Growing sunflower might very easy, even for those who are new to gardening. Not only they will look beautiful, but you will also enjoy the sunflower seeds as snacks when it is time to harvest. If you want to grow the sunflowers in your garden, here are 5 tips that you can follow.
Tips 1: Choosing the Best Site to Plant
Sunflower is basically the easiest flower to plant since it can grow in any type of soil. But, if you want to make them grow better, you can choose the acidic to alkaline or with pH 6.0 to 7.5.
Make sure that the soil drains well because if the soil is too wet, the sunflower will be rotten. You also need to make sure that the sunflower gets enough sun because it is called sunflower for a reason.
Tips 2: Planting the Sunflower to your Garden
You can plant either the seeds or plant, but the plant will grow much faster than the seeds. Before you plant the sunflower, make sure that the soil temperature is warm enough, for around 55 degrees to 60 degrees F.
Give the space for the seeds for at least 6 inches and cover them with at least ¼ inches of soil.
Tips 3: Watering the Sunflower
After you plant the seeds, you need to keep watering them in 7 to 10 days to make the soil moist. The seeds will sprout in the next 10 to 14 days. When the sprout appears, you need to regularly water it in 20 days since it will be very helpful to encourage root growth.
After the plant grows taller, water the sunflower only when the soil is dry. Make sure that you don’t give them lots of water since they won’t grow well.
Tips 4: Taking Care of the Sunflower
The sunflower doesn’t really require a great care and fertilizer. They can grow well up to 6 feet in three months. But, you need to prevent this to happen by giving slow-acting granular fertilizer to encourage bigger flowers.
Then to prevent weeds and give more evaporation, you can spread a thin layer of organic material to the soil, or about 2 to 3 inches. If the sunflower grows more than 3 feet tall, you can add some supports by using stakes. You just need to tie the sunflower loosely to the stakes with soft materials, like cloth.
Tips 5: Harvesting the Seeds
When the harvest time approaches, like when the back of the flower heads have turned into yellow or brown, you can collect the sunflower seeds by cutting the flower heads.
Place it under the sun or hang it to make it dry and you can collect the seeds easily. You can enjoy the seeds for your snacks, or you can plant them again to grow more sunflowers.
Growing the sunflower can be very easy since all you need to do is make sure that you get the perfect place to grow this flower. Besides, you also need to give the best care to the sunflower to make sure they grow perfectly in your garden.