Sunflowers

[n2ize]

What is a good part of the country to grow sunflowers ? I was thinking that when I retire I will either move to Brooklyn,. Or, I might move to a place where I can grow lots of sunflowers and sell sunflower seeds. What part of the USA is sunflower country.

[WØTKX]

Fargo, Eh? MN, ND, SD.

http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/09/images/2007120956810601.jpg

[kc7jty]

they grow wild in south east Wyoming, but are rather small. The stems have a wonderful resin that smells a bit like marry juana.

[KG4CGC]

John, nothing grows in NY. Get the hell out of that state. You need to come to 4 land. You may enjoy Atlanta.

[ki4itv]

John, nothing grows in NY. Get the hell out of that state. You need to come to 4 land. You may enjoy Atlanta.

I was thinking the same thing, but I pictured John in Natchez, MS.
Very unusual place for a very unusual city, and beautiful.

[kf0rt]

I've seen fields of them in Kansas. Used to grow them in the back yard here when we were kids.

The amazing thing to me about sunflowers is how you can buy 1-lb bag of shelled seeds for a couple bucks. Home grown, one sunflower will only yield a small handful, and it'll take you an afternoon to get them out of the shells. Probably takes 30-40 fully grown 'flowers to make a pound -- can't be much of a cash crop.

[WØTKX]

Seen and done test plot work on huge fields, as it was becoming a crop choice in the upper Great Plains for a long time. You should see the beehives that get set up on the sides of the fields... lots of honey production went on. It's wild to be working in and around a blooming field all day, you can almost see the flower heads move... there's a lot of them in CO and even TX now, but it's not the seeds.

It's the oil (sorry man, my agricultural roots show easily on my balding head) baby...

National Sunflower Association (http://www.sunflowernsa.com/magazine/details.asp?ID=455&Cat=10)


NuSun mid-oleic oil is probably the most dramatic example of NSA’s “proactive approach,” Sonnenberg suggests. In 1995 the U.S. sunflower industry — spearheaded by NSA — committed itself to changing the fatty acid structure of sunflower oil to meet the food industry’s anticipated future needs. Plant breeders, seed companies, sunflower crushers and growers all cooperated in that major transition, which culminated in the development of NuSun. By 2005 an estimated 70% of the nation’s sunflower acreage was planted to NuSun varieties. The speed with which this industry-wide shift took place was unprecedented, Sonnenberg says — and it has paid off.

NuSun — with its pleasing taste, stability without needing partial hydrogenation, and low saturated fat levels — couldn’t have come along at a better time. It is ideally suited to the nation’s growing fixation on “trans fat-free” foods, and the marketplace is responding. The most dramatic development has been the May 2006 announcement by Frito-Lay, Inc., the world’s largest snack food maker, that it was switching the oil used to manufacture its Lay’s and Ruffles potato chip brands over entirely to NuSun.

[kf0rt]

So, the seeds are a mere byproduct? Cool info, man.

I assume the oil comes from the stalks and such. Still looking for the machine that makes a pound of shelled seeds for two bucks profitable.

Not ag-smart here (outside of a coupla years in the cow milking biz).
And the plants a chick at work left in my care 5 years ago are still alive.

[WØTKX]

If it's that same chick mentioned before.... do you live in Dnever? :whistle: :lol:

The oil is from the seeds, the rest of the plant makes good silage...

http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/46849/1088767143047230346S500x500Q85.jpg

[kf0rt]

Different chick, but every bit as attractive, probably more, if you're into intellectual stuff, or even if you're not. Lives on Long Island now (with her PhD husband). I better shut up.

So, they get oil out of the seeds and still get the seeds? :whistle

[WØTKX]

No, different varieties. The oil seeds are black and are crushed, the ones we munch on are different.

Seed oils are interesting...

[n2ize]

On second thought maybe I'll move to Afghanistan and become an opium farmer. What I don't sell I can smoke. :snicker:

[KU0DM]

They don't call us the Sunflower state for nothing...

[WØTKX]

Yea, but that's the native "wild" ones.

On the list of "noxious weeds" in most counties, anyway, I bet. But I dunno, don't live there, and have only rarely visited, usually on a high speed "just passing thru" mission.

[N9FE]

Movin to montana soon...... Going to be dental floss tycoon :rock: