Friday Rookie Topic: Sunflowers

I love it when my sunflowers finally start opening up  







Who else has sunflowers this year? 

Oh! How lovely! I have a few but I didn't get those seed you sent to me in the ground, so will try again next year. They are such happy flowers! I want more.

I gave some seeds to my mom. I can't even believe how tall hers are. 12' easily I'm guessing. She wanted some privacy on her deck this summer.






Well, she got privacy on her deck, but now anyone who comes down the bike path that runs next to the fence, stops and gawks lol.

 That's AWESOME!

Here are my sunflowers...They're about 11-12 feet.  The Japanese beetles shred my leaves though!

Between this thread and the one LM posted the other day have given me the "URGE". These are on my list for next season for sure. Rooster... you are the sunflower king!

RoOsTeR wrote:I love it when my sunflowers finally start opening up  







Who else has sunflowers this year? 

My first time growing them. Josh sent me some seed along with some ugly mater seeds and my big stuff banana. How do I know when to cut them down.

Kay

My sunflowers are sprouting additional flowers at the same place (the stem-leaf branch angle)  where you would pull suckers off a tomato plant.  Maybe it's common?  I've never seen this before and it looks very interesting...you see, I am easily amused.

LM, it must be the Llama poo you probably used, lol!  You have the most unique things happen which gives us all some learning experience!

Magic llama beans ?
 

Rooster's marvelous sunflowers are quite inspirational.  I love the sunflower/deck idea.  I envision next year using them as shade from the west sun.  The placement of a nearby tree only helps a little. Thanks for the idea Rooster.

llama momma wrote:My sunflowers are sprouting additional flowers at the same place (the stem-leaf branch angle)  where you would pull suckers off a tomato plant.  Maybe it's common?  I've never seen this before and it looks very interesting...you see, I am easily amused.

those are sure pretty. Ours put out multiple heads like that, not the BIG faced sunflowers, but the smaller with the red tint on the leaves. Also, we had some beautiful red sunflowers that sprouted the additional flowers too. I threw a bunch of seeds out front, hoping they'll sprout! I think the birds saw them tho lol

Thanks for your input SG, maybe the genetics have been toyed with to make them even more ornamental.  Side note, this variety seems to max out at about 4-1/2 to 5 feet.  This lets height challenged folk like me get a close up view of the darlings. 

llama momma wrote:Thanks for your input SG, maybe the genetics have been toyed with to make them even more ornamental.  Side note, this variety seems to max out at about 4-1/2 to 5 feet.  This lets height challenged folk like me get a close up view of the darlings. 

I'm gonna need a ladder.   Can you see mine in the tabletop behind me? That picture was taken last month. Seeds Josh sent me.

Kay

Wow that's really nice Kay!

llama momma wrote:Thanks for your input SG, maybe the genetics have been toyed with to make them even more ornamental.  Side note, this variety seems to max out at about 4-1/2 to 5 feet.  This lets height challenged folk like me get a close up view of the darlings. 

 Lm, yes those are shorter and produce lots of flowers on each plant.


I thought I got a flashy mix again this year, but so far mine are all the same bright yellow, in different variations...still very pretty.


 The seeds are smaller. Save em! I grow both giant and the smaller ones that have more colors and variations to spice things up a bit. I usually get a mix from like Wal Mart and just scatter them around. The pets love to lounge around and nap under the shade they provide in the summer. Lm, your sunflowers look fantastic! 

In the spring, I use wire ring I made into a circle. Mostly to keep the chickens out while they sprout and secondly, to make a nice group. Sprinkle in the seed and let em go! I do this in several places around the garden.


Wow Kay! Those are awesome!  


Can you see the bee?



I guess we all have different things that make us happy and bring us joy, but for me, there's not much better than getting up just past sunrise and wandering around my garden. Everything is so alive, fresh and magnificent! 
 I love sunflowers!

Nice! I like the little sunflower corral idea!

cheyannarach, I can't wait to try your cookie recipe.  Here's my main patch (I snuck a few into the front yard flower garden) and my first flower!





