Sunflowers ?

[kdog]

Twice I have run across a thread about growing sunflowers and needing more space to grow them . 

Then I discovered our city is allowing urban agriculture in all zones. 

We have sunflower plots around in the country, but I thought this one request was weird.  

Around 65% of the annual sunflower market is grown in Ukraine and Russia. With the war going on and the market price already high for sunflower oil, the value of sunflower crops this year will likely be historically profitable.

The Louisville Land Development Code was recently amended to allow urban agriculture in all zones (Zoning District Land Use Table pg. 250). On 4/15/2022 Agrinet Theory LLC will begin providing microfarm landscaping services to Louisville residents, with a special focus on sunflowers.
Would you enjoy a well managed plot of beautiful sunflowers growing in your yard? Let us manage the crop from planting to harvest, then mail you a check for the use of your lawn at the end of the season!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Louisville/comm...et_theory/

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Twice I have run across a thread about growing sunflowers and needing more space to grow them . 

Then I discovered our city is allowing urban agriculture in all zones. 

We have sunflower plots around in the country, but I thought this one request was weird.  

Around 65% of the annual sunflower market is grown in Ukraine and Russia. With the war going on and the market price already high for sunflower oil, the value of sunflower crops this year will likely be historically profitable.

The Louisville Land Development Code was recently amended to allow urban agriculture in all zones (Zoning District Land Use Table pg. 250). On 4/15/2022 Agrinet Theory LLC will begin providing microfarm landscaping services to Louisville residents, with a special focus on sunflowers.
Would you enjoy a well managed plot of beautiful sunflowers growing in your yard? Let us manage the crop from planting to harvest, then mail you a check for the use of your lawn at the end of the season!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Louisville/comm...et_theory/

Very interesting.

I do not have a green thumb. My harvest is always hit or miss. I had an amazing year of roses of every color, even lavender. I had a year that my wildflowers did extremely well, then we had a hurricane and I still see remnants of my wildflowers all over my neighbors yards.

I was so surprised that my sunflower crop did so well and I had about four or five different varieties. So they really are not that hard to grow.

I may put some in the ground this year. If for no other reason than they are truly delightful to have around.

[kdog]

Twice I have run across a thread about growing sunflowers and needing more space to grow them . 

Then I discovered our city is allowing urban agriculture in all zones. 

We have sunflower plots around in the country, but I thought this one request was weird.  

Around 65% of the annual sunflower market is grown in Ukraine and Russia. With the war going on and the market price already high for sunflower oil, the value of sunflower crops this year will likely be historically profitable.

The Louisville Land Development Code was recently amended to allow urban agriculture in all zones (Zoning District Land Use Table pg. 250). On 4/15/2022 Agrinet Theory LLC will begin providing microfarm landscaping services to Louisville residents, with a special focus on sunflowers.
Would you enjoy a well managed plot of beautiful sunflowers growing in your yard? Let us manage the crop from planting to harvest, then mail you a check for the use of your lawn at the end of the season!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Louisville/comm...et_theory/

Very interesting.

I do not have a green thumb. My harvest is always hit or miss. I had an amazing year of roses of every color, even lavender. I had a year that my wildflowers did extremely well, then we had a hurricane and I still see remnants of my wildflowers all over my neighbors yards.

I was so surprised that my sunflower crop did so well and I had about four or five different varieties. So they really are not that hard to grow.

I may put some in the ground this year. If for no other reason than they are truly delightful to have around.

Little miss d has some started and we shall see how they go. But I found this strange that more people are wanting to grow them.

[Jinmi]

Any idea how much oil you could produce per acre of sunflowers?

[OmegaLogos]

Any idea how much oil you could produce per acre of sunflowers?

Explanation: Google sayeth ...

Oil yield extracted from the sunflower seed ranges from 35 to 80 gallons per acre.

Personal Disclosure: For more in depth analysis ...

https://farming.org.ua/Sunflower%20yield...ctare.html

I hope that helps!  

[VioletDove]

I planted a few sunflowers several years ago. They must like my soil here because they’ve since started popping up everywhere. My husband and I often disagree on whether or not to pull them up when we see them growing in our garden. He sees them as a nuisance but I think they are pretty and I like to let them grow.

[Jinmi]

Any idea how much oil you could produce per acre of sunflowers?

Explanation: Google sayeth ...

