If you want more info, remember we have the Epic Gardening blog with 1000+ in-depth articles and WAY more particulars about each plant, including sunflowers: www.epicgardening.com/growing-sunflowers/
Hey Kevin! You never cease to empress me with your knowledge. Sunflowers are my favorites besides orchids. Had no ideas There’s so many varieties. Thx so much
Hy pro tip sunflower roots go up to 25 feet deep same with corn average is 10 to 15 feet though. Ps watermelon have 5 to 9 feet but tend to be 7 feet deep if not watered every day or other day with bolth of them
Hubby grows them every year along the fence along the farm behind us. This year he grew 30 for our 30th anniversary! I wish I could share a photo with you, they’re stunning!
Now tat is a man that truly cares for his wife. Hold him tightly. I am currently trying to get a girl to be my girlfriend, and she loves plants and flowers. Here's the thing, she is flirty with me, but when I want to hang out with her, she never texts back. Daamit, I had plans to marry her in the near future, raise a family in the countryside where I live, and she would get to grow endless flowers, oh, and I would occasionally buy her flowers. For now, I am better off trying not to think about her, and enjoy my life.
Tried last year to grow sunflowers twice. I would put the small sunflower out and the next day, the top was eaten off by a bunny. Tried twice this year and the same thing happened. Three months later, went out to my garden and there was a sunflower 🌻. It's almost ready to open up. FINALLY, I have my sunflower 🌻.
I love growing sunflowers, my dad & I grew them & really enjoyed them! He passed away the end of 2022, he loved gardening which has propelled my love for it too! I have good memories with sunflowers 🌻
May your dad rest in peace💛, me and my dad grew sunflowers together as well so it has a very special place in my heart, my dad passed away too in 2019. So happy to see someone sharing the same valuable memory💛
2 Years ago my neighbor and I decided to get a small pack of sunflower seeds and drop a few in between our bushy plants, we had no idea how large sunflowers were and they grew as tall as 10 feet! And they lasted a few months before dying and leaving us with multiple sun sunflower heads.
You know how I grew sunflowers this year? My birds 😂 I place Black Oil Sunflower Seeds in my feeders and the ones that have fallen off grew into the most beautiful sunflowers ALL OVER my backyard. Some were small while most were tall with huge heads and petals! So my birds planted them for me 🥰
From someone up north, I'm totally fascinated with the self seeding sunflowers from the prior year! I had only planted 8 last year. This year over 50 came up, and very early on. The seedlings got hit by several frosts, got a late snow burying them over 3"... And were unphased and grew into what's been the most incredible display! I have had hundreds of blooms from mid June and they are still going strong with no signs of slowing down! They came up in containers out front (nowhere near where I planted the few last year) and I saved 20 of those (transplanted great, I just pulled em out and popped them in where I wanted them!), but left some to bloom out front. They just fill my life with so much joy! The amount of bees it draws in are incredible. They are just alive with them. The hummingbirds have been loving them, and the gold finches finish up the seeds. I can't even imagine what I'm going to be dealing with next year! 😅😅😅😅
I love this! In my neighborhood growing up there was a guy who would plant rows and rows of sunflowers in his front yard every summer, it was beautiful. And now I grow my own!
I've counted up to 5 pollinators on a sunflower head at once, and gold finches love them. My favorite sunflowers are the surprises from under the bird feeder!
My soil has been compacted from our horses and the sunflowers did so amazing! 🌻🌼The stems also break down to be an amazing mulch for putting nutrients back into soil.
Thank you, Kevin!! I Grew sunflowers for the first time this year. Now have seeds to sow for next year and some for my chickens. I’ve heard them called the ultimate survival food, as all parts are edible. Watched a video with someone using the fiber inside the stalk as flour. I saved the stalk to use as poles for trellises next year. Going to grow LOTS more sunflowers next Spring!!!
