Growing Sunflowers

While I was planning this year's garden I decided it might be fun and possibly worthwhile to try growing some sunflowers. I'd never grown them before, but I'd always heard they were easy. According to Burpee they do well in a pH range of 6 to 7.5, which means they're not really finicky about soil, but they do need full sun.

I planted mine along the fence on the east side of the garden, about an inch deep and a foot apart. Unfortunately, heavy rains came and washed out or weighed down and drowned most of my seedlings. The few that survived were on a slight slope, so the water mostly ran off.

Once my seedlings were about a foot tall I added a top-dressing of Nature's Care plant food and then added several inches of mulch around them. Other than watering, the sunflowers didn't require much care for the rest of the season.

When the sunflowers reached maturity, they dropped their yellow flower petals and most of the center yellow bracts turned brown and began to shed. 

The seeds appeared full and developed gray stripes on the hulls. 

The back of the sunflower turned from green to yellow, indicating it was ready for harvest. I cut off the sunflower head with about eight inches of stalk for tying onto. I placed the head into a brown paper shopping bag and twisted the top tightly around the stalk. Using jute cord, I hung the sunflower in its bag in a warm, dry place.

After about three weeks the sunflower seeds were fully dry and ready to be removed from the head.

In the end, I did get enough sunflower seeds to be worth the cost of growing them myself, but barely. The meats are plump and sweet and I plan to roast some soon. I like using sunflower seeds in cooking and baking, and I do plan to try planting them again next year.

Stephen