sunflower - questions

the headbanger

Dear all

I have a few sunflower related questions.

1. Should I remove the suckers that appear (like you would on a tomato plant)

2. If i replant the suckers will that by any chance grow into another sunflower.

3. I planted seeds of an "american giant" variety and I noticed the seeds were huge (probably half the size of a peanut). I planted them in one of those multi-seedy-compartmenty trays and now I am thinking the compartment is probably way too small for the seed. Not really a question I guess but i would welcome comments.



Thanks

the headbanger

Here is plant and said sucker

looksee

1. Not necessary - they do grow leaves up the stems.
2. No
3. As soon as you see signs of life, preferably when there are two real leaves as against seed leaves, but they may already be too big at that stage, carefully lift the entire contents out of the seed pot and put straight into a bigger individual pot, water. If you have only just planted them you could move them immediately but be careful not to break off any roots or shoots that may be appearing. This is not recommended procedure but with seeds as big as sunflowers its hard to do too much damage.:)

the headbanger

Many thanks

i meant to ask another question. I had pretty much 100% success with my lasr batch of seeds such that i ran out of big pots. I (stupidly) planted more than one in the same pot (i just couldnt throw those little guys away). Those plants appear so far to be doing just fine so far although not as big as their one-plant-per-pot friends. Should i be really ruthless and cut away the other flowers in order to leave one per pot? Or is the damage kinda done now?

Conology

Hi
I had a very high Sunflower plant last year - well over 7 feet high and it had several flower heads.
I didn't know they grew that high actually so it was a great surprise for me when I saw it growing up so high.
I didn't pull off any side shoots and it grew just fine.
Unfortunately I didn't save any seeds and would love to get a few again - is that the variety name - "American Giant" ?

Thanks

the headbanger

Conology wrote: »

Hi
I had a very high Sunflower plant last year - well over 7 feet high and it had several flower heads.
I didn't know they grew that high actually so it was a great surprise for me when I saw it growing up so high.
I didn't pull off any side shoots and it grew just fine.
Unfortunately I didn't save any seeds and would love to get a few again - is that the variety name - "American Giant" ?

Thanks

i think the american giant variety grow like 3-5 metres which is crazy but i just like watching stuff big

many of the varieties i have seem grow 1.5-2metres which would probably equate to 7ft ish but the american giant is probably not the one

redser7

Yes, you need to be ruthless. Or to put it another way be Cruel to be kind. It's called thinning.

Sgt Pepper 64

To grow really big sunflowers, you need to sow them direct into the ground and pick the right type.
They need the sunniest brightest place you can find
They are also very greedy, so feed them often
A couple of gallons of fertilizer direct to the roots (Use a pipe or bottle buried with it)
They can grow upto 4 feet below the surface alone!

redser7

Dig a generous hole and put in plenty of manure or compost.