I grew sunflowers for the first time this summer and they are so rewarding to grow! I love that they attracted pollinators from all around the neighborhood. Thank you for giving me more info about them! I’m likely growing them again next year.
I had an epic struggle with sunflowers this year - between hungry neighbourhood deer and wind gusts knocking down top-heavy branches, every blossom felt like a victory!
I had struggles this year too in 9b AZ. Had strong monsoons for almost a month. The heavy rains and long cloudy weeks were not kind to them. Still alive, but they got beat up pretty bad.
If you’re having problems with bugs eating away at the sunflower leaves I found a tip that put a stop to it. Create a mixture of black pepper and cinnamon in a spray bottle. The bottle did not work for me as it became clogged, but I put the mixture in a very wide bowl and submerged each and every leaf. It was more time consuming but really does work. Last year was the first time I ever planted sunflowers and lost about half until finding out this hack.
"Direct sow. Save the entire head." hahaha! I think the squirrels in my yard just applauded this video. I always have sunflowers growing in my yards because I have bird feeders. I'm not foolish enough to think that *I* might be the one eating the seed. Sunflowers are my "distraction crop"!
My dad loved sunflowers and i too love them. i always make plans to grow them every year. We have extremely clay soil. They never fail to grow. I love that they will grow darn near anywhere. At least in my experiences.
I love to grow sunflowers in a new garden bed to prepare the soil. It makes it even compacted soil super nice for the next crop. I’ve grown carrots and beets after sunflowers and it’s worked beautifully.
I know! My soil has been compacted from our horses and the sunflowers did so amazing! 🌻🌼 Deff going to try different types of sunflowers, an incredible plant. The stems also break down to be an amazing mulch for putting nutrients back into soil.
Can you grow sunflowers next to a porch? About 3 to 4 x 5 or 6 feet space . How do you prep the soil if it’s in a lawn, people with disabilities different abilities looking to spread cheer ? With sunflower power, activities, exercises, experiments, and lessons.
@@authenticalyssa Can you grow sunflowers next to a porch? About 3 to 4 x 5 or 6 feet space . How do you prep the soil if it’s in a lawn, people with disabilities different abilities looking to spread cheer ? With sunflower power, activities, exercises, experiments, and lessons.
I really appreciate the humor they put into the videos. Their content is very helpful and full of information and the humor helps break it up and makes the information not so dry and boring
Eight feet tall is amazing!! I’m gonna try to grow sunflowers this summer because the sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower. Their resistance against Russia’s invasion inspired me to get into gardening. I bought the seeds from Home Depot today. I’ll have to wait a little while to plant them but I’m excited!!
I direct sowed them for the first time this year. Had problems with something eating the sprouts. Used little dome shaped cages, this fixed that and then they came in like gang busters. Things then nibbled on the leaves, but no matter how much got eaten of the leaves, flower production was fine. I like butterflies, so I didn’t try to stop leaves getting munched.
First time growing sunflowers this year. On the package information was they'll grow to around 7ft,it was perfect since I wanted them mostly just for decoration for shorter perennials. They've actually grew to 13 ft 😂😂
Wow! You must get a lot of rain where you are. Mine are always dwarfs no matter what the package says, I think because they don't get enough water to really thrive.
@@colleendemaio it did rain but not much,I had to water everything every two, three days. And I use fertilizer (natural) intended for tomatoes. Maybe that's why they grew so tall
new to your channel man and I want to say thank you! I bought my house 2 years ago and my backyard and front lawn is pretty big but empty and watching your videos have been a blessing and now i can say I am into gardening lol.
Very nice work! I will be trying these for the first time this growing season. I am in Zone 8a, so I am working on trying to time my Mammoth’s and Teddy Bear’s in my flower bed for multiple reasons.
