I have planted sunflowers adjacent to tomatoes, which worked out great in dry summers. However, for the last two years where Northeast gardens have been plagued by 'blight', the sunflowers only seemed to spread 'blight' to my tomatoes faster !

I've never had any problems with sunflowers self-seeding. I think that it might mainly be a problem in warmer climates, like Texas. Any that seeded under my bird feeders were easy to identify and pull if desired.

I've planted rows of them before for my birds and when I was thinking about trying to sell some of the flowers. I don't think that I got any seeds out of it though. The goldfinches are *extremely* attracted to real sunflowers. The goldfinches look PARTICULARLY stunning against a backdrop of pale yellow "Valentine" sunflowers. The picture isn't of the Valentine sunflowers, but it's the only one that I managed to take with the goldfinches.

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I did forget to mention that my garden is a raised bed and where I was thinking of planting them is in the same section as my cabbages. Would they also share the same diseases?

They are totally different families--sunflowers are Asteraceae, while cabbages and other cole crops are Brassicaceae.

I'd be hornswoggled if they shared diseases!

IME they self-seed with abandon and are a nuisance. Specially if a squirrel gets up there and starts decimating the plant.

Mine self-seed, but never very many. It may just depend upon squirrel and bird population pressure in your yard. Here, squirrels seem to strip most of the heads before the petals have even turned brown, often pulling them off the plants and chewing them to shreds. Birds clean up most of the rest promptly, so my plants never get that much of an opportunity to mature viable seeds. As they say, your mileage may vary. FWIW, sunflower seedlings are simple to control -- pull or sever at ground level, and its all over. They don't have the nine lives that many weeds have, no ability to regenerate from just roots or pieces.

I have had sunflowers in a raised bed, but I wouldn't grow the standard size again. The stem was like a tree trunk, and it was very difficult to pull when it was done. I've grown the shorter varieties, but be sure to one that will produce seeds. Some are infertile.

Great photo, Ralleia.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's Growing On?

I have had sunflowers in a raised bed, but I wouldn't grow the standard size again. The stem was like a tree trunk, and it was very difficult to pull when it was done. I've grown the shorter varieties, but be sure to one that will produce seeds. Some are infertile.

Yes, the stems ARE very sturdy! I always use a big pair of loppers to cut them down rather than attempt to pull them. The same with the woody stems of okra.

I don't mind that though, since I also grow them to generate organic matter for composting. And I LOVE to see the goldfinches on them.

Thank you for the compliment on my photo! Maybe this year I'll try to get a photo with them on a 'Valentine' sunflower--so pretty.

For me, they've self-seeded a little, but never so much as to be a nuisance. The seedlings are easy to identify. Sunflowers grow easily from seed and come in all sizes and varied colors.

You can interplant them with lettuce in early spring. The lettuce will thrive in the cool weather, and the sunflowers will provide shade as the weather heats up.

Anything that attracts squirrels to the garden is something I don't want in there.

I think I have remarkably well-behaved squirrels on my property. (Of course as soon as I post this, that'll probably change!)

I've had bird feeders, suet feeders, and grown sunflowers for years. Never has a single squirrel here tried to raid a feeder or climb a sunflower.

It's eleven acres here, and I have mature oak, walnut, and other trees, so maybe they have so much natural food that they never even bother?

I gave up on birdfeeders a few years back. Squirrels would strip a feeder, even a larger one, of seed in less than a day.

I have sunflowers that self seed every year. The surplus is very easy to pluck because the new plants are distinctive and have poor roots. Self seeding is no problem here.

My dad finds that the neighborhood deer enjoy his bird feeders.

Also, I read in "Carrots Love Tomatoes" that sunflowers give off a substance around them in the soil that inhibits the growth of other plants near bye, making it somewhat of a 'no grow zone'. Has anyone heard of this?

As part of a barrier crop strategy for seed saving, I've grown the shorter branching sunflowers in my vegetable garden. They self-seed fairly well in spite of the finches. I even help them to do so, by tossing what remains of the seed heads throughout the garden before I till. When I begin planting, I transplant the sunflowers as needed.

Flowering mallow is another good bee plant that I grow throughout my vegetable garden. It blossoms freely all season & has beautiful purple flowers, but it is not for everyone... it self-seeds heavily, and may even be perennial in warmer climates.

