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maryl_gw

Sunflower question

We (along with probably everybody else) have some sunflowers that we've allowed to grow on which grew from the seed in the birdfood. It's a nice compact large flowered variety whatever it is. My question is how to harvest the heads for seed. Can we decapitate it after the yellow petals have dried and just dry the seed head on, or do we have to leave the seedhead on the plant itself until the seeds ripen. The foliage is not attractive and the sooner I'm able to pull it the better.........Appreciate anyones experience.......Maryl

Comments (4)

  • slowpoke_gardener
    9 years ago

    I don't grow them often. I have tried to grow the giant ones in the past and between the birds, critters, and wind they don't last till fall. We often cut the heads off and dry them and put them out for the birds in the winter. The last time I checked mine some were over 6' tall and have not started to bloom. We had rain today, and if we had wind to go with it my plants would be on the ground.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago

    I just leave the heads on the plant and let the seeds dry and mature there. If the deer come around and start eating them (they'll eat the entire head, seeds and all), I pull onion netting bags over the heads and secure them with a zip tie to protect the seedheads from the hungry deer (and from birds). We don't get much rain here in summer, so they dry just fine. Sometimes in a wet year, I let them dry on the stalk as much as possible, but then cut them and line them up on the patio where they can dry under the patio cover.

    I leave the seeds on the seedhead and just lay out a seedhead for the birds in winter. They promptly come and pick all the seeds out and eat them. I usually put them inside the fenced garden so that the deer don't beat the birds to them. The same birds we feed all winter in the garden (which also has a bird feeder and birdbath in it) spend the rest of the year in there eating grasshoppers and other pests.

  • Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    We had a few Coyotes stroll through here many many years ago, and a Bobcat that gets too close for comfort in dry years, but for the most part (knock on wood), you don't see any deer in our little suburban area......... I think I will cut off the seed heads as suggested and let them air dry. I thought it would be fun to put them out over winter for the birds. Since we never stop feeding the birds it's not essential that the seedheads are preserved, rather it's the "old waste not want not" philosophy that caused me to ask....Thank you for both for your input. It helped me make up my mind.....Maryl

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago

    Our place is an animal refuge (not officially, lol) and we have everything you can imagine and some things I never thought I'd ever see.

    In parts of Texas near us, and presumably on our side of the river as well, a bad outbreak of canine distemper hit the raccoons really hard last year, and I am going to assume it hit the coyote population as well because we have cottontail rabbits everywhere in greater numbers than I've ever seen. Bunnies have to eat, and we have them all over the place eating everything in sight every evening and early every morning and, presumably, during the night as well. We cannot drive up our driveway at any time of the night without having so slow down to let the bunnies hop away from the driveway.

    Our gardens are fenced, but the compost piles are not, and some years it is a wonder we have any compost at all because the deer, rabbits, possums, skunks, squirrels and coons all visit the compost piles every day and every night looking for anything interesting I've tossed there that they can eat. When I am canning and putting lots of waste material on the compost pile, the deer stand by the pile and wait....and I have to yell at them and pace back and forth to chase them off so they'll go far enough away that I can walk out to the compost pile without having deer so close that they could attack me. (A deer attacked an elderly couple here in our area a few years ago and a deputy had to go shoot the deer so medics could get to the couple and help them.)

    We never stop feeding the birds either, and we feed the deer more than we intend to. The birds, though, earn their keep by eating insects in the garden, and the deer kind of earn their keep by being beautiful and entertaining. One doe is bringing her tiny spotted fawn to the back yard every day and they scarf up any birdseed the wild birds don't eat. One thing I've never figured out about the deer is this: they largely ignore the native sunflowers and don't eat them, but when I plant improved varieties with larger flowers they'll eat the flowers while they are in full bloom, they'll eat the leaves, and they'll eat the younger, more tender parts of the stalks. I don't know why they like the improved sunflowers so much more than the native ones.

    In every garden decision I make, I have to think about the wildlife because anything that is not well-protected is going to be food for some sort of wildlife. The deer taught me quickly in our early years here just what I could not grow here because it became deer chow. Ditto for the rabbits.

    We live with that waste not, want not philosophy as well, and with prolific wildlife here, nothing much goes to waste because there is something that will eat just about any plant part I discard on the compost pile.

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