Oil yield extracted from the sunflower seed ranges from 35 to 80 gallons per acre.

Personal Disclosure: For more in depth analysis ...

https://farming.org.ua/Sunflower%20yield...ctare.html

I hope that helps!  

It does, thanks. 
Not a bad haul.

[Ninurta]

Any idea how much oil you could produce per acre of sunflowers?

Explanation: Google sayeth ...

Oil yield extracted from the sunflower seed ranges from 35 to 80 gallons per acre.

Personal Disclosure: For more in depth analysis ...

https://farming.org.ua/Sunflower%20yield...ctare.html

I hope that helps!  

It does, thanks. 
Not a bad haul.

But then again, how many acres does the average urbanite have to lease to this company that's fleecing them?

The average suburban lot is 1/8 acre. Most of that is occupied by a house, further reducing the available space for growing sunflowers. At the maximum yield listed, sunflowers can produce 80 gallons of oil per acre. cutting that to 1/8 acre in conformity with the average home lot, and assuming the homeowner is willing to bulldoze his house in favor of getting rich on sunflower oil, he can expect a yield of 10 gallons, maximum. How much is sunflower oil going for on the current market, per gallon? But wait - the homeowner doesn't get that whole amount in this scheme. He gets a check for using his land from the sunflower oil company ("Agrinet Theory LLC"), THEY get the bulk of the money from the sunflower oil, not the homeowner they are leasing land from. They are simply another Big Agriculture wannabe outfit trying to compete with other Big Agriculture outfits by using YOUR land, in combination with a lot of other folks' land to make up the land volume for their operation, to make THEIR bones.

I expect that Agrinet Theory LLC, will eventually go the way that National Hemp went here - National Hemp had a grand scheme to get our farmers to grow hemp, pay them a pittance for their crop (while the farmer was taking all the risk of growing it and potentially having the Feds destroy his entire crop for the year if it tested just a little too high in THC content), and then make bank on CBD oil from that crop. Wouldn't be the first time outsiders have come in here and tried to bend us over the fence rail without lube. We're starting to get kinda wise to that shit, no one took the bait, and National Hemp folded up shop and moved on to greener pastures. Any hemp grown in these hills is likely to be for personal use, so that the producer gets 100% of the benefit of it rather than 3% maximum of it's monetary value.

Sunflowers are native to America. They were a component of the "Eastern Agricultural Complex" developed during the Early Woodland period by eastern US Indians, which was one of only 7 or so independently developed agricultural complexes around the world. How dare those Slavs culturally appropriate Native American resources like that, all for filthy lucre? I am offended. Deeply offended. Quick - someone get me the key to my safe space!

.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I planted a few sunflowers several years ago. They must like my soil here because they’ve since started popping up everywhere. My husband and I often disagree on whether or not to pull them up when we see them growing in our garden. He sees them as a nuisance but I think they are pretty and I like to let them grow.

I love to see them grow, also. There is just something about sunflowers. 

I never thought of them as being a nuisance. Maybe because we have a lot of space.

[BIAD]

I planted a few sunflowers several years ago. They must like my soil here because they’ve since started popping up everywhere. My husband and I often disagree on whether or not to pull them up when we see them growing in our garden. He sees them as a nuisance but I think they are pretty and I like to let them grow.

Recently, a brochure came through my door with a small sachet of sunflower seeds attached.
Finding only four seeds in it, I decided to plant them and keep them watered under glass.

Result...? At this point in early April, nothing.


Recently, a brochure came through the door of my ninety-seven year-old mother-in-law with a small sachet
of sunflower seeds attached. Finding five seeds in it, I planted them in pots outside of her kitchen door
and instructed her water them regularly. Something she chose to ignore.

Result...? At this point in early April, five small shoots.

[OmegaLogos]

Explanation: I was wondering how much sunflower oil an average household uses per year and it seems to be about 13liters of sunflower oil, or 1litre per luna month, according to google sources.

So how much land must one dedicate to producing ones own sunflower oil?

In Australia we have 1/6th of an acre blocks where I live inner suburbia of Canberra ...

I did some back of the envelope equations and I came up with a figure of 18.5m^2 or 340m sqr total growing area with the house area already cancelled out, which i had calculated at being 1/3rd of the entire 1/6th of an acre, leaving 2/3rds of 1/6th of an acre to grow food in.