I've tried some of the red-flowered sunflowers, but they were poor pollen producers, so unsuitable for my purposes. Pretty though. They didn't make much seed either, which might be a good thing for those with squirrel problems. There's enough feral cats around my rural garden that squirrels are not an issue for me. And on that topic...

"Anything that attracts squirrels to the garden is something I don't want in there."

You might want to reconsider attracting goldfinches to the garden as well. When their numbers began increasing in my rural garden, I welcomed their presence as my friends. That is, until they developed a fondness for my Swiss chard, and pecked it into oblivion. They pecked the ends off some of my pea vines as well, and were probably the culprits that were pecking some of my tomatoes. Now I have to use floating row cover over chard & other tender greens to keep the finches out.

I intend to give these a shot this year. I used to have no problem at all w. 6-7' sunflowers, but these get to be twice that size! :-D

Ralleia- Beautiful picture!

We haven't had squirrel problems, either. Probably a combination of plenty of other food sources for them...and the barn kitties. Most of the sunflowers we grow are the 3' tall ones and they're really pretty in the garden. They look great with the cabbage, bush beans, tomatoes, root veggies, etc. and no problems with reseeding :)

Personally, I appreciate a little bit of color in the garden.

Note the bee at the top;)

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I'm with you ralleia.
I have two parts of a 30 acre farm, 10 acre.
On the farm are hickey, black walnut, more oaks & pines the I can count.
Never saw a squirrel in the garden.
Good thing, we eat them with gravy & biscuit here.
I am planting sunflower next to the sun chokes
(wild sunflowers)this year.

Our native roadside sunflowers seeded in my tomato bed a few years back. I left it grow by accident (was a very busy summer) and realized there were NO tomato horn worms! I figured this for a fluke, so the next year I rotated the toms and transplanted a self-seeded sunflower. Aha! NO tomato worms! Now I always plant a native sunflower or three around the tomato bed.

Self seeding is a problem, but they are easy to pull. The small city birds love the seeds in the fall. The woody stems make excellent plant stakes, cut to size, to hold up the heavy sweet peppers.

Other plants don't really like to grow around the sunflower roots, but the tomatoes don't seem to care. Don't know if the named sunflower varieties would behave differently. I'm glad I discovered this property of our native sunflower 'weed'.

I have been growing sunflowers as a color-fence around my garden but I have finally learned that they do inhibit the growth of vegetables near them. I transplanted green and red pepper seedlings into garden ground near them in May 2014, and the pepper's growth just stalled out for over 6 weeks. I decided to dig up the peppers as a last ditch effort and to my surprise the peppers exploded with growth in their new pots almost overnight. It is early August and probably too late but I'll give the peppers a new start far away from the sunflowers. I plan to move the sunflowers back from the garden edge next year.

Sun flower plants self seed. But they do not become nuisance like weeds. It is easy to pull them out .But they become a nuisance as they spread blight to Tomato plants.I usually plant them on corners or on east side of my garden.

So do big Sunflowers really "inhibit" growth of vegetables around them? I've read some vague statements to that idea, and that seed hulls inhibit growth also. Obviously, big plants probably suck all of the water around them and hog nutrients, so you would not want to want to plant anything very close, leave some space.

I had the idea to break in a new garden bed with 3 giant sunflowers, will add lots of organic material. The idea was to plant a couple Lima pole beans a few feet in front of them, and eventually the beans could climb up the bean tower and make a web between the 3 sunflowers. Last year a had a 2 Lima poles, and they were very vigorous. Dunno if this a good idea.

Short answer: ' yes'. Google allelopathy in sunflowers.

I grew green beans and lima beans in very close proximity to a patch of sunflowers and all was just fine. Now you guys have me thinking about crop rotation issues -- is there anything I shouldn't plant in the area the sunflowers were growing last year?

I read that sunflowers and their seed hulls can have a weed suppressant effect, but if all the parts of the plant are removed the problem is greatly reduced. Some claim sunflower "toxins" can prevent seeds from sprouting, similar to early spring lawn weed products that prevent weed seeds from sprouting. Some claim that the water runoff from leaves can even have a negative effect on plants nearby, like a poison.

Read most that sunflowers can bother beans and potatoes, not sure about other Solanum. Apparently fellow American wildflowers Rudbeckia and Echinacea have a resistance to sunflower "toxins".