Some of my sunflowers. We've had 3 days of rain, and they would have been fine in dry weather, but they were beginning to go a bit, so I harvested those that looked like they needed it.
Note the size difference.
These are the actual seeds from the two different size sunflowers. I'm thinking that the local volunteer russian sunflowers crossed with my sunflowers and produced the smaller dark seeds. All of those small flowers were close together. Flowers at the other end of the bed were normal size.
/johnny
The striped one are the eating kind and the dark ones are the ones with a higher amount of oil to press for cooking oil.
They are grand looking. I’m completely impressed.
I know you have designed that fancy contraption to “blow up” your Sunflower seeds to get rid of the husk. You can do that fast.
I found a way on the net to get rid of the husk if I ever manage to grow Sunflowers to the point I have seeds.
Spread them out on a working surface and use a rolling pin to roll over them and that will break the husks. Then, you can use two ways to get rid of the light weight husks. Either put them in a bowl and cover with water and scoop off the husks that rise to the top, or use a fan to blow off the husks.
I have a chimney bellows and think if I take them outside and use the bellows to blow air over them, the husks will fly out. See, I’m thinking “no power”. I have battery fans I could also use to blow off the husks.
One has to adjust the amount of pressure you put on the rolling pin so you don’t crush the seeds. I have a marble rolling pin and its weight should perhaps be enough on its own to pop the husks. I’ll know about that if I ever grow the seeds. Actually, I’ll buy some to try that method to see how it works.
Have you ever done it that way?