Seed spillage (1 Viewer)

Bill@dwp · Jun 21, 2005

Although it is inevitable that spilt seed will start to grow where it can has anyone got a quick fix to get rid of the masses of seedlings I have from the nyger feeder.
It's all fell and sprouted into a gravelled area and I seem to be pulling up as much gravel as seedling. I dont wanted to use anything like Pathclear and my ancient bones are telling me that they dont like me crawling around on the floor to often.
Someone told me to use salt water as that will kill the seeds and seedlings but the birds will steer clear. There are no plants around to worry about.
Any suggestions?

Dave_W · Jun 21, 2005

As it's gravel the seeds are sprouting in could I suggest regular raking. If you do this as you top the feeders up it wouldn't be too much of a chore. This should disturb any roots and so kill off the seedlings.

Dave

florall · Jun 21, 2005

Dave_W said:
As it's gravel the seeds are sprouting in could I suggest regular raking. If you do this as you top the feeders up it wouldn't be too much of a chore. This should disturb any roots and so kill off the seedlings.

Good idea Dave, or in other circumstances (ie. into a border) use a hoe frequently.

Personally, I quite enjoy the seedlings that grow from my bird feeders. I've got a lovely crop of what I think might be barley (I know it shouldn't look any good, but it looks very attractive in my plant border). Last year we had sunflowers popping up all over the garden (I hadn't planted any) plus one or two grasses, one of which a friend was very miffed about because he'd spent about £5 buying a plant of it from a garden centre.

songbird6666 · Jun 21, 2005

I have had some weird and wonderful plants spring up from the wild bird seed mix. My back garden has a lot of wild-ish areas anyway so I don't mind. Can anyone identify this plant for me? I have been through two wild flower books and can't see anything. The main plant stayed all winter, didn't die off, and has had lots of yellow flowers on it, which have now died. It is covered in pods, I mean hundreds and hundreds of pods. It has grown all round my Budlea bush, and is around 5 feet high, with a 6 feet spread! There are two or three little ones appearing elsewhere in the garden now, but they may have to go. I have got a couple of nice sunflowers under way, transplanted one into the front garden, its about 18" high so far!

Katy Penland · Jun 21, 2005

Holy moly, Songbird, just think of the money you could save if you could harvest all those seedpods, dry them, then offer them to your birds!

One of the "mixes" I use is for squirrels, so it has whole kernel corn in it. By autumn, we have corn stalks popping up all over the property. Too bad the cold weather hits long before they mature -- fresh corn on the cob... yummmmmmmm... :bounce:

Bill@dwp · Jun 22, 2005

Dave_W said:
As it's gravel the seeds are sprouting in could I suggest regular raking. If you do this as you top the feeders up it wouldn't be too much of a chore. This should disturb any roots and so kill off the seedlings.

Dave

Hi Dave

Good idea and that will work for the rest of the garden but I this one troublesome area where the seeds clump together by a brick edging. Its amazing how quickly they sprout. It looks like mustard and cress you get in those tubs from the supermarket.

As an experiment I tried a small area with salt water and it worked a treat as they died overnight. I'm unsure whether to try it on the rest as I dont want to harm any birds. Will they try and eat the salty seed spillage and if they do will it harm them?

In the past I used to position a couple of tubs underneath that had established plants in. The additional growth was often interesting and i have a small bush in one still. Haven't got rid of it as we still dont know what it is. Its not very pretty though.

As with others we have had sunflowers popping everywhere, including several last year in hanging baskets.

hil5 · Jun 23, 2005

You actually don't need to use salt. Just apply boiling water and that kills all the growth over a period of time.

geedub · Jun 23, 2005

songbird said:
I have had some weird and wonderful plants spring up from the wild bird seed mix. My back garden has a lot of wild-ish areas anyway so I don't mind. Can anyone identify this plant for me? I have been through two wild flower books and can't see anything. The main plant stayed all winter, didn't die off, and has had lots of yellow flowers on it, which have now died. It is covered in pods, I mean hundreds and hundreds of pods. It has grown all round my Budlea bush, and is around 5 feet high, with a 6 feet spread! There are two or three little ones appearing elsewhere in the garden now, but they may have to go. I have got a couple of nice sunflowers under way, transplanted one into the front garden, its about 18" high so far!

Hi Songbird
Your mystery plant with the seed pods and the yellow flowers looks to me like rape - when I go seawatching in Scarborough a lot of the fields along the clifftops are growing this crop.

songbird6666 · Jun 23, 2005

geedub said:
Hi Songbird
Your mystery plant with the seed pods and the yellow flowers looks to me like rape - when I go seawatching in Scarborough a lot of the fields along the clifftops are growing this crop.

Thanks for that, if so, I shall have to crush up the pods then and make my own fuel for the car!

snowyowl · Jun 23, 2005

Now just a minute! I think there's something wrong here. Isn't niger seed heated to sterilize it before it's sold for birds? In all my years of feeding birds, I've never had anything grow except sunflowers and I never clean up. Barley isn't in any feed mix that I use. What feeder birds even eat it? Could you be getting normal weeds growing up through your gravel? Who eats rape? You may be using a seed mix with a lot of filler in it. Check out this site for seed preferences.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/SeedPreferences.htm

Bill@dwp · Jun 24, 2005

snowyowl said:
Now just a minute! I think there's something wrong here. Isn't niger seed heated to sterilize it before it's sold for birds? In all my years of feeding birds, I've never had anything grow except sunflowers and I never clean up. Barley isn't in any feed mix that I use. What feeder birds even eat it? Could you be getting normal weeds growing up through your gravel? Who eats rape? You may be using a seed mix with a lot of filler in it. Check out this site for seed preferences.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/SeedPreferences.htm

Didn't know about that about Niger but it isnt working with mine. Its definitely that which is growing and I get other odd things growing from the normal seed.

Not sure about barley but in my case I get a fair few feral pigeons and they normally hoover up anything. They dont seem keen on nyger though.

It wouldn't be a problem if the goldfinches knew how to eat properly!! More goes on floor that they eat it seems. What I've started doing is not topping up the feeder straightaway when it runs down and then I find they eat the spillage. This is where I have the problem in that it can blown around so I have taken to brushing it up and then putting it in a saucer.

Good idea about the boiling water by the way. I'll give it a go.

esmondb · Jun 24, 2005

Bill@dwp said:
It wouldn't be a problem if the goldfinches knew how to eat properly!! More goes on floor that they eat it seems.

You don't think they've just evolved a behaviour to help propogate their food source?

florall · Jun 24, 2005

snowyowl said:
Now just a minute! I think there's something wrong here. Isn't niger seed heated to sterilize it before it's sold for birds? In all my years of feeding birds, I've never had anything grow except sunflowers and I never clean up. Barley isn't in any feed mix that I use. What feeder birds even eat it? Could you be getting normal weeds growing up through your gravel? Who eats rape? You may be using a seed mix with a lot of filler in it. Check out this site for seed preferences.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/SeedPreferences.htm

I agree, I was surprised about the barley myself because I didn't think it was in the mix. However, the plant is growing directly underneath where the feeders are, so I just assumed that's where it came from. I use one of the "no mess" mixes from a reputable supplier.

Maybe it wasn't from my feeders at all. The feral and wood pigeons often roost on the post on which these particular feeders are, so perhaps they ate the barley somewhere else and some undigested seeds came out the other end!

snowyowl · Jun 24, 2005

If you look at the niger spillage very carefully, I think that you will find that a lot of it is empty hulls.

Seed spillage (1 Viewer)

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