How to plant sunflowers in food plot?

Hope y'all are doin great!!
So I've been tryin to plant sunflowers in one of our food plots for years, with no success. This plot is about 1 1/2+ acres. We dove hunt this plot just before deer season and have a great time.
We've pulled soil samples 2 years ago and it needed lime. We added lime. Probably need to add more I'm sure.
It has red dirt in the middle, (and that's where I've been trying to get sunflowers to grow). It has dark dirt in the back and sides where the pine and needles decomposed. This food plot was a loading dock about 15 years ago. It has been a food plot for 6 years now.
I've tried bird seed sunflower seeds the first time cause the feed store told me they'd work just fine. But no growth.
Then the next time, last spring, I planted the sunflower seeds that come in the little packets. I planted like 20 packets of those. Same thing, no growth.

Any one got any ideas?
Or should I just quit tryin?
Thanks!!!

And it gets broadcast seeded every spring with a millet/sorgum mix. But we don't broadcast over the area we plant the sunflowers.
The millet and sorgum grow and seed head out fantastic!!!! But just no sunflowers.
Thanks!!

There are few things deer eat better than sunflowers. A plot that size will not work. I can plant 30 acres of them and every one will be eatin by deer without fencing. Lectric fence would be your only viable option most likely.

Ok I've been fearing that answer. I've heard that before and I'm not sure we have any means to keep the deer off of it.

I can't grow sunflowers here without the deer eating them up, that's probably your problem. I keep thinking about putting up an off set electric fence but I haven't tried it yet.

I have the same issue with the deer eating everything up before it gets to maturity, here is what I am trying this year. I am planting millet in the first stage and after a couple of weeks I am broadcasting sunn hemp and hoping that it takes as I am just broadcasting it on top of the soil and then after a few weeks I am doing the same thing with I/C peas. The idea being that the millet will protect the hemp and then the hemp and millet will protect the I/C peas until they get up to maturity. Just an experiment and if it doesn't work I am afraid I am out of the spring/summer food plot business.

This may not work for you and may seem silly but I have just read about seed bombs. I have been seeding my property with wildflowers and sunflowers are next. You mix 5 parts clay, I used cheap cat litter and one part soil I used potting soil add seed water and mix into balls let dry about a day then throw where you want them to grow. The birds and animals can't eat them they self germinate in the soil they are mixed in.

good luck

I planted a 12 acre corn field back in the 80's in Meriweather county.That afternoon we watched crows decend on that corn field and pick seeds out of the ground.

karen936 said:

This may not work for you and may seem silly but I have just read about seed bombs. I have been seeding my property with wildflowers and sunflowers are next. You mix 5 parts clay, I used cheap cat litter and one part soil I used potting soil add seed water and mix into balls let dry about a day then throw where you want them to grow. The birds and animals can't eat them they self germinate in the soil they are mixed in.

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The problem is the deer will eat them after they germinate. It’s not the seeds that were planted that they are eating. The hogs do that😜

karen936 said:

This may not work for you and may seem silly but I have just read about seed bombs. I have been seeding my property with wildflowers and sunflowers are next. You mix 5 parts clay, I used cheap cat litter and one part soil I used potting soil add seed water and mix into balls let dry about a day then throw where you want them to grow. The birds and animals can't eat them they self germinate in the soil they are mixed in.

Click to expand...

No it doesn't seem silly. Thanks
Actually my bro in law, a club member, suggested that we try and grow sunflowers in the brown.....bio....(idk what they're called, but the brown pots that you just plant in the the ground with the plant). He said we should grow em in those and then plant them in the dove plot. But if the deer are just gonna eat em then it aint gonna work. There's dozens of deer in that area.

Back in the day, I just broadcast them with the pto spreader with the peas, lab lab and soybeans.

Small fields get wiped out.

Nowadays I just put the seed mix in the drill and plant ‘em up.

Small field problems still apply.

The beans love to climb the sunflowers.


Good luck!

Try power plant from whitetail institute..A lot of sunflowers for the doves and good deer plot too.