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katie73_gw

Sunflowers- Now ya see 'em, now ya don't?

katie73
17 years ago

Hi all,

My 3 yr old son was all excited to grow sunflowers (thank to several Winnie the Pooh stories!). So, we got some seeds and planted a few at the edge of our garden. They started to come up & when they were a couple inches high, I thought since that went so well (this is my first year attempting to grow a garden) I figured I'd plant some as a border around 2 sides of my yard. The next day I went out to water & saw that something had dug up the newly planted seeds & ate them!! Then, a few days later, the seedlings that had sprouted in the garden were completely gone!! Do you think that whatever ate my seeds came back & got my plants? Any idea what it could be and/ or how to keep it (them?) away. I live in the Triangle area if that makes any difference. I (and my son!) would appreciate any thoughts on this!! Thanks!

Comments (25)

  • dawgie
    17 years ago

    I used to plant sunflowers and something would eat them up every time they got a couple of inches high. One year, I planted them in pots on my deck and didn't put them in my garden until they were about a foot high. A couple days later, something ate them up again. Never figured out what was eating them, but it was the usual suspects -- deer or rabbits. I don't try to grow sunflowers any more.

  • dirtrx
    17 years ago

    I am so sorry to hear about your plants and seeds! I can't help much if it is deer but last year I sowed mine in big red solo cups and 2 liter bottles with about 1/3 of of the top cut off. Actually, they were the left over wintersowing jugs without the tops. I knew I had a rabbit problem so when the seedlings were big enough to plant out I then took a 2 liter jug and cut the top and bottom out and cut one side open. planted the seedling and then placed the bottle around it to protect it from the rabbits. Later I took the bottle from around it. I probably could have left it around it but the rabbits seem to leave them alone and the jugs are ugly. I also have a dog who was outside once it was warm so that might have something to do with the rabbit problem disappearing. I have some sundlower seeds and a few dward sunflower plants if you need them - email me. I am in the Triangle. Good luck. Shannon/Dirtrx

  • Claire Pickett
    17 years ago

    Try, try again. The same thing is unlikely to happen.

    You can control them by planting in little pots and then transplanting to your beds carefully, without letting the plants know they are being moved. Shhhhh! SF's do not like to be moved.

    Branching sunflowers, like Autumn Sunset, are amazing. Wait til you see the birds cavorting up high on those burnished beauties.
    claire in sanford

  • sunshinysmile
    17 years ago

    I am a bit nervous about planting my babies...I am nursing about 30 torch tithonia seedlings that are about 4 inches long, but are just forming their second real set of leaves.

    If they get et, I'll be an upset lady!

    I'm in the Triad...and just remembered my son is afraid of bees...

    My yard is going to look like a jungle...heeheee...my neighbors are going to LOVE me...

  • tamelask
    17 years ago

    sunshine, tithonia transplants well. they are the most vibrant wonderful velvety orange. the butterflies won't leave them alone.

    pup, i hadn't heard that sf didn't like transplanting. i don't have good luck in direct sowing, but i'll have to bear that in mind. 'course i already have a bunch started in 6 packs now. i'll get them out young & be extra careful. thanks fro the tip. tam

  • Belgianpup
    17 years ago

    You might try bending some chicken wire over them, in long strips if that's how you planted them. Fold the ends down so creatures can't get inside. You might have squirrels eating them.

    Sue

  • junequilt
    17 years ago

    I'm sure glad I read this thread -- though I was losing my mind when my little sunflower seedlings started to disappear! I still have trouble believing that any rabbit or squirrel would brave coming into the garden of a household with 7 cats, but maybe it's a kamikaze rabbit. Anyway, I planted sunflower seeds only because I couldn't find any tithonia seeds locally. A friend had given me a tithonia plant last year, and it was fabulous! So here's my question: if I mail-order some tithonia seeds, is it too late to plant them? I'm in the SC midlands.

  • lynnencfan
    17 years ago

    Here is my question about sunflowers - I have never had any luck with direct sowing them, had about 30% with WSing them with some varieties and again 0% with others. WHY do they germinate like crazy under the birdfeeders???????? - I do let some of them grow but they are just the run of the mill ones and t hey never get very big before they bloom - I want the fancier ones with all the beautiful sunset colors and branching stems. I guess I should be thankful I get the ones under the birdfeeders.

