red button I’ll see you in the next one bye
