Thanks, I'm glad you've enjoyed my video, this is my concise sunflower guide, I also have a very in depth series of videos about how to grow the tallest possible sunflowers.
We have a waterfall on our pool and theres a burm on the back where we usually plant zinnas every spring. This summer out of nowhere some big what looked like a weed was growing right in the middle and we were gonna pull it out but I decided not to then all of a sudden it started looking like a sunflower. Some bird must of dropped the seed we use to feed them and 3 huge sunflowers grew from different plants. These were huge, the flower had to be a a foot wide it was beautiful. Needless to say we will do this every spring now. Thank you birdie for the great idea where ever you are.
I'm glad I found you from my search for Scottish gardeners. I'm a bit further north than you in Caithness but apart from anything that doesn't like wind I should be able to grow the same things as you. I'm just starting out hence trying to find content I can relate too.
Excellent the way you explained how to grow a sunflower. I found that really helpful. Now I know where I went wrong . Been planting my seeds wrong way . Pointy end up😱 I am off to plant my seeds. 😃
Hi! I love your video! Can’t wait to do this with my child! Quick question: the first batch of soil for germination, do you mix with compost or any soil will do? How often do i have to water it? Thank you for reading my comment!! ❤❤❤❤
The hilarious thing is, I feed the squirrels sunflower seeds and they dropped one in one of my flower pots and it's germinated. That's how easy they germinate. I've now decided to actually intentionally grow 🌻
Yes they self seed very easily, and as squirrels sometimes bury them for later, but then forget where they buried them, they help to plant them for you.
My son LOVES sunflowers. He is neuro divergent, and I do anything that helps him connect to the "real" world. The two times we tried growing them, though, the squirrels had a fine time doing what squirrels do.😢 This was devastating to him, so we haven't tried since. I'd love a way to make this work for him. I don't want to use anything harmful to environment etc. Have you any suggestions? Recently I've used an essential oil spray (cinnamon etc - strong smelling) for blackberries I'm trying to establish. I dont mind reapplying it. I have two tiny new spots that seem to be getting left alone. Prior to that, the bunnies had chewed close to a dozen strong new transplants to nothing. So.... it's working i think? Would something like this work for sunflowers maybe? Have you any other suggestions? Thanks much!
Sunflowers are such great plants for kids as they can see them grow from a small seed into large plants in just one summer. Is it the young plants that get killed or the flowers? If its the young plants then your best growing them indoors until they are about a foot high and then plant them out as larger more established plants. If its the flowers then its a little more tricky, yes you can try strong smelling essential oils as this will put them off eating them. Another option is chilli extract, but make sure your son doesn't touch the flowers with chilli extract as it will cause a burning sensation. Another less pleasant option is to use garlic extract or urine extracts from predator animals. Another option is ultrasonic scares which have motion sensors, this cannot be heard by us adults, however I know from experience that unfortunately the noise can be unpleasant for children.
The main cause is too little light, also high temperatures can cause it as well. Make sure your plant gets as much sunlight light as possible, and is in a cooler location. A lack of wind can also cause this, when young make sure it's exposed to some wind, this will cause it to grow less tall, but with thicker stems. If you don't have much wind then use a fan or shake the plant a few times a day. But avoid wind once it's a tall plant otherwise it will get blown over.
Thanks for the info unfortunately every time I plant sunflowers they die is there a solution and is it a plant that should exposed to the sun always or to the dark
Sunflowers like a lot of sunshine, so make sure they are in a location where they can receive as much as possible. Its hard to say why your plants are always dying, there could be a number of different reasons, but either over or under watering is the most likely cause, especially if they are grown in pots.
what will happen if the seed doesn't pointing down? While I was sowing my sunflower seeds, one of the seeds flip and changed its direction inside the hole 😅😅
The root will grow up at first and then will point down and grow normally, it might slow down the time it takes for the plants leaves to appear and if planted too shallow the root might stick out the soil, but usually the plant sorts itself out and it should be just fine.
It depends on what type of sunflower you want to grow, garden centres or online seed retailers are the best place to look. There are two main types of sunflower, single stemmed or multi-stemmed, single stemmed will grow tall and have one very large flower, multi-stemmed will branch and have lots of flowers over a longer period, although the flowers are usually smaller. You can also get dwarf sunflowers which are only 1 foot tall, giants that are over 12 foot tall and there is also a wide variety of colours, mostly of yellows and reds.
