I need some help/advice with planting/growing sunflowers at our home outside of Baltimore (zone 7). I've tried planting from seed every year for the past 5 years and got viable (although stunted) plants once.

Questions:

1. Should I be starting the seeds inside, and if so when?
2. Should I start them in individual pots? Any specific set-up?
3. When should I move them outside? Any good method for doing this? I seem to lose most of my plants at this stage.
4. Any suggestions on where to get good seeds. I really, really want to get at least a few of the very large (tall) plants though am looking to plant a variety as well.

Any other help would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

get some potting media ... wet it ... fill 2 cups...

insert one seed in each ...

do once a week for 6 weeks ...

take notes ... and then decide when and how for you area ... for next year ...

when the soil starts warming.. plant the rest outside.. where you want them ...

the key ... is to understand that you need not do all at once .... and to experiment ....

look to the package.. for how long to germinate.. and then take todays date.. plus that.. and then find out how long until you can put them outdoors in your zone ...

and then someone will come along and give you the short answer.. lol

ken

There is some really authoritative advice on the Tips and Advice page of the SunflowerSelections.com website. Particularly relevant is their paragraph 4, which I will quote here:

"Many growers like to start their plants early and transplant them to their gardens. It is very important to realize that sunflower plants make a central tap root that likes to grow straight down into the soil. Maximum growth is achieved when this process occurs without disturbance. Plant scientists know that growing conditions such as stress and day length as early as from three weeks after emergence can trigger the plants to flower earlier. So, if you like to germinate your plants in trays under lights be aware that transplanted plants will ALMOST ALWAYS be shorter in height when they flower than if they were planted directly into soil. And if your want to grow the REALLY GIANT plants like KONG and AMERICAN GIANT HYBRIDS, you will get the best growth by planting them directly into the soil in the garden so that their central tap roots are never disturbed."

SunflowerSelections is a good source of many varieties of sunflower seeds, but they aren't the only good source. For example, Pike's Peak is offered by Burpee.

I ordered a packet of Pike's Peak, and they indeed do have large seeds. This is the packet that I received, with its entire contents dumped out on a piece of graph paper, with a 1-inch grid, divided into tenths of an inch, so you can judge the seed sizes fairly accurately.

As you can see, I didn't get any inch-and-a-half seeds, but a few did approach one inch, and they are large seeds. They are rather expensive. I got the advertised 20 seeds for my $4.95, which makes them about 25 cents per seed. You definitely couldn't afford to plant an acre of these. However, I may order a couple more packets. I also plan to order Kong and American Giant Hybrids from Sunflower Selections. Incidentally several seed companies, including Burpee, also offer seeds that they get from Sunflower Selections, or their parent company, NuFlowers, LLC. But Sunflower Selections seem to be the "experts", so I think I will order directly from them. However, apparently Burpee gets Pikes Peak from some other source. Pike's Peak is "new".

ZM
(not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)