Assuming the worst yield possible per acre as 35-36gallons of sunflower oil, then 1/6th of that is 6gallons and 2/3rds of 6gallons is 4gallons and at 4liters per gallon = 16liters of oil.

So for 81.25% area used of 2/3rds of a 1/6th acre block would provide that 13liters of oil to use.

Personal Disclosure: It doesnt seem economical to grow ones own sunflower seed for sunflower oil production on 1/6th of an acre block of land or smaller BUT considering most farms in the world are 445acres big, farming it becomes a no brainer and anybody with a small farm of 1-2acres could easily make enough sunflower oil for themselves and possibly a neighbour, to last an entire year by farming and growing sunflowers seeds over 1/6th to 1/3rd of an acre.

Or about the area of the field of wheat in this picture ...

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

I planted a few sunflowers several years ago. They must like my soil here because they’ve since started popping up everywhere. My husband and I often disagree on whether or not to pull them up when we see them growing in our garden. He sees them as a nuisance but I think they are pretty and I like to let them grow.

Growing up we didn't plant sunflowers but our neighbor did. Since I helped several neighbors with their gardens besides working in our own I always got several of the "heads" when they were ready and spent a weekend salting and roasting sunflower seeds and bagging them for snacking. My uncle down the road grew peanuts and I helped processing them as well, resulting in several bags of salted, roasted peanuts to bring home for snacking as well. 

Back then everyone had fruit trees, nut trees and "snacky stuff" growing in their yards and gardens and as an enterprising young gal I capitalized on that garnishing cash and snacks in the process! Picking fruit, gathering and shelling nuts, picking, canning, weeding, fertilizing, etc. made me more money than babysitting and mowing yards (although I did some of that as well). My kids did the same when they were growing up. 

I am hoping more people get back to that kind of living being the norm rather than the exception. With inflation and shortages being the way they are now I am hopeful. The lessons learned from hard economic times are invaluable- along with the lessons of hard work!

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Back then everyone had fruit trees, nut trees and "snacky stuff" growing in their yards and gardens and as an enterprising young gal I capitalized on that garnishing cash and snacks in the process! Picking fruit, gathering and shelling nuts, picking, canning, weeding, fertilizing, etc. made me more money than babysitting and mowing yards (although I did some of that as well). My kids did the same when they were growing up. 

I am hoping more people get back to that kind of living being the norm rather than the exception. With inflation and shortages being the way they are now I am hopeful. The lessons learned from hard economic times are invaluable- along with the lessons of hard work!

You are so right.

Back when I was a child there was something growing on everyone's property.

We had walnuts, we had apples, pears, peaches, and persimmon. Our neighbors had the same along with grapes, strawberries, watermelon.

I don't remember anyone using pesticides. We ate straight from the vine, and the tree.

You could spend the whole day outside away from home and never be hungry.

Some had springhouses, and some had root cellars, so you had plenty even in the winter.

Happy times.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I planted a few sunflowers several years ago. They must like my soil here because they’ve since started popping up everywhere. My husband and I often disagree on whether or not to pull them up when we see them growing in our garden. He sees them as a nuisance but I think they are pretty and I like to let them grow.

Growing up we didn't plant sunflowers but our neighbor did. Since I helped several neighbors with their gardens besides working in our own I always got several of the "heads" when they were ready and spent a weekend salting and roasting sunflower seeds and bagging them for snacking. My uncle down the road grew peanuts and I helped processing them as well, resulting in several bags of salted, roasted peanuts to bring home for snacking as well. 

Back then everyone had fruit trees, nut trees and "snacky stuff" growing in their yards and gardens and as an enterprising young gal I capitalized on that garnishing cash and snacks in the process! Picking fruit, gathering and shelling nuts, picking, canning, weeding, fertilizing, etc. made me more money than babysitting and mowing yards (although I did some of that as well). My kids did the same when they were growing up. 

I am hoping more people get back to that kind of living being the norm rather than the exception. With inflation and shortages being the way they are now I am hopeful. The lessons learned from hard economic times are invaluable- along with the lessons of hard work!

How the hell did I forget cherries!

My favorite. Then raspberries. Of course huckleberries, and black berries.

Bring back the memories.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

How the hell did I forget cherries!

My favorite. Then raspberries. Of course huckleberries, and black berries.

Bring back the memories.

Fresh picked blackberries mixed with crumbled up, leftover cornbread with sugar and milk for breakfast... YUM!!!