    I did have good success with WSing tithonia.

    junequilt - do you have a Walmart close by?? - they have the tithonia seed - any of the bigbox stores should have them if they still have their seed out....

    Lynne

  • paulacat
    17 years ago

    Just had to add my 2 cents...I'd say it's definitely squirrels, the most destructive little beasts I've ever seen. The ones in my yard will dig up ANYTHING they think might have something edible attached. If I can ever get small plants established, they'll leave them alone but those first couple of weeks are a definite trial. This year, I had some sweet potato vines, green and blackie, that survived the winter in the greenhouse. As soon as I put them out, some long-tailed varmint pulled it out of the pot and ATE the potato.

  • pathfinder81601
    17 years ago

    About those pesky squirrels!

    We live in an area which was once a walnut grove and the sqirrels are everywhere here. We have oak trees in the front and back yards with zillions of acorns and an abundance of squirrel nests. Last year, I had huge sunflowers with no problems from the little buggers. I am quite certain that the old-time remedy I had used with my bulbs discouraged the squirrels from eating other goodies from my flower and veggie gardens.

    The first autumn after I moved here, squirrels dug up and chewed up all of the iris tubers that I had brought from CO when we moved to SC. They gnawed all around the tubers and then left the remains on top of my barbeque grill....as if to say, 'gotcha!" Then they cut off all of the blooms on my tulips the following spring. Someone told me to put pieces of Ex-Lax around the plants. They love the chocolate, but after they sit on the 'john' for awhile, they have time to think about what they have done. After that, they won't eat ANYTHING from your place again.

    Now we grow tomatoes, corn, sunflowers, squash, and tulips with no more problems. The neighbors behind us have a small garden and my hubby and I sit on the swing and watch the squirrels run up and downn the neighbors' fence with baby peaches and tomatoes in their mouths! Hilarious!

    Instead of buying real Ex-Lax, hubby bought the cheaper WalMart brand Equate and it worked just fine. We keep a supply on hand, but only had to use it that one time.

    I also put a few small pieces in the flower bed around my mailbox to keep the across-the-street dogs away from the newly planted clematis. Now they dig up plants and poopie in someone else's yard!

  • tamelask
    17 years ago

    what a machiavellian, but hysterical way to deal with them!! little blighters. i'm gonna have to try that! every yr they get my nectarines just as they ripen. hubby likes to slingshot them with old whole pecans. seems poetic.

  • pathfinder81601
    17 years ago

    tamelask, your hubby sounds like a lot of fun! Do you have pecan trees, also? My 87-yr old mom has a slingshot that she uses on neighbor dogs that sleep in her carport and leave fleas.

    I just went out to put fresh 'juice' in the hummingbird feeder and found that the squirrels had popped of all those little yellow 'daisy' snap-ons that guide the hummers to the drinking holes! The 'daisies' were in the strawberry bed just below the feeder, so I super-glued them back on.

    'Skirls' are very creative, aren't they? That's what my 3-yr-old grandson calls them.

  • jqpublic
    15 years ago

    Very excited about my sunflowers. Direct sowed many seeds on Saturday and went out today to see 5-10 from a mix variety pack poking out. I was amazed! It did rain the past 3-4 days and I think the day the sun finally came out everything decided to go full force! I hope the squirrels don't get them. I know they already attacked some bean seeds :(

  • tamelask
    15 years ago

    This reminds me that i need to get the ex-lax spread around in hope that they'll leave my fruit alone this year. I'll cover my nectarine, too, in case they don't get the message.

    A very late answer, but no, pathfinder, we don't have a pecan. No room or light. But the park down the road does and we collect from there, and we have indoor parrots, and so get some non human grade whole pecans in that. I'm having more trouble with coons now than squirrels.

  • dogrober
    11 years ago

    ok something ate the tops off my sunflowers. This was noticed just as the heads were starting to form. The most likely suspects here are either squirrels or snails.
    Now, I've a grand sunflower that grew in the compost pile. He has been scared nicely by snails but is doin well. He has a 10"-12" head and just about ready for netting.
    But for the row of sunflowers that are across the yard and along the fence. I was wondering what ate their heads off? At this time the heads had hardly formed. I'm not ready to call it squirrels. The heads were only halfway up the fence. There were gouges like but not the same a the snails had left. Sure, last year when the heads had form nice,heavily seeded sunflowers, the squirrels did feast very well.

