Sowing Sunflowers

Long cycle sunflowers are normally sowed in April to allow us to harvest them in September. We could have a big problem if it rains during the following days after sowing because the soil may harden which hinders seeds to be born. If we had this problem, we would have to sow them again. Last days of April it was raining so we started to sow them in the first days of May. We are within time to sow them and I hope it doesn’t rain in the next few days.

As you can see in our pictures, seeds are smaller this year, so we had to change the dishes. New dishes have 10 holes of 12x6mm (old dishes have 10 holes too but of 14x7mm). Sowing is the same with these dishes: we have same speed, same distance between rows (it is 72cm)  and same distance between seeds(it is 26cm); if we change bigger sprockets we can get a distance between seeds of 30cm. We avoid sowing two seeds together with these dishes.

We use a JJ Broch mechanical sower with four rows. In my area, it is the most common mechanism and it really works very fine. We used 3kg of seeds per hectare.

About seeds, they are a hybrid of Arlesa company. It is called Almanzor and we have always got good crops with this type of seeds.


You can watch a video from here: Video

Joaquín y Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)