[VioletDove]

I planted a few sunflowers several years ago. They must like my soil here because they’ve since started popping up everywhere. My husband and I often disagree on whether or not to pull them up when we see them growing in our garden. He sees them as a nuisance but I think they are pretty and I like to let them grow.

Recently, a brochure came through my door with a small sachet of sunflower seeds attached.
Finding only four seeds in it, I decided to plant them and keep them watered under glass.

Result...? At this point in early April, nothing.


Recently, a brochure came through the door of my ninety-seven year-old mother-in-law with a small sachet
of sunflower seeds attached. Finding five seeds in it, I planted them in pots outside of her kitchen door
and instructed her water them regularly. Something she chose to ignore.

Result...? At this point in early April, five small shoots.

Sounds about right 

[VioletDove]

I planted a few sunflowers several years ago. They must like my soil here because they’ve since started popping up everywhere. My husband and I often disagree on whether or not to pull them up when we see them growing in our garden. He sees them as a nuisance but I think they are pretty and I like to let them grow.

I love to see them grow, also. There is just something about sunflowers. 

I never thought of them as being a nuisance. Maybe because we have a lot of space.

I never have either. I love them and it think Summer just wouldn’t be the same without a yard full of them growing.

[VioletDove]

I planted a few sunflowers several years ago. They must like my soil here because they’ve since started popping up everywhere. My husband and I often disagree on whether or not to pull them up when we see them growing in our garden. He sees them as a nuisance but I think they are pretty and I like to let them grow.

Growing up we didn't plant sunflowers but our neighbor did. Since I helped several neighbors with their gardens besides working in our own I always got several of the "heads" when they were ready and spent a weekend salting and roasting sunflower seeds and bagging them for snacking. My uncle down the road grew peanuts and I helped processing them as well, resulting in several bags of salted, roasted peanuts to bring home for snacking as well. 

Back then everyone had fruit trees, nut trees and "snacky stuff" growing in their yards and gardens and as an enterprising young gal I capitalized on that garnishing cash and snacks in the process! Picking fruit, gathering and shelling nuts, picking, canning, weeding, fertilizing, etc. made me more money than babysitting and mowing yards (although I did some of that as well). My kids did the same when they were growing up. 

I am hoping more people get back to that kind of living being the norm rather than the exception. With inflation and shortages being the way they are now I am hopeful. The lessons learned from hard economic times are invaluable- along with the lessons of hard work!

I hope that becomes the norm again too. Your post reminds me of simpler times.

[senona]

Twice I have run across a thread about growing sunflowers and needing more space to grow them . 

Then I discovered our city is allowing urban agriculture in all zones. 

We have sunflower plots around in the country, but I thought this one request was weird.  

Around 65% of the annual sunflower market is grown in Ukraine and Russia. With the war going on and the market price already high for sunflower oil, the value of sunflower crops this year will likely be historically profitable.

The Louisville Land Development Code was recently amended to allow urban agriculture in all zones (Zoning District Land Use Table pg. 250). On 4/15/2022 Agrinet Theory LLC will begin providing microfarm landscaping services to Louisville residents, with a special focus on sunflowers.
Would you enjoy a well managed plot of beautiful sunflowers growing in your yard? Let us manage the crop from planting to harvest, then mail you a check for the use of your lawn at the end of the season!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Louisville/comm...et_theory/

Ukraine and Russia?!?

Just wow, who woulda thunk. 


Thanks for sharing that 



I'm afraid to plant anything in the ground, for they spray around my trailer for weeds.

However, I have thought of trying to plant some in a huge pot, safe from sprays

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I planted a few sunflowers several years ago. They must like my soil here because they’ve since started popping up everywhere. My husband and I often disagree on whether or not to pull them up when we see them growing in our garden. He sees them as a nuisance but I think they are pretty and I like to let them grow.

Talking about stuff popping up.

My Bellah went for a trek in the woods today. I had to go after her, and found about six unfamiliar plants growing out there. 

They turned out to be papaya trees. I don't know how they got there, but I remember my Mother was given three papaya from a neighbor, but that was over six months ago. 

She doesn't remember throwing the seeds out there, and it is not a section of the woods that we frequent, so I am going to blame the rabbits. Or should I thank the rabbits?

One year we were surprised with a harvest of Seminole pumpkins. You never know what is going to pop up here in the woods.