It's hard to tell by looking at the seeds, you will have to wait until it flowers to know what variety it is. Single flowered varieties are much more common, as are yellow ones, so chances are it's one of the single flowerd yellow varieties.
QUESTION: I will be planting Mammoth Sunflowers in ground(clay soil) and want to use a solar drip water system (max 1.3L/min). How many gallons do you water each plant and how often? I was reading that you should only 'deep' water them once or twice a week. Suggestions are very welcome. Thank you
It will depend a bit on your climate and also the time of year, I would deep water once or twice a week at around 2 gallons per watering until they are about two foot tall. From two foot to four foot tall water at about 4 gallons per watering. Once at six foot I would water every other day at 3 gallons and continue at that rate, unless its a really big plant, at which rate I would consider increasing it to 4 or 5 gallons. If you have rain though or cool cloudy weather you won't need to water as much, they are fairly drought tolerant, but will wilt and grow much shorter without a good water supply. Also if you have clay soil and you find that the water is just running off the surface you may need to use mulch or reduce the flow rate of your drip line and have it on for a longer duration to compensate. I also have an in-depth video series on my channel about how to grow the biggest possible sunflowers which you may find interesting.
@@Gardeningat58N So we are looking at upwards of 5Gal per plant every other day once mature. Wow... so if I had 10 plants (which is what I was planning), we are talking about 50 gallons of water every other day?? WHOA! Lol.
@@utrutr6013 yes if you have large plants and it's hot and sunny they will be very thirsty, they can do with much less water, but they won't grow as big.
If you soak the seeds in a bowl of water overnight the seeds will sprout within 2 days sometimes as early as the morning of the 2nd day you will see them peeking out of the dirt with a little dirt on top of them.
Excellent video, clear and concise without any annoying music. Thank you👍
Thanks, I'm glad you've enjoyed my video, this is my concise sunflower guide, I also have a very in depth series of videos about how to grow the tallest possible sunflowers.
We have a waterfall on our pool and theres a burm on the back where we usually plant zinnas every spring. This summer out of nowhere some big what looked like a weed was growing right in the middle and we were gonna pull it out but I decided not to then all of a sudden it started looking like a sunflower. Some bird must of dropped the seed we use to feed them and 3 huge sunflowers grew from different plants. These were huge, the flower had to be a a foot wide it was beautiful. Needless to say we will do this every spring now. Thank you birdie for the great idea where ever you are.
Sunflowers always put a smile on my face. Thanks for the info.
Same for me, I always grow lots in my garden, I love how tall they grow, I use them as a back drop to my garden beds.
@@Gardeningat58N Good idea. I may plant some behind my tomatoes.
I'm glad I found you from my search for Scottish gardeners. I'm a bit further north than you in Caithness but apart from anything that doesn't like wind I should be able to grow the same things as you. I'm just starting out hence trying to find content I can relate too.
Excellent the way you explained how to grow a sunflower. I found that really helpful. Now I know where I went wrong . Been planting my seeds wrong way . Pointy end up😱 I am off to plant my seeds. 😃
Superb…going to follow this now 👍🇪🇺
Hi! I love your video! Can’t wait to do this with my child! Quick question: the first batch of soil for germination, do you mix with compost or any soil will do? How often do i have to water it? Thank you for reading my comment!! ❤❤❤❤
The hilarious thing is, I feed the squirrels sunflower seeds and they dropped one in one of my flower pots and it's germinated. That's how easy they germinate. I've now decided to actually intentionally grow 🌻
Yes they self seed very easily, and as squirrels sometimes bury them for later, but then forget where they buried them, they help to plant them for you.
That's my kind of gardening! Non committal.. lol
Yes and get more free seed! To plant
Squirrelly buffet
Thank you brother
Great video😊
What a fantastic video best on UA-cam, had to subscribe to the channel, what fertiliser did you use or recommend please?
What temperature for germination?
Nice ❤
My son LOVES sunflowers. He is neuro divergent, and I do anything that helps him connect to the "real" world.
The two times we tried growing them, though, the squirrels had a fine time doing what squirrels do.😢 This was devastating to him, so we haven't tried since.
I'd love a way to make this work for him. I don't want to use anything harmful to environment etc.
Have you any suggestions?
Recently I've used an essential oil spray (cinnamon etc - strong smelling) for blackberries I'm trying to establish. I dont mind reapplying it. I have two tiny new spots that seem to be getting left alone. Prior to that, the bunnies had chewed close to a dozen strong new transplants to nothing.
So.... it's working i think?
Would something like this work for sunflowers maybe?
