Sunflowers Complete Guide: How To Grow, Harvest & Sell in Farming Simulator 25

Whether you’re a beginner or experienced farmer in Farming Simulator 25, sunflowers are a rewarding crop to cultivate. This comprehensive guide will walk you through every step of the sunflower farming process—from preparation and planting to harvesting and selling. By the end, you’ll understand exactly what equipment you need and how to maximize your sunflower yields.

Field Preparation: Getting Started

Before you plant a single sunflower, you need to prepare your field properly. The key to maximizing yield is lining your fields, which helps distribute resources evenly across the land.

Head to the store and look under Fertiliser Spreaders. You’re looking for a machine with a small white icon—this indicates the ability to line fields. Once you’ve selected your spreader, you’ll need to purchase lime from the consumables section. Simply park your vehicle next to the consumables and fill it up just like you would with seeds.

Planting Sunflowers: Choosing the Right Equipment

Understanding Planters vs. Seeders

This is crucial: sunflowers do not use seeders. Instead, you need to use planters, which are a special type of seeder designed specifically for crops like maize, sunflowers, and soybeans.

When browsing the store, go to the Seeding category and select Planters. Not all planters work with sunflowers—you need to look for ones with a sunflower logo on them. This logo confirms compatibility with sunflower seeds.

Selecting the Best Planter

When choosing a planter, look for two key features:

A sunflower logo (mandatory for sunflower compatibility)

A fertilizer icon (allows you to seed and fertilize simultaneously, saving time)

When you fill the planter with seeds and turn it on, you can cycle through different seed types by pressing Y. Simply drive the planter through your fields and it will plant the sunflowers automatically.

Fertilizing Your Sunflower Crop

After planting, you’ll need to fertilize your sunflowers to reach 100% fertility. If your planter has a fertilizer icon, it will partially fertilize during planting. However, you still need to apply additional fertilizer to maximize growth.

Use a separate Fertiliser Spreader to complete the fertilization process from 50% to 100%. Alternatively, the Breedal machine can apply both fertilizer and lime, though you’ll need to empty the lime tank and refill it with fertilizer if you want to switch functions.

Advanced Yield Optimization Techniques

Soil Rolling

For maximum yield optimization, consider using a roller on your seeded field. This tool rolls yellow stones back into the soil and improves the upper layer’s quality, providing a 2.5% yield bonus. This step is optional and may feel time-consuming if you’re not min-maxing, but it’s available if you want to extract every bit of value from your crop.

Beehives for Passive Yield Increase

Here’s a pro tip: placing beehives near your field will increase yield by an additional 2.5%. The best part? You don’t need to feed them or manage them—they work passively. You only need one pallet collection for the entire map if you’re collecting honey, so don’t feel obligated to place dozens of hives around.

Weed Management

If you have weeds enabled in your game settings, you’ll need to use a weeder to remove them. However, weed management is incredibly tedious, and we recommend disabling weeds in your settings unless you enjoy the extra challenge.

Harvesting Sunflowers

The Essential Equipment

To harvest your sunflowers, you’ll need a Combine Harvester equipped with a Corn Header. This is important: while corn headers are designed for maize, they also work perfectly for harvesting sunflowers. Do not use a grain header—it won’t work for sunflowers.

All corn headers in the game are compatible with sunflower harvesting, so you have multiple options when purchasing.

Harvesting Timeline

Sunflowers can be planted in March and April, and harvested in October and November. This timing is advantageous because it allows you to grow sunflowers as an early-season crop while managing other crops like oats and wheat in between. You can even plant winter crops like wheat and barley immediately after harvesting sunflowers.

Collection and Storage

Once the combine harvester collects the sunflowers, they go directly into the combine’s tank. From there, you can transfer them to a trailer or silo for transport and storage.

Selling Your Sunflowers

Finding Buyers

There are multiple locations where you can sell sunflowers throughout the map. To find all available buyers and current prices, open your map, navigate to the Statistics tab, and select Sunflowers. This will show you every location that buys sunflowers along with their current prices.

Best Times to Sell

Timing your sale strategically can significantly increase your profits. According to the game’s price data:

Harvest Time: October and November

Worst Price: December

Best Price: February and March

If possible, store your harvested sunflowers and wait until February or March to sell them when prices peak. This patience can result in substantial profit increases.

Tagging Sell Locations

Once you’ve identified the best sale location for your price point, you can tag it on your map. This creates a visible orange-red circle marker on your map display, making navigation to the sell point easy when you’re ready to make your delivery.

Quick Reference: Sunflower Farming Checklist

Here’s a quick summary of everything you need to do:

Field Preparation: Line your field using a fertiliser spreader with a line-spreader icon

Planting: Use a planter with a sunflower logo (ideally with fertilizer capability)

Fertilization: Apply lime and fertilizer separately to reach 100% fertility

Optional Yield Boosters: Add beehives (2.5% yield) and soil rollers (2.5% yield) for maximum output

Weed Control: Use a weeder if enabled (optional—consider disabling for convenience)

Harvest Timeline: Plant in March or April; harvest in October or November

Harvesting Equipment: Combine harvester with a corn header

Collection: Transfer from combine to trailer or silo

Sales: Check statistics for best prices and locations; sell in February or March for maximum profit

Conclusion

Growing, harvesting, and selling sunflowers in Farming Simulator 25 is a straightforward process once you understand the equipment requirements and optimal timing. By following this guide, you’ll have the knowledge to establish a profitable sunflower operation on your virtual farm. Remember to invest in the right planters and harvesters, optimize your yields with beehives and rollers, and time your sales for maximum profit. Happy farming!

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