I cured the stalks of my sunflowers. The stalks got so thick that they were basically as solid as bamboo. Now hard as wood . Really strong if they're the taller, larger variety; definitely something to think about if using sunflowers as a way to bring nutrients into the soil and growing cheap stakes for plants like legumes and tomatoes. Beware though, that sunflowers can attract more aphids and mealybugs, and leave a very large root ball behind (it's almost impossible to yank them out of the ground by the time they mature).
Cut down to the ground and leave the root ball in to rot through the winter. I did that with all my plants in my raised beds and all the roots added the organic matter back into the soil. Sunflower roots are excellent for breaking up clay soil.
Total newbie to growing anything but always wanted to grow sunflowers. Fingers crossed I can get them to grow and super excited to try my hands at this gardening thing. I want my backyard to be a oasis for my family.
Sunflowers are my favorite. And you won't believe it.....I grow them on the north side of my house (2 story house) and the sun goes so high in the summer and my sunflowers do very well all summer long. My sunflowers turn their heads with the sun. I plant different seeds for different sunflowers. Thank you for your videos:)
This was my first year growing a garden! We had a terrible hail storm that would have wiped out all my tomatoes, if I hadn't planted a pollinator bed with sunflowers beside them. About half of my sunflowers were damaged but my tomatoes survived. The sunflowers that were left are always covered in pollinators and I have a nice stash of homemade sauce. Thanks for all the gardening guidance!
I grew sunflowers for the first time this year. I AM OBSESSED! I have taiyo, autumn beauty, mammoth (that got 9 inches across its face), Mongolian (by far the biggest), lemon queen, red, hopi black dye, and titan. I also put fantayzia between them to get multi headed ones in there. I hope that will cause some cross pollinating for some funky hybrids next year.
Dynamic accumulators... THAT is an awesome description! I did not know that they improve the soil until this video. My biggest problem is that the wood-chucks/ground squirrels seem to just chew them off and leave them laying on the ground. What variety produces the most prolific pollen through the growing season? That's the greatest benefit to my honey bees. Thank you, and a thumbs up! Much appreciated.
This is insane…. I just ordered some sunflower seeds a week ago and was searching for tutorials on your channel (because I get reliable info here), I was a little sad I couldn’t find any… BUT WOW the universe works in mysterious ways, I have no words 😂😂
Kevin!!! The sunflower (or “soniashnyk”) is Ukraine's national flower and has been grown on its central and eastern steppes since the middle of the 18th century, cultivated for its seeds, which are eaten as a snack, or crushed into oil, a key ingredient in cooking and an export product of vital importance.
Sunflowers do follow the sun until their heads get heavy, and they face towards the east when the flower blooms because they station themselves to face the first sunlight in the morning. They can also take radiation out of the soil. Sunflowers symbolize loyalty, adoration and longevity.
I had two gorgeous sunflowers come up last year (planted by birds!) and I was so impressed with how long the stalks stayed in after they died and how firm/stable they were in the ground that now I want to grow them to be trellis supports next year. What I also thought was really cool about them was when I deadheaded the blooms (they were branched ones with more than one flower), I noticed that they develop this AMAZING like terpene/resin smell that could legit be perfume.
Perfect timing! (not in terms of season). My husband wants sunflowers around the house we're moving into and I've been resisting. After watching your video, I'm convinced and he'll have you to thank. Looking forward to planting different colored varieties next spring. P.S. our neighbor at the new house is a beekeeper -- bet she'll be happy with us planting sunflowers.
We did sunflowers when I was a kid in our back yard in the Bronx. After we moved out of that house it took me almost 20 yars but as an adult in Florida I'm finally planting sunflowers again 😁
First year urban homesteading and our sunflowers are 6 feet tall! Neighbors love them as they are the happiest flowers with long petals that flow in the wind. I absolutely love them. Hoping the seeds are tasty!
Aaaah this is one of my favorite videos of yours. The history portion is cool. I'm glad you pointed out the pollen less varieties are kind of pointless unless you're doing cutflowers. Please do other flowers! 🌻
I grew them for the first time this summer. So easy to direct sow. The pollinators love them. We even let the volunteer ones from birdseed grow. I grew them for show and for the birds to enjoy once they're done.
