Growing Sunflowers
Tips on Growing Sunflowers
Growing sunflowers is a great way for children to learn how seeds grow. Sunflowers are very easy to grow, and their height combined with the huge yellow flowers seem to make everyone smile, whether child or adult. On top of that, sunflowers can be used for a variety of purposes from drying the seeds to eat as a snack or for bird feed, to producing cooking oil.
Sunflowers are not fond of being transplanted. If you live in a cold climate where you need to begin growing sunflowers inside, the best way is to start them in peat pots. That way you can just transplant the whole pot with them without disturbing the roots. Try planting two seeds in each peat pot, covering the pot with plastic and placing them where they will get the day sunlight. In approximately two weeks you will have tiny seedlings--if two are in a pot, pinch off the one that looks the weakest so that only one plant is in each pot.
Keep them moist and in sunlight until it is warm enough to plant them outside. Then harden them off by placing them outside for a few hours each day and bringing them back inside at night. Now they are ready to plant in the outside garden. If you live in an area that is warm, you can plant the seeds directly into your garden. Place the plants two to four feet apart. Place seeds closer together as you can thin out later. Seeds should be planted an inch deep. Birds will often eat the newly planted seeds so if you feed birds or have many in your yard, you might do best by planting seedlings instead of seeds.
Growing sunflowers is easy because they don’t need any special care. Fertilize the soil as you would for any plant with organic and/or synthetic fertilizer. Sunflowers are not picky about pH level--anywhere from 5.7 to 7.5 is adequate. Unless you are planting a dwarf variety, make sure that you plant your sunflowers with some type of support, either against a fence, or you can stake each plant when you plant them in the ground. They need extra support because of their height and the weight of the flower heads when they go to seed.
Sunflowers are susceptible to quite a few plant diseases and insects, but many depend on the weather conditions of your location. Among the diseases and symptoms are downy mildew, which displays itself as a cottony fungus on the underneath of the leaves and causes discoloration, and powdery mildew which causes the cottony fungus on the leaves in late summer. For the most part, powdery mildew is not damaging to the plant. Other possible diseases include: leaf spot, rust, verticillium wilt, sclerotinia head and stem rot, and Phoma black stem. The latter two cause gray and black coloring of stems and heads.
There are many insects and pests to be aware of when growing sunflowers. These include the sunflower moth, sunflower bud moth, sunflower midge, head clipping weevil, grasshopper, sunflower maggot, sunflower beetle, cutworm, wireworm, ragweed plant bug, sugar beet webworm, painted lady and woolybear caterpillar. If you have serious infestations of any of these insects, contact your extension agent or gardening store for the advice on appropriate treatment.