the pic came out nicely. should have took one of the other side of the field to show everyone where the deer are mowing down the leaves. they really love those sunflowers.
The sunflowers will die and the leaves will fall off. We will spray the entire field with round-up killing all weeds and the rest of the plant. The stalk will stay, as well as most of the head of the plant. When the seeds dry up the will fall to the ground, we will also mow strips through the field so the birds have a place to land. The doves like to have a clean field, no weeds, or other plants.
That is a awesome field. Do you broadcast sunflowers to plant or drill them? I had some come up this year under my bird feeder just from ground contact.
Friend of mine is a farmer and he planted these with a row planter. I broadcasted an ac. a few years ago and they did ok. When you plant them in rows you have the advantage of cultivating for weeds or spraying them, if they are round up resistant. When they were young he sprayed them, but when the grew a little bigger he cultivated to save a little money. That round-up gets a little expensive.