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Florida Gardening

Bird seed sprouting

15 years ago

Hi all.

Is there any reason not to let the seed from my bird feeders continue to grow under the feeders? I've had millet come up in my herb garden last year, and I think it looks lovely. No one ate the seeds, but that is okay.

This year I am feeding sunflower seeds, millet, and niger, and the birds are extremely messy. There are tons of seedlings under the feeder, and I'm not too interested in pulling them out.

Has anyone let this stuff grow before? I'm mainly concerned about presenting some kind of health risk to the birds, but I can't imagine there is one. It is possible I spent too much time in the sun today and baked my brain.

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Comments (3)

tclynx
15 years ago
I've often let bird seed sprout a little garden under the feeders. It is really lovely if the sunflowers manage to bloom.
garyfla_gw
15 years ago
Hi
I sprout several types of bird seeds ,mainly millet for my aviary birds.. Sprouted seed has at least double the nutritional value of dormant seed and they love it lol.
Can get a decent crop of spray millet during winter but won't take summer heat so still have to buy it lol gary
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As mentioned, if the sunflower seed falls into the garden, it can be a pain with all the little sunflowers. My first year, I added all the sweepings from under my bird feeders to a new raised bed I was building. MISTAKE! I was pulling out sunflowers forever. Also, the black sunflower seed coat has the same ingredient as black walnut and can stunt plants. That said, I have never had a problem in the garden under my bird feeders. Everything grows fine (but they are not vegetables). If the seeds mostly fall on your neighbor's side of the fence, I would not worry too much about it. The only thing I would do is set up a standing and on the ground bird bath and make sure it has water in it during dry times. In my experience, squirrels rarely bother the garden by eating vegetables for food. They tend to steal/chew tomatoes and stems (like squash) for water when desperate. Of course, once they learn that tomatoes are tasty, then you can have a serious problem. Bellatrix
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Sounds like a great idea to me.... Our bird seed sprouts all the time, so yours should too. We don't end up with a field of sunflowers, though. Lots of millet and weird looking plants. The sunflowers that don't get eaten will grow and you might get several different kinds, especially if you scatter enough to sprout and share with the critters I hope you'll show us a picture....we especially love Befores and Afters. Susie
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It looks like the scarifying before sowing is suggested more for stored seed. If your seed is freshly collected, just soak in water overnight before sowing. You could file a section of the seed coat easily enough on a seed that size, just enough to allow water a point to breach the seed coat more easily, but may not be critical when seed is fresh. 65F seems to be fine for germination, so not overly warm. Hmmmm, looks like my link not working, it was Arizona State, edu
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manature
15 years ago
I have also let birdseed sprout. I've gotten sunflowers, millet and some kind of wild mustard that was really pretty, covered with clear yellow flowers that the butterflies liked. In fact, I collected seed from that to plant deliberately in a butterfly garden. I really liked it.

I don't think you have any health problems to worry about, and as Gary says, it is probably even more nutritional if the birds eat it. If you don't mind how it looks and don't want to pull it, I say leave it. Sometimes if it gets out of hand, we just mow it down and that takes care of that.

Marcia

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