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Blue Peter
Joined: 21 Mar 2005 Posts: 2400 Location: Milton Keynes
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004 Posts: 32429
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judyofthewoods
Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 804 Location: Pembrokeshire
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Blue Peter
Joined: 21 Mar 2005 Posts: 2400 Location: Milton Keynes
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judyofthewoods
Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 804 Location: Pembrokeshire
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 05 11:48 am Post subject: |
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Thats part of the experiment. Not grown any yet. Hope its not too late this year. Can't start them off until I return from Germany on the 23rd. I'll be away for a week, so too risky leaving seedlings unattended for that long. Planting outside is a waste of time now, as the slugs would have the lot.
Well, here a very basic outline if you want to give it a go yourself.
Take a board, cut a series of groves into it which are slightly less deep than the width of the seeds and slightly wider than the thickness, not so wide that the seed can lie flat in the groove, thay have to naturally fall edge down. Pour the seeds onto board, brush off surface seeds, then take a rolling pin and crack the edges. The tricky bit is to get the right depth so the seeds crack right open, but maybe they'll just gape, but not far enough for the seeds to fall out. If they do, then the next question is, will blowing over the mixture remove the hulls? A sieve with opening big enough for the seed, but smaller than the hull would probably be better. That is assuming the seeds are fairly uniform in size. It is just a low tech experiment. You probably end up with some waste, but rather than chuck the hulls with the occasional seed, you could grow sunflower greens with whats left in the waste. It would be a thin harvest, but a good use. Or put it out for the birds, thye'll pick it over. |
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Bugs
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 10744
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judyofthewoods
Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 804 Location: Pembrokeshire
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 05 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, I have grown sunflower 'sprouts'. When the plant is about 5-6" tall with a lush pair of leaves its ready to harvest. You get better results using whole seeds, but I have also sprouted the hulled seeds, and got plenty to germinate, but when growing them as greens the bad ones will rot, so its bestt to pick out as many of the un-sprouted ones early on to avoid too much rotten material at the base. For some strange reason the un-hulled organic sunflower seeds are far more expensive. Makes no sense. The ones with hulls
are just as fiddely to grow, as the hulls get stuck on the leaves, and you often have to pick them off by hand.
Anyway, the greens are quite neutral in flavour, not at all bitter, and I prefer it to lettuce as a salad green. Very easy to grow too. You don't even need soil. If you grow them in a flat tray as discribed in one of the other threads you simply add a little liquid plant feed to the water after a week, pouring it in at the base.
https://forum.downsizer.net/about2520.html&start=0 |
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