My first go at sunflowers last year wasnt anywhere near good enough for a competition. 9FT was about it. Any chances of a few tips to try to gain some extra height?
cj
Suprising how many different methods people employ to get biggies.
A couple of suggestions here which will certainly help.
Select what will be a sunny position Last week of March turn an area 2ft square to a depth of 1/2 spade depth ( for each flower you intend to grow. Remove anything that's not going to help your plant, like weeds, bits of decayed plant and rubbish. A few small stones are OK.
Early April sow 3 seeds 2" apart. These will be reduced to one as you select the strongest one.) When you're down to just one plant, stake it and do a weekly feed of liquid fertiliser (Not manure) a couple of inches round the stem. Don't splash the stem with it.
I've known people who place drainpipe around the stem to encourage the plant to 'shhot fo the stars'...it doesn't work!
If you want to start indoors, fine, but it's not going to give you an advantage other than being able to sow many more seeds and so give you a greater choice of the best. Sowing indoors needn't be done until end March as any sooner and your plants will not only end up pot bound but if kept indoors too long, like waiting for the frost to end, then you'll end up with straggly plants.
( Colder areas prone to late frosts then seeds would be better started off indoors or outdoors in a home-made 'right size' coldframe -with lid-. Needs to have daily attention to weather!)
Indoor sowing is best in peat or paper pots. Paper pots are easy to make. Both mean that the seedling isn't disturbed when it comes to planting out.
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