Have you any other suggestions?
Thanks much!
Sunflowers are such great plants for kids as they can see them grow from a small seed into large plants in just one summer. Is it the young plants that get killed or the flowers? If its the young plants then your best growing them indoors until they are about a foot high and then plant them out as larger more established plants. If its the flowers then its a little more tricky, yes you can try strong smelling essential oils as this will put them off eating them. Another option is chilli extract, but make sure your son doesn't touch the flowers with chilli extract as it will cause a burning sensation. Another less pleasant option is to use garlic extract or urine extracts from predator animals. Another option is ultrasonic scares which have motion sensors, this cannot be heard by us adults, however I know from experience that unfortunately the noise can be unpleasant for children.
@@Gardeningat58N do you have a video or can you explain how to use/where to apply the essentials oils or chilli extract? thanks! xx
Mine get too tall too quick often fall over, what to do
The main cause is too little light, also high temperatures can cause it as well. Make sure your plant gets as much sunlight light as possible, and is in a cooler location. A lack of wind can also cause this, when young make sure it's exposed to some wind, this will cause it to grow less tall, but with thicker stems. If you don't have much wind then use a fan or shake the plant a few times a day. But avoid wind once it's a tall plant otherwise it will get blown over.
How to Surya mukhi flowers
Thanks for the info unfortunately every time I plant sunflowers they die is there a solution and is it a plant that should exposed to the sun always or to the dark
Sunflowers like a lot of sunshine, so make sure they are in a location where they can receive as much as possible. Its hard to say why your plants are always dying, there could be a number of different reasons, but either over or under watering is the most likely cause, especially if they are grown in pots.
what will happen if the seed doesn't pointing down? While I was sowing my sunflower seeds, one of the seeds flip and changed its direction inside the hole 😅😅
The root will grow up at first and then will point down and grow normally, it might slow down the time it takes for the plants leaves to appear and if planted too shallow the root might stick out the soil, but usually the plant sorts itself out and it should be just fine.
What kind of sunflower seed should I buy?
It depends on what type of sunflower you want to grow, garden centres or online seed retailers are the best place to look. There are two main types of sunflower, single stemmed or multi-stemmed, single stemmed will grow tall and have one very large flower, multi-stemmed will branch and have lots of flowers over a longer period, although the flowers are usually smaller. You can also get dwarf sunflowers which are only 1 foot tall, giants that are over 12 foot tall and there is also a wide variety of colours, mostly of yellows and reds.
My seeds do germinate but i dont know which type of sunflower it'd be because they are small black seeds
It's hard to tell by looking at the seeds, you will have to wait until it flowers to know what variety it is. Single flowered varieties are much more common, as are yellow ones, so chances are it's one of the single flowerd yellow varieties.
QUESTION: I will be planting Mammoth Sunflowers in ground(clay soil) and want to use a solar drip water system (max 1.3L/min). How many gallons do you water each plant and how often? I was reading that you should only 'deep' water them once or twice a week. Suggestions are very welcome. Thank you
It will depend a bit on your climate and also the time of year, I would deep water once or twice a week at around 2 gallons per watering until they are about two foot tall. From two foot to four foot tall water at about 4 gallons per watering. Once at six foot I would water every other day at 3 gallons and continue at that rate, unless its a really big plant, at which rate I would consider increasing it to 4 or 5 gallons. If you have rain though or cool cloudy weather you won't need to water as much, they are fairly drought tolerant, but will wilt and grow much shorter without a good water supply. Also if you have clay soil and you find that the water is just running off the surface you may need to use mulch or reduce the flow rate of your drip line and have it on for a longer duration to compensate. I also have an in-depth video series on my channel about how to grow the biggest possible sunflowers which you may find interesting.
@@Gardeningat58N So we are looking at upwards of 5Gal per plant every other day once mature. Wow... so if I had 10 plants (which is what I was planning), we are talking about 50 gallons of water every other day?? WHOA! Lol.
@@utrutr6013 yes if you have large plants and it's hot and sunny they will be very thirsty, they can do with much less water, but they won't grow as big.
If you soak the seeds in a bowl of water overnight the seeds will sprout within 2 days sometimes as early as the morning of the 2nd day you will see them peeking out of the dirt with a little dirt on top of them.
Have you tried soaking the seeds before sowing?
My seeds nvr germinated
Lack of germination is usually either, compost too wet, compost dried out very quickly, or old seeds.
Oh my “sunflower’s” germination looks nothing like the one in the video 😬
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