N&C Midwest - September 2017

Well, we are still in the midst of a mini-heat wave here!  Weird timing for sure!  No complaints here, as soon it will be freezing cold....

Stuff is winding down for me.  Need to get out and do clean up, but will wait on cooler temps.  My garlic came from Pinetree Saturday!

Harvested the sunflowers this week. The milk carton is for size reference.

Nice! What variety?

sanderson wrote:  Nice!  What variety?

Thanks. The variety was 'Mammoth '.  They weren't kidding.

llama momma wrote:

sanderson wrote:  Nice!  What variety?

Thanks. The variety was 'Mammoth '.  They weren't kidding.

Wow ... definitely nice and huge!

LM, beautiful!  

 Did you wait until the fleshy flowery parts fell off before cutting? I have a big Mammoth out back and it is drooping big time.  How did you harvest exactly?  I don't want to lose all the seeds to birds at this point, although they will probably get them mid winter!

Scorpio Rising wrote:LM, beautiful!  

 Did you wait until the fleshy flowery parts fell off before cutting? I have a big Mammoth out back and it is drooping big time.  How did you harvest exactly?  I don't want to lose all the seeds to birds at this point, although they will probably get them mid winter!

The squirrels often get our sunflower flower/seed heads. One day they are there and the next morning they are gone ... the whole head vanishes and only the stem and leaves remain.

I've seen articles online that say when the flower petals fall off you can harvest.  My experience says Rubbish.  The seeds in the center of the head were not plump and finished developing.  So here is what works for me ---  wait until the head droops over and watch the backside of the flower head it will turn from green to yellow and watch closely till it parts of it turn WHITE.  White is what you look for, Why?  By this time the seeds in the center of the head have finally matured.  Go ahead and rub off all the remnant flower bits that remains on top of the seeds and you'll see what I mean.  I say WATCH it closely because sometime after the heads bend over I found little dark particles that looked like mouse droppings(?).  It's as if the little stinkers were running up those 8 foot stalks and checking for the right time to try and harvest the tasty seeds themselves! Maybe it was some other little critter but I think it was mouse droppings, blah.

llama momma wrote:I've seen articles online that say when the flower petals fall off you can harvest.  My experience says Rubbish.  The seeds in the center of the head were not plump and finished developing.  So here is what works for me ---  wait until the head droops over and watch the backside of the flower head it will turn from green to yellow and watch closely till it parts of it turn WHITE.  White is what you look for, Why?  By this time the seeds in the center of the head have finally matured.  Go ahead and rub off all the remnant flower bits that remains on top of the seeds and you'll see what I mean.  I say WATCH it closely because sometime after the heads bend over I found little dark particles that looked like mouse droppings(?).  It's as if the little stinkers were running up those 8 foot stalks and checking for the right time to try and harvest the tasty seeds themselves! Maybe it was some other little critter but I think it was mouse droppings, blah.

OK, I will do that!  Thanks, LM!

TD, that happened out front with one of my mini-Mammoths!  I went out one day a while back and they had taken the entire flower off!  Gone!

llama momma wrote:I say WATCH it closely because sometime after the heads bend over I found little dark particles that looked like mouse droppings(?).  It's as if the little stinkers were running up those 8 foot stalks and checking for the right time to try and harvest the tasty seeds themselves! Maybe it was some other little critter but I think it was mouse droppings, blah.

Big grasshoppers have poop that looks similar to mouse droppings to me.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:

llama momma wrote:I say WATCH it closely because sometime after the heads bend over I found little dark particles that looked like mouse droppings(?).  It's as if the little stinkers were running up those 8 foot stalks and checking for the right time to try and harvest the tasty seeds themselves! Maybe it was some other little critter but I think it was mouse droppings, blah.

Big grasshoppers have poop that looks similar to mouse droppings to me.

Hmmm...i have those....