I love the summer and fall in california, there's sunflowers planted EVERYWHERE! Actually, i just went out to water my sunflowers and a bee greeted me! Sunflowers are soooo rewarding and easy
I transferred potatoes and their soil from a patch that had two sunflowers in it. Now I have like, a hundred😆😅 it’s so beautiful and wonderful to look out my kitchen window and see the bumblebees and hummingbirds at work, and these little sunshines shield the lower plants from the hot sun. I’ve harvested twenty so far, many more to come!! 🥰
@@georgewilliams2410 Good, but TIRED lol. Got back from a four day UTV event, it was 70 degrees when we left the Willamette valley, and came back to 95 degree weather after a very cold and wet spring😅 Now I have to go water SO many things lol😰😅
Maximum sunflower are the best sunflower because you sow the seed once and it keeps coming up every year. You could also grow them with the tuber and if i am not mistaking you can eat the tuber
Thanks for the info about sunflowers, and Don't be sad about the size of your head. "We are all perfect and beautifully made." Just like the beautiful and bountiful harvest you provide for us to see.😊
Those spent sunflower greens, like the corn stalks, can also be fed to ruminant livestock/pets. I've bought some very expensive toys for my rabbit that had a sunflower stalk, and he went crazy over it, chewing it apart. It's an extra step before getting it into the garden as manure, but I love how there are so many crops that can be dual-purpose for plant food and turned into pet food or eventual meat input from a homestead. And don't forget that if you're pressing your own oil from the seeds, that seed meal is a high protein supplement for both ruminant and non-ruminant animals, your chickens or other birds, and pigs
I grew some sunflower microgreens this spring and early summer. The leftover soil, roots and other food scraps were going into this metal oval container I had lying around the yard since we didn't have a real compost, we just took it all to our parents. I also had some of their compost leftover I brought over for mixing with potting soil in there. Anyways, the last batch of microgreens I did, I didn't wait for the shorter ones to grow after harvesting the tall ones, we were moving to an apartment and didn't want to deal with extra things to move. Our partners took the compost mixture to their place and the flowers were already starting to get bigger, but now there are 5 full sunflowers in a laundry basket since tin with multiple heads... Long story, thank you for reading lol
As one large-headed lad to another, keep your chin up ✊🏻(Seriously though, thank you for all the epic gardening knowledge you've shared on this channel, I'm excited to finally start putting it into practice now that I have a yard!)
I have sunflowers in my front yard. 2 years in a row now. We are always thinking small flowers as a border. But everyone does that. I like yo be different. Last summer, looking out my living room window and seeing butterflies, bees and cool looking birds every day!
I love the trivia about them as well as the information about how to grow them. Will make me look Jeopardy Smart when I tell people that stuff in my garden.
Hi Kevin! I’ve heard from flower farmers that even though pollen-less sunflowers lack pollen, they do have nectar and are therefore not completely useless to bees! I can also attest that I have seen bees on my pollenless sunflower cutting garden 🐝 🌻
Hey you! I was about to say this too. And some pollenless varieties will make a little pollen when they get older. PS Kevin, strawberry blonde @3:47 is a pollenless variety.
you can also eat the inside of the stalk when its at a certain point (near harvest time ish ) I sauté or fry the "meat" from the inside of the stalk and its like eating buttery artichoke heart. It blew my mind. There is a window on getting that meat before it becomes like a rubbery foam. Youll have to play with the harvest times.
I first saw your channel awhile ago when watching Charles Dowding before some of my accounts got hacked while I was living on some land. Prayers for flowers to make a comeback. I’m a California gal and grew up with a grandfather in the industry. Thank you for your videos.
