The Sunflower Stop's Home Guide To Growing Sunflowers

Sunflowers are some of the most enjoyable and easiest flowers to grow. Children love them. Adults love them. If you have ever grown a tomato plant, then growing a sunflower plant will be a snap. This guide should help anyone get started with growing their own colorful sunflower garden.
Good Luck
Getting Started
It is very important to carefully consider the types of sunflowers you intend to grow and where and how you intend to grow them. I remember our first sunflower crop. We thought of everything and planned a large sunflower garden along our back fence line. Tall varieties in the back, mid height varieties in the middle, and smaller varieties in the front. Everything was perfect.
If you visited our about sunflowers section you learned that the heads of the sunflower tend to follow the predominate direction of the sun. Well, the fence line where we planted our garden is located in the east section of our lot. We live in Southern California so the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. When the taller varieties grew above the fence line the flowers followed the rising sun and we looked at the back of the flowers from our family room window for several weeks.
Needless to say planning is very important. Carefully select your seeds reading all of the information on the seed packs. Pay attention to the height of the plants, and the time to bloom, and the type of flowers. For example, you do not want your back rows to be spent when your front rows are just beginning to bloom.
Consider whether you are planting for cut flowers, or planting to harvest and roast seeds for eating. Maybe you want to plant your sunflowers in pots or create a barrier of sunflowers between you and your neighbors. Seeds for every type of planting are readily available. You just need to have some idea about what you want from your garden.
Sunflower seeds, in a number of varieties, are available at most local garden nurseries. If you are not near a nursery then mail order catalogs are always a good choice for finding the seeds you need. I have found Burpee to have a large selection of sunflower seeds and they seem to offer new varieties every year. If you simply cannot find the seeds you are looking for email me and I will do my best to find them for you.
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Planting
Ok, you have planned your sunflower garden, bought your seeds and you are ready to plant. Stop! There are several things you may want to consider before you plant.
Seed Germination
Not all sunflower seeds are created equal. Open your package of seeds and lay the seeds out on a table and you will notice that they are all different sizes. One way to ensure even growth and the strongest fastest growing plants is to germinate your seeds before planting. By germinating your seeds before planting you can pick out the seeds that will provide the best chance of success. Typically, the first seeds to germinate will be your strongest best thriving plants.
Here is what you need to germinate your seeds prior to planting.
A plate or saucerPaper towelsSpray bottle filled with water
Follow the directions shown.

Step 1
Gather Your Supplies

Step 2
Take a paper towel and fold it in half and then half again. Dampen the paper towel spraying it with water. Spread your seeds out across the damp paper towel.


Step 3
Take a second paper towel and fold it in half and then half again just like the first one you did. Place the second paper towel on top of your seeds. Dampened the paper towel on top of your seeds spraying it with water.
Step 4
Check the paper towels every day to make sure they are damp. NOT WET. Seeds soaked in water will grow mold or drown and die before ever germinating. Check your seeds every few days for germination by pulling back the top paper towel and looking at seeds.

Step 5
After a week or two your seeds should begin to sprout. The first seeds to sprout will more than likely will be your strongest and fastest growing plants. Note that not all of the seeds have sprouted. Plant the sprouted seeds first. Wait a few days on the remaining seeds to see if they in fact sprout. If not, throw them away and start a new batch.

Step 6
It's time to plant. Go ahead and place your seeds about 1/4" deep in the soil and cover. Place your seeds 12" to 18" apart. Water real well soaking the soil.
Soil Considerations
Sunflower plants are like any other plant. The better the soil the more heartier and robust the plant. Our experience shows that sunflowers like a soil that drains well and contains a lot of mulch. About two weeks before planting I mix a bit of steer manure into the soil where I am going to plant.
Sunflowers do well in many different soil conditions, so I would not get too hung up on your soil conditions. If you have plants that are doing well now in an area where you want to plant your sunflowers, then your sunflowers will do just as well.
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Sun and Water
The operative word here is sun. Like its name the sunflower needs plenty of direct sun; a minimum of 6hrs a day to grow healthy plants. If you plant sunflowers out of direct sun light they will stretch for the sun. They will become so spindly stretching for the sun eventually they will fall to the ground. We recommend full sun for the better part of the day to grow strong healthy sunflowers.

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Fertilizing

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Pests

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Harvesting

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