Sunflower Question

Bunnie1982

Hi all!
This is a new area of the forum to me, just starting to get the "greenfingered" bug.

We are having a sunflower competition at work and at present mine is tallest having grown 7.5 inches in 3 weeks from seed (they are indoors at present)

In comparison to everyone else, my sunflowers are quite leafy while the others seem very stalky.

Do I need to prune these leaves back or do I leave them as they are?

Many Thanks :cool:

conradmum

Leave them as they are. Sunflowers don't need pruning and the leaves are helping it grow.

Nice idea for a work competition!:beer:

Antispam

Sunflowers need very little attention other then watering/some feed and staking. Make sure you dont stake to close to the plant. I grow them every year and last year I got one around 13feet.

I keep seeds for next year but they need drying out as they get oily

Bunnie1982

Thank you both.

How tall would you normally leave them before staking? Mine have got quite thick stems on them at the moment and are very sturdy

Antispam

I leave them aroudn 2 feet. Sometime use them small stakes you get in wilkos then use large bamboo canes around 8-10 foot and occasionally stick a small one on to it with duck tape if it gets real big

Slugs love them when young so put some slug pellets down until they get to a foot or so

I usually put my in 10" pots but they get very dry in full sun so need watering often

Westywoodpecker

Thank you Bunnie for the thread, as it's answered questions I was going to ask! I've not grown sun flowers before & didn't realise that they needed staking so early. I'm also going to bring them in from the slugs

surfsister

great guns the secret i find with sunflowers and comps is to keep re-potting into bigger pots often we won a local sunflower comp and re-potted almost weekly! Also lots of water.

peter_the_piper

Surely a better comp for work is the shortest sunflower. How do you get them through the doors at work? LOL.
ps I've got some under 6" high just coming into flower (did cheat a bit though)

Bunnie1982

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Surely a better comp for work is the shortest sunflower. How do you get them through the doors at work? LOL.
ps I've got some under 6" high just coming into flower (did cheat a bit though)

I think as soon as they are big enough they are going outside in the sunny spot we have behind the building.