Topic: Sunflower seeds

[Twospot Ladybird]

Decided to try to get my Sunflower seeds to mature and ripen in the house and it worked  :D. I decided to do this because I had already lost 2 crops of seed to damp weather and didn't want to lose any more. Had a dig around in one of my Red Sun flower heads tonight, discovered they were ready and harvested over 200  :o fat seeds from one head. I certainly didn't expect that many. Will be checking other two flowers tomorrow.

To anyone who has been thinking about trying this, do, you should get a nice little surprise.

[daisymay]

I have bought a couple of mine in to rescue them from the d**n squirrels! I got back from holiday and 2 of them were snapped totally in half (I am growing giant ones, so were about 7ft). Neighbour said they saw a squirrel hanging from one of them the other morning.

Got a load of seed from one of them, quite suprised too. Am going to mix it in the bird feed for winter. May try and hang one from a tree for the birds but guess the squirrels will chomp that too.

[Maddy]

I have been growing dwarf sunflowers and was amazed that I got over 300 seeds from one flower head!

M.

[Twospot Ladybird]

Hi Daisymay and Maddy,

Isn't it amazing the amount of seed that they produce. I think I would have got more from my Red Sun one if I'd left it on the plant a bit longer, 200 was only about half the flower head the rest didn't  develop. Think I might have cut my Dwarf ones too soon though, just need to wait and see.

Maddy, I love your Avatar picture I'm a huge Elvis fan too.

[Maddy]

Twospot, I cut my dwarf sunflowers just this last week, but I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing, the seeds look nice and fat though and they came away with little more than a shake so I think I got the timing right.  This is my first year as a "real" gardener.  What dwarf variety are you growing?

(I love my avatar too, sometimes I forget to post and just stare at my man.  I wonder what his favourite flower was? ;D  )

[bupster]

Red roses, according to google. What am I doing looking this stuff up at 3am? :)

[Maddy]

Thanks bupster, don't remember seeing any red roses at Graceland though, but then the gardens weren't very inspiring, neat but not much else.  The meditation garden is nice though.

M.

[Twospot Ladybird]

Hi Maddy, the Dwarf variety I grow is called 'Big Smile' they grow no bigger than 18 inches. I've had another look and I think I might get some seeds off it after all. Fingers crossed  ;D I think I was just being impatient  :-[

[undercarriage plan]

Daft question no 3,896..but how do you know when they are ready? Lottie   :-\

[Twospot Ladybird]

Hi UC,

The seeds are ready when the whole head starts to wither and the florets have separated. Knock off a floret and you should be able to see the end (flat end not the pointy end) of the seed in the space the floret left. If you can pick the seed out (a bit fiddely), it should be nice and plump and the shell should be hard. Colour could be Black, White or Stripey. Hope this helps. Don't worry about asking daft questions, we've all got to start somewhere  ;D

[Twospot Ladybird]

The Dwarf Sunflower head that I thought I had brought in too early, has given me a small crop of seed. Got 80 out of it this morning  :) Hopefully the other head, which is developing better, will give me a better crop.

[Maddy]

Considering you didn't think you'd get anything 80 isn't at all bad.

Another question I hope isn't too daft...with my Sunflowers, I had one main flower head and a few side shoots.  When I was harvesting the main flower, the seeds from the side shoots were soft and I ended up throwing them away.  Is there a difference between seeds from side flowers and seeds from main flowers?

M.

[Twospot Ladybird]

Don't think there's any difference Maddy. The ones from the side shoots were either not fertilised or maybe just not ready. Not really sure, it's only the main heads I've taken seed from, with my Dwarf Sunflowers, I find the ones on the side shoots too small anyway but the ones on the 'Red Sun' seem to be fine (not collected from those yet) but 'Red Sun' is multi-headed anyway.

Need to get another 'Red Sun' flower head in and see what happens.

[Maddy]

Thanks Twospot, come to think of it I didn't see any insects around the side shoots, but loads around the main head, hadn't considered that they might not get fertilised.

M.

[Twospot Ladybird]

Harvested seed from second Dwarf Sunflower today. Only got 30  :( but they're very fat  ;D