Hi Bonnie,

It's my first time to plant sunflowers. I direct sowed them around late May. Most of them are 10 inch to 1 foot tall. It grows very fast that even my castor bean sprouted earlier, it's taller.

I'm guessing that the weather probably has a lot to do with it. I find 'piles' of sprouts that the squirrels hide (I bet they look and say: "I know I put the seeds RIGHT HERE!"), but I usually find them when the weather has been really warm.

If you've had the kind of cool, crappy weather that we've had here in NH, they may just be succumbing to that. I know last year I had great results with the sunnies, but we had consistent warmth and they went like gangbusters, wanting out of their containers pronto. I planted earlier than I thought they'd like, but they all made it. Again, lots of sun.

Your DS ones might have been too wet; possibly rotting before sprouting.

I'd probably opt to change the time of day that I transplanted them- doing them early in the morning instead of evening. What's the germination time? Do you have time to do another batch?

Try planting outside again next year. Soak the seed overnight before planting the seed outside but by no way necessary and then water them. Plant before a rain might help a little in some areas.

They are difficult to transplant. Some of the more experienced can do it but disturbing the roots creates problems. So if you want to try transplanting again attempt transplanting as soon as you can after the first true leaves appear.

Rereading the OP what jumps out at me is the first sentence or so where it says something planted outside and none germinated. Why?

Next year get some wild bird seed and you will get a few thousand sunflower seed for a dollar. Plant an few hundred outside and see what happens.

Albert, I'll definitely try to plant out earlier next time. These sat in their containers for quite a while, because I had so many other things to plant out. I'm sure that I damaged some of the roots, since they were all tangle up together and I had to separate them when I planted them out.

On the ones direct sown, I'm certain they didn't rot. I live in a high desert climate, so too much moisture is never an issue here. Maybe they germinated, but were eaten by something, like a cutworm, before they came up. I've not had much luck direct sowing beans and peas either, so I usually WS or SS, and then transplant.

I have a few seeds left, maybe I will try to direct sow a few more...

Well I will say "this is how I plant out sunflowers". Then you can take it w/a grain of salt.
I soak the seed for a few hours. Then take a stick a poke a hole about the size of my finger and 1 1/2" deep. Drop the seed in. I don't cover or any thing. Most always they come up. If not they have been eaten by the bunnies.
Good luck. After they have come up. I brush off some seed later in the fall and they come up on their own in the spring most of the time.
Bonnie

I germinated mine in cups. Once they were 8-12" tall, I planted them deep like I would tomatoes. I've got 5 of the 18 remaining. They're about 7-8' tall now.

I have fairly good luck with starting sunflowers in newspaper pots.
The pots are about two inches across and 3.5 inches long. I fill them with potting soil and push in a seed just enough that the top of the seed is covered. Depending on the outdoor temperature I might put the pots in a plastic bag while the seeds germinate.
When the seedlings are large enough to handle (around when they have their first true leaves, though sooner is fine too) I dig out a hole where they are to be planted, watering the spot first if the ground is dry (aim for moist, not soaked). When I plant the seedling I unwrap the paper (though you don't have to do that) and sit it in the middle of the hole (which is around the depth of the root ball), and fill the dirt in around it. To help things settle I'll watter the spot a little.

Another way to start them is to sandwich the seeds in damp paper towels against the side of a glass or in a plastic bag. When you see roots just plant them out roots down with a half inch or so of dirt covering the top of the seed.
If those known-to-be-sprouted seeds don't come up, or die soon after, then something is eating or killing them.

All of my sunflowers were WS! Did absolutely nothing special! Transplanted them from WS jug into smaller pots until they grew somewhat before planting out into the garden.

{{gwi:398798}}

In 6 years I've never had transplant shock in Sunflowers in either the ws'sown seedlings or digging and transplanting self-sown seedlings. I've always transplanted them no later than 1st set of true-leaves....more often in the seed-leaf stage. How big are you seedlings when you transplant?

I've had good germination the past few years with sunflowers - I buy those cheapo seeds for 4/$1 from the dollar store.

From what you've said it sounds like a couple things might be happening, critters for one, and possibly root rot - which could still be a problem, even in the desert, if you have poor soil drainage. Another issue, could be not enough water - if it's so warm where you live you might need to water in the morning AND the evening to keep the seeds from drying out.

I ws'ed my sunflowers for the first time this year in late march, and that worked great for me, but I've also had great luck with direct sowing. I guess you just have to keep experimenting until you find what works for you.

I spring sowed sunflowers, Jade and Teddy Bear, and planted 25 seedlings last Sat. evening. They were maybe only 3" tall at planting, but looking good. Some critter(s) ate almost all by Sunday am. A few seedlings were in hiding yesterday, but this am - ALL gone!!

A few are remaining in containers and I'll wait until they are 8-9" tall, like token.

I had sprinkled rabbit deterrent, so I'm thinking these were voles??

What's odd is the self sown sunflower seeds have become 3' tall plants, RIGHT next to the area where these new seedlings were.

Are the more exotic sunflowers tastier??

GRRRRR - I was SO imagining Jade sunflowers along my fence. Now it seems impossible.