Storage Tips For Sunflowers:

The manner in which you store your wers play an important role in the preservat of your seeds (as well as the ease with which they're unloaded). For example, if there is excess re during storage, it's possible for the re to freeze the seeds, causing breakage. This happens often when they're harvested early and stored without pro drying. Harvesting them early help limit the potential for bird damage and shattering, but the seeds must be dried before storage. In this article, I'll provide a few tips for storing your wers proly to prevent them from being damaged.

Tip #1: Measure Moire Accurately

Because storing your seeds when they contain too much re cause problems, you'll need to use a re meter. However, if your seeds are less than 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the meter will not be able to measure the re accurately. So, put the sample you're using for measuring into a container and allow them to reach room temature. Then, measure the re.

Tip #2: Use Aerat

The larger the storage faciy, the more important aerat is. In the past, most professal growers relied upon aerat fans to keep the stored wer seeds cool. Today, larger faciies are being used for storage due to increased crop acreage. As a result, many growers have switched from using fans to du mounted into the ors.

The temature at which the wer seeds are stored should remain between 20 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep in mind that aerat systems are not meant to dry the seeds (that's the role of a high-temature dryer).

Tip #3: Monitor Storage Quay

Don't assume that the storage atmosphere is constant. When you first store your wers after drying, you should monitor samples each week. Take the time to inspect the storage temature and the seed re. You should check samples from several areas in your faciy for consistency. When your seeds and the faciy reach the target winter temature, you begin monitoring every 4 weeks. The key is frequent (weekly) monitoring in the beginning. If you neglect to do so, the temature may be too high, attracting inse and disease.

Tip #4: Clean Out The Faciy

You should clean your storage faciy each day. Begin by cleaning your dryer, but also devote time to cleaning the aerat system, air du, and the handling structure. Trash, wer lint, and other debris easily accumulate. Not only will this open the door for inse and fungi to collect, but it cause a fire during the drying process.

Tip #5: Control Inse

It's not uncommon for stored wer seeds to attract inse despite pro re levels, aerat systems, and a clean storage faciy. Unfortunately, these inse signifitly damage your seed crop. You control the inse by spraying your faciy. Just make sure that you're using a solut that has been approved for wers.

Storing Your Suowers Proly

A lot of professal growers neglect to take preventative measures to ensure their seeds are unharmed by inse, disease, or combine fire. Often, it's just a matter of devoting time and attent upfront to avoid major problems later. While some issues may not have a large economic impact, others . By controlling seed re levels, using an effective aerat system, and monitoring storage tematures, you protect your wer seeds from freezing, disease, and insect infestats. When the time comes to unload your seeds from storage, you'll be glad you took these steps.