I grew sunflowers for the first time this year. I have 10 Mammoth sunflowers with heads as big, or bigger than dinner plates. Some of them grew 9 and 10 feet tall. I was sad to see the heads wilt over, but I realized they were too heavy to stay upright. Almost ready to harvest. What beautiful flowers!
That's actually pretty awesome, as my kitchen window faces west and I planted sunflowers directly in front of it. Now we'll see if it actually happens and they face my window.... Stay tuned.
I had a neighbor who loved to grow giant sunflower and leave the heads on all winter. It was for the bluejays which he loved. This year I'll be trying the much smaller Teddy Bear variety, partly for the sake of my grandson. But I also look forward to the plants contribution to the garden as well.
Great timing I am about to plant out a mix of different coloured/sizes of sunflower seeds here in Australia. I plan to grow some out for us to dry and eat. Our native parrots (mostly Cockatoos) also go crazy for sunflower seeds. Back when we lived in a townhouse and only had a courtyard backyard, my sunflowers were the only thing that brought Cockatoos into the garden. I didn't realise they were such great bio-accumulators. What an easy chop and drop.
Omg I totally had a dream where I met Kevin, and he was 5'2". And I was like, "Wha-?! On your channel you always say you're tall!" And he looked around to make sure no one was listening, and then whispered that he makes everything in his garden miniature so that he looks bigger in comparison, and to please not tell anyone. ;'D So basically these sunflowers are probably not all that impressive.
I am growing sun flowers for the first time this year. I love the idea of using sunflowers as a trellis. I just learned about this method a few weeks ago and I am trying it in my own garden. I’m a RUclips gardener too. I think I may have already messed up. My pole beans and morning glories that I planned to grow up the sunflower and growing so much faster then my sunflowers! Do you have any advice on what I should do now? I may make a trellis out of branches but I’d love to see this work out as is. Thank you for all your help. You have taught me something new. I hope we can continue to support and learn more from each other.
Thank you! I accidently grew a sunflower this year, because I had a birdfeeder above my raised bed. It is big and has a huge flowerhead. Also it grows a babyflower from the stem now. I love it.
Due to the quality of care my multi head sunflowers get. Some can get 12 feet tall and be as bushy as a dwarf fruit tree. I routinely break off lower branches once they get so tall. Doing this also makes them valuable as shade tree of sorts in the garden. After some time even the single head varieties can go wild and produce multi head offspring. Especially if they cross pollinate. Every year I have thousands of volunteer sprouts to strategically thin out. They tend to sprout in early to mid spring in 7b. They don't follow the plant after the last frost like on seed packets. Aside from the wild ones I also plant Skyscraper. I have no problem using them as a hedge or like a living fence. The wind likes to bend and break some of them. I find myself supporting really tall ones that start to fall over.
We are growing 2 in our house Lol They are doing pretty well so far. I used boxes to build a deep enough base. They are about 5 ft tall now 😅 kids made me do it🤪💚
Sunflowers are great to grow - they improve soil, can provide shade for other plants and protect the soil and since they have a long taproot, they can withstand drier conditions while shading the soil below, helping to keep moisture in the soil for other plants.
@@spencerpeterson8695 Same, but a whole hedge of them, one at a time--like in an old WB cartoon. Our gophers must think we're so great, to keep planting all this wonderful food for "them"
I grew the big sunflowers and also Shoc O Lat sunflowers. They were so fun! I got in trouble by HOA but I cleaned them up when they started to die back. Too bad I couldn’t harvest anything. And it’s cool that all my sunflowers face where the sunrises!
I sure did this year! 9 seeds Rouge Royale (Botanical Interest), 9 huge sunflowers with multiple flower heads! And the bonus is that they are supporting my Luffa vines (finally got some!!). Side note: These are maroon-orange sunflowers but I got a few bright yellow ones that grew! Like a box of chocolates…..
I recently read that sunflowers face east so that the early morning warmth from the east sun attracts bees. I also leave the mammoth stalks to dry up in the ground over winter as they make a great first layer in my compost pile.
