Sunflower Seed Planting Tips!

[l008com]

After many years of trying and failing, or partially failing, last year I finally had a very successful year of planting some real damn big sunflowers. I got some real giants!

I had so much success in fact, that I have a shoe-box sized container of seeds! And thats after setting side one large jar to use as duck food, and giving a friend another large jar to cook and make snacks out of. AND I still have two smaller flowers left that I haven't even harvested yet.

So I have WAYYYYYY more seeds than I could ever possibly grow in my yard this Spring. So I have decided to do some rogue sunflower seed planting. I'm going to plant the seeds all around town. Anywhere theres empty space that looks like it could use some plants.

Now the success of this is going to be largely dependent on whether or not we have a normal rain amount, or a drought. And theres no way to predict that, so I'm just going to hope for the best and plant seeds everywhere.

My experience with these giant sunflower seeds is that if you keep them watered, nearly 100% of them will grow. I won't be able to water these, but beyond that, are there any other tips that might help me along? Should I dig little holes and bury them some distance? Should I just jab them into the ground? Should I stab a hole in the ground with a big flathead screwdriver and then stick the seed down some distance?

I'm going to try to time it so each planting session happens right before some amount of rainstorm. But its been real hit or miss these past few. years, where we have a nice rainy spring/summer or a total drought with brushfire warnings. NOT TO MENTION those damn rabbits that eat EVERYTHING in sight.

So let me know if you have any tips for this. Like I said, I won't be able to water them so I'll have to hope for some luck, but I want to maximize that luck.
And if you hear about a mystery rouge sunflower planter on the news, forget you ever saw this post

 

[l008com]

I just found this interesting link:

International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day

www.guerrillagardening.org

In short, it says plant them an inch deep and water when young.
Whats the best way to plant, like if you're trying to do TONS of them? My screwdriver idea seems good. Mark 1" on a large driver, just stab the ground, put the seed in and smoosh the hole back closed. Ideally a day or two before a rainy stretch.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

I don't think it's necessary to time the rain, the seed will come up when it's ready. If your soil is poorly drained they won't have a good root system and will do worse than deep soil.

I think you'll have decent success

 

[dirty hands]

I have a customer who let's the sunflowers grow wild in her garden and yard. They just keep reseeding. I thought it looks pretty cool and was thinking about doing something similar in my yard/garden.
I thought i could just broadcast seed in areas i want them to grow. Maybe even buy some specialty type with red in the flowers.

You could probably just throw a small handful of seed here and there and see what happens.

 

[Meadowlark]

After many years of trying and failing, or partially failing, last year I finally had a very successful year of planting some real damn big sunflowers. I got some real giants!

How about some pictures?

 

[Sheal]

Have you thought about feeding birds in your garden? Feeders could be hung from branches etc.

 

[l008com]

You could probably just throw a small handful of seed here and there and see what happens.

I tried this a few years ago with a mix of the big plants, and the smaller perennial plants, and I had zero success. Could have been a lack of rain, could have been rabbits, who knows. Thats why this year I'm going to plant them an inch deep and hopefully I have more success.

 

[l008com]

How about some pictures?

How bout it!

 

[Meadowlark]

Looks like a 12 ...and a mammoth variety which I grow also. Very nice.

Check out our comp last year...

The 2025 Sunflower Growing Competition

As requested, the subject competition has been revived for 2025. This thread will serve as the home base for the competition including entries and discussions. Post anything sunflowers here. Prizes (TBD) will be awarded for the following: Tallest sunflower Biggest bloom Most number of blooms...

www.gardening-forums.com

 

[l008com]

Looks like a 12 ...and a mammoth variety which I grow also. Very nice.

You overestimate my height It was about a 10.5 or so

 

[oneeye]

Sunflowers produce several allelopathic chemicals. These toxic compounds are released from all parts of the plant—leaves, roots, stems, and seed hulls—into the soil, where they inhibit the germination and growth of competing plants.

 

[oneeye]

I just learned last year that letting sunflowers grow wild in my yard will cause problems with my other vegetation. My yard started having diebacks in the areas where the Sunflowers grew. So, I'm killing every new Sunflower plant I see this year as soon as it emerges as new seedlings. They are on the Enemy #1 List now and I'm picking up my birdseed hulls under my feeder too. I learned the hard way but its not too late.

 

[roadrunner]

They say its allelopathic chemicals only spread out to about 1 foot of the plant and that it mainly affects potatoes, pole beans, tomatoes, lettuce, kale, broccoli, N2 fixing plants and various grasses.

I've grown several of those plants near sunflowers and never seen any adverse conditions, but I will pay closer attention in the future, just out of curiosity, but I also will continue to grow them and allow the seed hulls to remain on the ground under bird feeders.

I think in highly biodiverse environments these chemicals breakdown very quickly and then the remaining material becomes food source for the soil organisms. Much in the same way I don't fret over using Black Walnut mulch, despite all the warnings, because those chemicals breakdown quickly and are just as good at feeding the soil as other mulches.

If you look at the picture in post #8, those sunflowers don't seem to be harming the grass at all. And that's been my experience, I use sunflowers to shade certain plants, such as tomatoes, which can't take full sun conditions in my growing area.


P.S. WRT seed hulls under birdfeeders I think I have taken note of plants not growing thru them, but that doesn't really concern me, because it's temporary. If I did want to grow something there (like NOW), I'd simply just scoop them up and cast them out, thereby distributing the chemicals over a large area where they won't bother anything.

The Dose Makes the Poison

 

[l008com]

Luckily, the only competing plant in my own yard, is my lawn. And in the places I'll be planting seeds this spring, the competitors will be weeds left unchecked.