Sunflowers

[Diesel40]

Do any of you plant sunflowers for dove hunting?  If you do, when do you plant them?  Do you plant anything else?  thanks

[dukkillr]

Yes.  No.
I hunt a few different places each year including a place in Kansas and a place in Missouri that are planted each year just for doves.  The video is from this year's Kansas opener.  We've been planting different things for probably 20 years.  Wheat or sunflowers or a combination of them.  Sunflowers are the best and the easiest.  The only secret is to cultivate or spray them so you keep the ground cover down.  When you go to mow them you want the heads to bust open and the seeds need to fall on bare dirt.  If your sunflowers are weedy the seed will not be as exposed and the doves won't like it as much.
[yt=425,350]<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zYgEFfL_E2U&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zYgEFfL_E2U&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>[/yt]

[Diesel40]

Yes.  No.
I hunt a few different places each year including a place in Kansas and a place in Missouri that are planted each year just for doves.  The video is from this year's Kansas opener.  We've been planting different things for probably 20 years.  Wheat or sunflowers or a combination of them.  Sunflowers are the best and the easiest.  The only secret is to cultivate or spray them so you keep the ground cover down.  When you go to mow them you want the heads to bust open and the seeds need to fall on bare dirt.  If your sunflowers are weedy the seed will not be as exposed and the doves won't like it as much.
[yt=425,350]<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zYgEFfL_E2U&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zYgEFfL_E2U&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>[/yt]

Cool vidieo, how many acres of sunflowers are in that plot?

[dukkillr]

It was a mix of sunflowers and wheat.  20 acres of each...  There was a reason I was standing in the sunflowers though.

[FourBee]

My son planted 4 acres of Milo and Sunflower last year around mid April.  Almost to late to plant in this part of the country.   The rains were far and few between making for slow growth.  The Milo finally made a good crop, but the Sunflower was inmature for the most part.   With no cultivation there was lots of grass in the middles, and as dukkilr said it didn't attract near as many dove as it could have.