Sunflowers

JSinMO United States of America
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Sunflowers

Post by JSinMO »

The ground is a little wetter than I’d like it to be to plant with more rain on the way, but the calendar says it’s time to put the seeds in the ground. So I took advantage of the nice afternoon and got to work.
The area I cleared then plowed with the Cub has settled back down so I started by working it up with the disc.
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It was just dry enough not to make clods so it should be ok.
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I got dad’s old planter out and got ready. I think he bought this in the early 1980s and I found the tag on it. This one was sold by Sears & Robuck.
I filled the hopper and pushed it alone. I made 7 crooked rows, had to dodge some torn roots still laying around!
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I didn’t bother to soil test this patch, since it’s been covered in honey suckle and small trees for years I’m just going to assume it pretty deficient. I broadcast spread some 12-12-12 fertilizer fairly heavy.
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Not really sure if that’s the best way to apply it in this situation but what the heck, anything is better than nothing at this point!

So now it’s fingers crossed to see if we get some sunflowers sprouting up! If we get nothing but weeds, I’ll just mow it off and try again! At least I know the spot in the yard where I spilled a bit of fertilizer will be nice and green!
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propane1 Canada
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Re: Sunflowers

Post by propane1 »

Sorta heavy disks for the Ford. Did a nice job. How long before they sprout. ?

Noel
JSinMO United States of America
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Re: Sunflowers

Post by JSinMO »

propane1 wrote: Fri May 03, 2024 10:08 am Sorta heavy disks for the Ford. Did a nice job. How long before they sprout. ?

Noel
You’re right Noel! That is a Ferguson disc, I think it’s 7 foot, and I have the gangs set for an aggressive cut. The ford will pull it, but it’s about all the 2N wants! I usually pull it with either the Farmall M or my 830 Case. But the M has the mower on it for hay and the Case has a cylinder I need to fix so the Ford gets to do it with a little grunting!

I think we should know if these sunflowers are going to do something in 10 to 15 days. This is the first time I’ve really put an effort into growing them so that’s just a guess. Thinking back I did sow some in the bottoms years ago but the river came up and drowned them before they could even start.
JSinMO United States of America
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Re: Sunflowers

Post by JSinMO »

What do you know, they started to pop out of the ground! A little spotty at the moment and I may have to thin some places out, but the sunflowers are a growing
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MattA United States of America
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Re: Sunflowers

Post by MattA »

Any idea what kind you planted? We grew some that my kids planted in pots at the local library. They grew (in the ground) to 7 or 8' tall.
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Re: Sunflowers

Post by JSinMO »

MattA wrote: Fri May 10, 2024 11:13 pm Any idea what kind you planted? We grew some that my kids planted in pots at the local library. They grew (in the ground) to 7 or 8' tall.
These are called Peredovic sunflowers. I got them at the local COOP. I told them I wanted a variety for game birds. Not sure how tall these will get.
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Re: Sunflowers

Post by JSinMO »

Quick sunflower update. There are some that didn’t come up. I suspect it may have been a little too wet when I planted but its still a nice stand. They are almost waist high and after doing some reading I’m expecting them to be 4 to 5 foot high at their peak.
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I need to hoe the weeds out if I ever get an extra 5 minutes!
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DavidBarkey Canada
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Re: Sunflowers

Post by DavidBarkey »

@JSinMO How are you sunflowers doing . Ours are doing well I think .
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I am 5'6" for reference. They range between 9-10 foot . and base of stalk as bigg as my wrist.
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Re: Sunflowers

Post by MattA »

David your sunflowers look great. Do you know what variety you planted? How far did you space those out?
Last edited by MattA on Wed Aug 21, 2024 9:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sunflowers

Post by MattA »

Here are our sunflowers... the kids and I planted a mixed variety from lowes which were supposed to grow to about 4.5'. We planted about two dozen directly in the ground because we really didn't have time to start them in the house. We had maybe 50% germinate and most of those were either eaten or stepped on by my little helpers. Anyways heres our progress:

Early July we returned from vacation to find brown beetles devouring our sunflowers. I removed the beetles and treated with some sevin I had. The larger plants survived.
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The surviving sunflowers grew well until late July when the biggest suddenly broke. It has continued to grow suprisingly well laying down (not pictured).
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Thunderstorm last week took out the other big sunflower. It split in several directions. Some survived, some died. Kids had fun cutting them up with clippers.
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Pretty disappointing results this year. I've got one late volunteer on the other side of the house that's maybe 18" tall so far. Next year I'll plant the giant variety again. Amazing how last years grew 2" a day. The kids will have more fun cutting these up with clippers this fall.
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