Wildflower planting advice needed

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I bought a bunch of wildflower seeds and plan to cover the island. My plan is to float my tiller over to till the whole island then broadcast the seeds. I'm reading that fall was the best time to plant wildflower seeds. Have any of you done this? Are any of them going to grow planting them in the spring, and when do I need to get this done? We are still going to have very wet weather for at least a couple months.

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[ovrszd]

Ideally,,,, the seed should sprout in the Fall. That gives it a jump start for Spring. But,,,,, that's man's interpretation.

Wild plants seed in late Fall/early Winter. Freeze/thaw plants the seeds. Sprouting starts in the Spring. With that theory, you could go to the island and broadcast your seeds now. Let the rains plant them.

You are a little late for that. You probably already have obvious growth starting?

Lastly, don't get carried away with tillage. Mother Nature doesn't till. A seed should not be planted at a depth greater than one and half times it's diameter. A culti-packer is your friend when seeding small grains. It simply presses the seed into the soil.

When seeding a lawn for example, you will see a LOT of seed on the ground after you are done. If not, you buried it too deep. And your growth will be the lucky seeds that escaped your burial plan.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I'm tilling mostly to kill as much grass out there as possible. I'll throw them out and walk on them I guess. I don't have anything to press them into the ground with.

 

[ovrszd]

I'm tilling mostly to kill as much grass out there as possible. I'll throw them out and walk on them I guess. I don't have anything to press them into the ground with.

Well, Mother Nature doesn't have a culti-packer either.

I have scattered seed with a hand crank seeder, then use a steel yard rake and scratch the soil a little to help plant the seed.

What species of Wildflowers are you planting? I've got 70 acres of CRP that's Pollinator mix. The mix had 15 different species. Over the years that has thinned to half a dozen varieties.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Honestly I don't know what all I have. I bought 2 lbs of pollinator mix from a local bee supply. I was dragged to dollar tree by the wife and I got a dozen big packs of assorted pollinator mix, humming bird mix, and random other packs. We also got several different types of sunflowers and I'm going to buy a big bag of black oil sunflower seeds. I've heard that they will grow. I'm also going to try to plant them to make a "hedge" around my bee yard.

 

[Cougsfan]

Just do what you can, spread them out and see what happens. If you do everything just right you will get a very high success rate. The more "less perfect" you do it, the success rate goes down. You don't have to have a high success rate to get a lot of beautiful flowers, and if they re-seed themselves or are perennials, you will get more every year.

 

[jaxs]

I bought a bunch of wildflower seeds and plan to cover the island. My plan is to float my tiller over to till the whole island then broadcast the seeds. I'm reading that fall was the best time to plant wildflower seeds. Have any of you done this? Are any of them going to grow planting them in the spring, and when do I need to get this done? We are still going to have very wet weather for at least a couple months.

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Same as all things that come with instructions pay no attention to them and do as interweb buds say. Whoever said "you can't fool mother nature" never met TBNers with high post counts.

 

[ovrszd]

I would never knowingly plant sunflower seeds of any variety. They are very prolific. Agronomists say sunflower seeds can lay in the soil 30 yrs and still sprout when they are moved to the "right" spot. For giant sunflowers I have experienced that. Not pretty.

 

[Oaktree]

I have never had any luck planting wildflowers. Not to say I don't have a field full of them, but what I have just got there on their own. I would love to have a patch of lupine...it's so beautiful when it blossoms in mid-June, but nothing I do works. I think I have one plant that I transplanted from the roadside maybe 6 years ago that comes back every year but that's it.
OTOH I have plenty of Indian paintbrushes, buttercups, milkweed, dandelions and a lot of others I don't know what are.

 

[oosik]

I planted a half acre to wild grasses and wildflowers. I chewed up the topsoil with a home made drag. Planted half of the land in the fall - half the following spring. The fall planting resulted in better sprouting. After two years you could not tell the difference. All the grasses and most of the flowers were perennials. The butterflies and humming birds really enjoyed the flowers.

 

[ruffdog]

Do you have local experts like these guys?

Native Restoration

 

[jyoutz]

I'm tilling mostly to kill as much grass out there as possible. I'll throw them out and walk on them I guess. I don't have anything to press them into the ground with.

Getting the seed pressed into the soil or covering them with a thin layer of mulch is critical. The highest percentage of seed sitting exposed on top the ground will have poor germination due to bird and rodent predation and germinant roots drying out.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Do you have local experts like these guys?

Native Restoration

My island is only about 1,500 square feet I don't need that level of assistance. I just wanted to make sure I'm not peeing in the wind planting in the spring. Good idea if I were going to do a large area.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Getting the seed pressed into the soil or covering them with a thin layer of mulch is critical. The highest percentage of seed sitting exposed on top the ground will have poor germination due to bird and rodent predation and germinant roots drying out.

You think setting my tiller super shallow and going back over it after I brodcast the seed would work? I'll only be able to get my walk behind tiller and hand tools out there. My homemade barge will barely float the tiller.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Also I guess I could spread out a bunch of straw on top?

 

[ovrszd]

Don't know about experts. But I have 70 acres of these.

 

[ovrszd]

You think setting my tiller super shallow and going back over it after I brodcast the seed would work?

Not with a high percentage of success. So allowing for a lower percentage of success you will need to elevate the seed population considerably.

My "expert" is my Niece's husband. Third generation Sod Farmer. Again I say, the seed should be no deeper than one and a half times the diameter of the seed. Over tillage is bad.

 

[ruffdog]

Don't know about experts. But I have 70 acres of these.





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Nice! I have a friend that put 80 acres into flowers like that. The cool thing is different flowers bloom at different times so his fields change colors. When he did his latest burn, he collected the deer sheds and there were a bunch. He has also released pheasants most of the years.

 

[ovrszd]

Also I guess I could spread out a bunch of straw on top?

Mulch will help. If mulching I'd want even less tillage.

Do have a water pump that you can irrigate with?

 

[ovrszd]

Nice! I have a friend that put 80 acres into flowers like that. The cool thing is different flowers bloom at different times so his fields change colors. When he did his latest burn, he collected the deer sheds and there were a bunch. He has also released pheasants most of the years.

Yep. Mine are that way too. My mix had prairie grasses including blue stem in it. One field is 8 years in. The percentage of blooming flowers has diminished and the percentage of prairie grasses has increased. Fine with me. Blooming flowers start early. Prairie grass heads out late. Perfect timing. And the scene changes. I can see almost all of mine sitting on my front porch.