This was my first year growing sunflowers and the golden bear variety has been the cutest! ill def grow them again next year, and maybe a variety to eat!
Will be growing lots of sunflowers this year. They get attacked by snails and birds when they're younger in my garden so I like to keep them under a small clear plastic covering until they get a 3 or 4 inches tall. I've been putting the seeds in just laying them flat and they still come up just fine. I've heard that you can make tea out of the leaves and use the stalk to make flour.
Good info! I'm in Virginia growing some Russian mammoths for the first time. I've never grown anything so big and beautiful, I have noticed mine facing east also. I happy for the harvesting tips you provided.
I like the new house. The containers look good. I used to follow you when I had just started growing microgreens. I am not creating a channel to lend to our niche..... I appreciate you my friend.
I thought growing sunflowers was a no-brainer, but this was great info. I didn't know there are varieties that do nothing for pollinators. This year the frost in the spring and the long drought during the summer stole the flowers from the pollinators in my area. We have some flowers in a flowerbed and every morning they are full of bees, so I would like to grow flowers next year and it's a great plus if I can eat some part of them too. Great video. Thank you!
I'm so happy this video came out! I sowed some teddy bear sunflowers several weeks ago and they're budding now, and I also started some pacino and ring of fire sunflowers
If you want more info, remember we have the Epic Gardening blog with 1000+ in-depth articles and WAY more particulars about each plant, including sunflowers: www.epicgardening.com/growing-sunflowers/
Hey Kevin! You never cease to empress me with your knowledge. Sunflowers are my favorites besides orchids. Had no ideas There’s so many varieties. Thx so much
Hy pro tip sunflower roots go up to 25 feet deep same with corn average is 10 to 15 feet though.
Ps watermelon have 5 to 9 feet but tend to be 7 feet deep if not watered every day or other day with bolth of them
Hahahahaha… sunflowers ARE too cool for school, and they are my favorite flower. Thank you for this video! Very informative.
Hey.... doves always eat mine so I have never seen any get so big. 😢
What is BT???
Hubby grows them every year along the fence along the farm behind us. This year he grew 30 for our 30th anniversary! I wish I could share a photo with you, they’re stunning!
Thats wholesome, such a romantic man
@@MultiSnowberry he’s pretty awesome. 🥰
That is possibly the cutest thing I've ever heard.
Share it!
Now tat is a man that truly cares for his wife. Hold him tightly. I am currently trying to get a girl to be my girlfriend, and she loves plants and flowers. Here's the thing, she is flirty with me, but when I want to hang out with her, she never texts back. Daamit, I had plans to marry her in the near future, raise a family in the countryside where I live, and she would get to grow endless flowers, oh, and I would occasionally buy her flowers. For now, I am better off trying not to think about her, and enjoy my life.
Tried last year to grow sunflowers twice. I would put the small sunflower out and the next day, the top was eaten off by a bunny. Tried twice this year and the same thing happened. Three months later, went out to my garden and there was a sunflower 🌻. It's almost ready to open up. FINALLY, I have my sunflower 🌻.
This is currently happening to me... I'm not sure if it's bunny/birds/squerel.. I don't know what to do
Bunnies ate 2 of my 3 seedlings, 😭 I'm growing them inside now
Bunnies ate all my sunflowers this year!
I thought deer ate mine, but probably rabbits too.
Squirrels are my nemesis when planting sunflowers😕
I love growing sunflowers, my dad & I grew them & really enjoyed them! He passed away the end of 2022, he loved gardening which has propelled my love for it too! I have good memories with sunflowers 🌻
May your dad rest in peace💛, me and my dad grew sunflowers together as well so it has a very special place in my heart, my dad passed away too in 2019. So happy to see someone sharing the same valuable memory💛
My dad's garden inspired my love of gardening too. He used to say that as he was leaving home in the morning the sunflowers would wink at him.
