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Cleaning up sunflower seed hulls
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Posted by paulsiu (My Page) on Mon, Aug 30, 10 at 2:05
| How do you clean sunflower seed hulls. They are hard to rake up and have been killing the grass. In my latest attempt, I have attempted to use a shop vac, which seems to work well but I worry I am removing top soil. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Cleaning up sunflower seed hulls
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You could put a catch pan under the feeder, and then you could just scoop them into a bag to put in your compost, or throw out.
I've seen them at the bird store. Its like a collar that fits around the pole and catches everything. |
RE: Cleaning up sunflower seed hulls
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| Sunflower seeds are allelopathic. That's why they're killing the grass. If you put them in compost be careful how you use it until the seeds are well composted. A catch pan would help but it that's not practical the grass should hold the topsoil. I would go ahead and use the shop vac. |
RE: Cleaning up sunflower seed hulls
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| The seed store sell a large seed catcher that would reduce the seed falling on the ground, but they were out when I tried to buy one. I'll keep using the shop vac for now. Paul |
RE: Cleaning up sunflower seed hulls
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| I had a problem with Doves raking out my hopper feeder and emptying everyday. I now only fill the hopper half full every 5 days or so and use the tube feeder. I'm down to putting out about 2 quarts of BOSS a week. The Doves visit much less, but the Nuthatches and Chickadees seem to be happy the feeder is alot less hectic and hang around more. A side benefit is the amount of waste is much less and the lawn mower seems to disperse it enough. I'll probably only feed more when I expect alot of migrants in the area. Providing unlimited easy access food only seems to encourage the undesireables to congregate in your yard in my experience. It also leads to more rodents in the area, which brings in things that eat rodents. So now I focus on much more targeted feeding and it is just as, if not more rewarding as when I went through 10x more food. |
RE: Cleaning up sunflower seed hulls
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| I wondered too if there is anything other than raking to be done! Thanks for all the help! |
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