Whatever was eating my sunflowers' leaves backed off once I sprayed with hydrogen peroxide, and my plants went nuts and grew a foot overnight!

My sunflowers started to pop open a bit today.  

I didn't intend to grow sunflowers this year but it seems my kids knock some sunflower seeds out of the bird feeder or the birds did. We have 3 that are maybe a foot high and getting ready to bloom. Seeing as I have never grown them before is that height normal and if I save seeds from them for next year will they be short too?

Does anyone know how long the sunflower's allelopathic (sp?) chemicals last in the soil? If they kill everything around them, that's good to know, but if they keep on doing it years after they're gone, that's even more important to know.

Sunflowers apparently do play well with mustard seeds and morning glories, but they can be bad news for many other broadleaf species for up to five years. (See abstact below.) Now I know why the morning glories grow so well with my sunflowers at the entrance to my backyard and why the azalea on the other side of the fence is almost dead after 3 years of this arrangement.

The greatest impacts, suppression of germination, were from applications derived from the leaves and stems of the sunflowers. The exudates from the roots did not have the same effects.

This may also explain some of the poor production in the herb SFG on the other side of the fence.

The bad news is that effects were still observable 5 years after the initial period. I have no idea what to do about soil in which sunflowers have grown or how to reverse the damage done to a previously stellar azalea!  

Tomorrow I rip open my compost bin and pull out the leaves I clipped from the sunflowers this afternoon!

JSTOR wants $29.00 to download the article, but you can read it online for free.

Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are Allelopathic to Weeds
Gerald R. Leather
Weed Science
Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan., 1983), pp. 37-42
Published by: Weed Science Society of America
Article Stable URL: [url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4043564 10.2307/4043564]http://www.jstor.org/stable/4043564 10.2307/4043564[/url]

Abstract: Laboratory, greenhouse, and field studies were conducted to determine the allelopathic potential of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) cultivars to suppress weed germination and growth. Germination of wild mustard [Brassica kaber (DC.) L.C. Wheeler var. pinnatifida (Stokes) L.C. Wheeler] seeds at 25 C in undiluted aqueous extracts of sunflower leaf tissue was inhibited 75%, but was stimulated by up to 150% at 10- and 100-fold dilutions. Stem-tissue extracts at all concentrations stimulated wild mustard seed germination. The germination response of other weed species varied with the sunflower cultivar and concentration of tissue extract. In sand culture, leachates of dried sunflower leaf and stem tissue inhibited broadleaf-weed seedling growth, but had little or no effect on the growth of grass weeds. Sunflower root exudates inhibited seedling growth, but were less effective than leaf and stem tissue leachates. Germination of weed seeds was unaffected by root exudates. Over a 5-yr period, weed density and percent ground cover increased less in field plots of sunflower than in control plots.

I do find that if I leave the pile of sunflower seed hulls under the bird feeder that it inhibits the grass somewhat but I think in my case it has been because of the depth of the pile. However, it is perfectly safe to add these hulls to a hot compost pile as the compounds break down quickly compared to a cold static compost heap.

The cited information by writer cpa, the experiment used a concentrated aqueous solution of the sunflowers parts and to my mind doesn't relate to the minimal amount of sunflower parts that may end up back in the home garden. If you are cultivating sunflowers commercially crop rotation is advised.

http://plantfacts.osu.edu/faq/rss_display.lasso?id=171

Guess I did the blooper of the Summer with sunflowers, planted mine right in the center of 1 bed surrounded by squash and chard and others.  Did the sunflowers really cause stunting issues I don't know for sure.  But here's what happened. The squash performed but not as good as others in different boxes. 
I normally have very large chard and it is growing but seems very stunted so hmm, next year will keep sunflowers outside the boxes. Strawberries and borage did very well next to sunflowers.

My chard (and beets)  isn't doing great this year either. I try to keep my sunflowers in the flower beds, mostly because I don't want them shading the vegetables...

Hoping to plant mine in buckets for portability advantages.