2 Years ago my neighbor and I decided to get a small pack of sunflower seeds and drop a few in between our bushy plants, we had no idea how large sunflowers were and they grew as tall as 10 feet! And they lasted a few months before dying and leaving us with multiple sun sunflower heads.
You know how I grew sunflowers this year? My birds 😂 I place Black Oil Sunflower Seeds in my feeders and the ones that have fallen off grew into the most beautiful sunflowers ALL OVER my backyard. Some were small while most were tall with huge heads and petals! So my birds planted them for me 🥰
Ooh nice to know that the birdseed is viable
what a wonderful gift from your birds haha
Amazing!!! 🌸🌺😊😊❤️
This is exactly what is happening in my yard right now. 😅
@@SoundsLikeMaestroOr, Earth - to human - to bird - to Earth - to human...♾️❤
From someone up north, I'm totally fascinated with the self seeding sunflowers from the prior year! I had only planted 8 last year. This year over 50 came up, and very early on. The seedlings got hit by several frosts, got a late snow burying them over 3"... And were unphased and grew into what's been the most incredible display! I have had hundreds of blooms from mid June and they are still going strong with no signs of slowing down! They came up in containers out front (nowhere near where I planted the few last year) and I saved 20 of those (transplanted great, I just pulled em out and popped them in where I wanted them!), but left some to bloom out front. They just fill my life with so much joy! The amount of bees it draws in are incredible. They are just alive with them. The hummingbirds have been loving them, and the gold finches finish up the seeds.
I can't even imagine what I'm going to be dealing with next year! 😅😅😅😅
☺️sounds like a joy
Hello Kristen how are you doing today?
What variety was this?
Wow if 8 turned into 50 😅you should have about 400 😂
My sunflowers just bloomed! They're over 10 feet tall. My favorite part is sta ding st the base and looking up at them. Its truly amazing
I love this! In my neighborhood growing up there was a guy who would plant rows and rows of sunflowers in his front yard every summer, it was beautiful. And now I grow my own!
Hello Rachel Blain how are you doing today?
Do you always have that beautiful smile on your face?
I've counted up to 5 pollinators on a sunflower head at once, and gold finches love them. My favorite sunflowers are the surprises from under the bird feeder!
I love those "pop up" sunflowers!!! I try to let as many as I can grow....I have them in some of the strangest places!!
My soil has been compacted from our horses and the sunflowers did so amazing! 🌻🌼The stems also break down to be an amazing mulch for putting nutrients back into soil.
Thank you, Kevin!! I Grew sunflowers for the first time this year. Now have seeds to sow for next year and some for my chickens. I’ve heard them called the ultimate survival food, as all parts are edible. Watched a video with someone using the fiber inside the stalk as flour. I saved the stalk to use as poles for trellises next year. Going to grow LOTS more sunflowers next Spring!!!
😎
I grew sunflowers for the first time this summer and they are so rewarding to grow! I love that they attracted pollinators from all around the neighborhood. Thank you for giving me more info about them! I’m likely growing them again next year.
Yes! They attract so many. They’re really wonderful. What a joy🥰
Yes they attract flies and all I get are flies in my kitchen
@@Ryanrulesok that stinks, so sorry! I’ve never had that experience with them, but sorry that’s what you’re experiencing.
Me too! Sadly I haven't seen any pollinators yet :(
@@Ryanrulesok Ahh, I hope not. I have too many flies already. I planted 9 sunflowers for the first time, so we'll see.
I had an epic struggle with sunflowers this year - between hungry neighbourhood deer and wind gusts knocking down top-heavy branches, every blossom felt like a victory!
Damn! Glad you had a few!
I had struggles this year too in 9b AZ. Had strong monsoons for almost a month. The heavy rains and long cloudy weeks were not kind to them. Still alive, but they got beat up pretty bad.
@@rebeljack4183 aw sad to hear. Mine got spared from the monsoon because it's right next to a wall
Hope you have better luck next time!