  • dottie_in_charlotte
    11 years ago

    Instead of sunflowers, next year you might have fun planting some sunchokes (from the grocery vegetable section). The few I harvested and planted at my new house have grown to 10' tall so they have to have support, strong support.
    Then, after they bloom, in late fall you can dig up the chokes (jerusalem artichokes) and let your grandchild taste them raw or cooked.
    Just remember to site them properly where they won't be in the way because once you plant them they come up every year no matter how well you dig them up.
    Its in the sunflower family and instead of the heads being decimated by squirrels and jays, these smaller heads are food for the goldfinches.

  • monkey5846
    8 years ago

    i was so excited i had so many different kinds of sunflowers exspecially mammoth supposedly growing up to 6 feet. It started getting warm late May so i decided to put them in the ground. Being the crazy lady i am i had like 90 seedlings. They were starting to get 2-3 inches i planted them everying in my front and backyard. As i walk to school the next day i notice that one's 2 top leaves have been bitten off, I think it's only one right? i walk outside with my dogs to find the whole long trail i did along my patch of dirt seedlings ( a good 20 i'd say) was either taken out of the ground, eaten, just pulled out the ground to make me cry, left to die, beyond help, or taken away backto their little murderous friends. A whole freaking wall not even eaten jus tdug up for the fun of ruining people's lives. I tried to plant some that were okay back in. i don't know whether to put solo cups around them, spray them with that bitter apple stuff that makes it taste unbearable, or put nets over the whole thing. I'm thinking nets I'll update you about how it works.

  • countrygirlsc, Upstate SC
    8 years ago

    We dug up lots of yellow tulips a couple of weeks ago and put them in large containers for now since I don't know where I am going to plant them. Sunday I saw something had its grubby hands or mouth in the pots. There were 2 or 3 holes in each pot. I hope they left me some for next year.

  • Sabji garden (7b), Raleigh NC
    8 years ago

    Reading this thread, I went to harris teeter and got me a bag of Sunchokes.

    I have currently planted them In a kiddie pool full of potting soil.

    Not sure where to plant them later... I will have to look for a place where they can spread in a controlled fashion (Sounds oxymoron) . Yeah!!


  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    8 years ago

    I'm having the same trouble trying to plant Sunflowers and while I haven't seen them, I'm almost positive it is the squirrels. We don't have deer or rabbit. It might have been a groundhog, but he would have eaten a lot of things and made a huge mess.

    I've sown the seeds three times already. After the first set of seedlings disappeared [all but two] I sowed more seed and put hardware cloth down over the seed area and some of those edges were sharp. They still managed to get in between them a little but it looked like they gave up. But, to get back at me, they pulled out the two remaining sunflower seedlings that were about 6 inches tall already. After the second set of seeds germinated, I didn't want them to grow up through the wire, so I took it off and weeded around them. Back they came and did the same thing. So I've started the third bath which are already up. I've kept the wire covering on and bent it up a little to allow the sunflower seedlings a little room to grow. This time I am not going to weed around them because I think disturbing the soil at all, is a trigger for attracting them to the area. I even left the pulled sunflower seedlings right where they left them.

    If this doesn't work, I'm going to try using the netting I have over the strawberries, that seems to be working fine for the strawberries. Maybe that way I can get them to a decent size before they can get at them.

    I hope.

  • Erin Pearson
    7 years ago

    Damn squirrel ate the bud right off the top of my sunflower today!!!! So pissed right now.!!! Does anyone know if it will grow back? First time growimg them and i was so excited.. :(

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    7 years ago

    Well, it depends on which variety of Sunflower you grew. Some are single flower sunflowers and some are branching sunflowers. In my experience if a bud comes off a branching sunflower, it is like deadheading the plant and it will produce more buds and flowers. Try looking up the name of the variety you are growing to see which it is.


    BTW - I had success with my sunflowers this year after my experiences last year, by using red cayenne pepper powder sprinkled around the base of the sunflower seedlings that kept the squirrels away as long as I renewed it after a rain.

  • Seysonn_ 8a-NC/HZ-7
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Rats and mice also eat seeds and new sprouts of things like corn, melon, cukes. Those are the thing with protein.

    sey

  • maryfaithbryant
    3 years ago

    A young rabbit has been eating sunflower seedlings in my yard in Pinehurst.