That deer would have been turned to roadkill mighty fast if I were in that situation lol
all my plants are getting stakes this year! Hurricanes can do their best but im not having it this year!
If you’re having problems with bugs eating away at the sunflower leaves I found a tip that put a stop to it. Create a mixture of black pepper and cinnamon in a spray bottle. The bottle did not work for me as it became clogged, but I put the mixture in a very wide bowl and submerged each and every leaf. It was more time consuming but really does work. Last year was the first time I ever planted sunflowers and lost about half until finding out this hack.
I’m going to try this. 😊
I take it you also add water to this mixture, right?
What if I boil cinnamon sticks and peppercorns? Let cool then use spray bottle?
Or a mixture of dawn dish soap, white vinegar and water.
I'm going to do this on my roses and tomatoes 😊thank you.
"Direct sow. Save the entire head." hahaha! I think the squirrels in my yard just applauded this video.
I always have sunflowers growing in my yards because I have bird feeders. I'm not foolish enough to think that *I* might be the one eating the seed. Sunflowers are my "distraction crop"!
Hello Teal Bruce how are you doing today?
Do you always have that beautiful smile on your face?
My dad loved sunflowers and i too love them. i always make plans to grow them every year. We have extremely clay soil. They never fail to grow. I love that they will grow darn near anywhere. At least in my experiences.
I love to grow sunflowers in a new garden bed to prepare the soil. It makes it even compacted soil super nice for the next crop. I’ve grown carrots and beets after sunflowers and it’s worked beautifully.
I know! My soil has been compacted from our horses and the sunflowers did so amazing! 🌻🌼 Deff going to try different types of sunflowers, an incredible plant. The stems also break down to be an amazing mulch for putting nutrients back into soil.
Great idea! I’d love to try this!
Can you grow sunflowers next to a porch?
About 3 to 4 x 5 or 6 feet space .
How do you prep the soil if it’s in a lawn, people with disabilities different abilities looking to spread cheer ?
With sunflower power, activities, exercises, experiments, and lessons.
@@authenticalyssa
Can you grow sunflowers next to a porch?
About 3 to 4 x 5 or 6 feet space .
How do you prep the soil if it’s in a lawn, people with disabilities different abilities looking to spread cheer ?
With sunflower power, activities, exercises, experiments, and lessons.
I really appreciate the humor they put into the videos. Their content is very helpful and full of information and the humor helps break it up and makes the information not so dry and boring
This is awesome I’m harvesting my sunflowers now. With how wet it’s been in West Texas they have grown like weeds. My best one got 8ft tall!
Well done!
Eight feet tall is amazing!! I’m gonna try to grow sunflowers this summer because the sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower. Their resistance against Russia’s invasion inspired me to get into gardening. I bought the seeds from Home Depot today. I’ll have to wait a little while to plant them but I’m excited!!
I direct sowed them for the first time this year. Had problems with something eating the sprouts. Used little dome shaped cages, this fixed that and then they came in like gang busters. Things then nibbled on the leaves, but no matter how much got eaten of the leaves, flower production was fine. I like butterflies, so I didn’t try to stop leaves getting munched.
One year I had sunflowers reached almost to my roof! Double my height of 5'9"! Since then, not so good! But every sunflower is a joy!
Hello Rebecca how are you doing today?
Do you always have that beautiful smile on your face?
First time growing sunflowers this year. On the package information was they'll grow to around 7ft,it was perfect since I wanted them mostly just for decoration for shorter perennials. They've actually grew to 13 ft 😂😂
Wow! You must get a lot of rain where you are. Mine are always dwarfs no matter what the package says, I think because they don't get enough water to really thrive.
@@colleendemaio it did rain but not much,I had to water everything every two, three days. And I use fertilizer (natural) intended for tomatoes. Maybe that's why they grew so tall
Whoaaaaa that’s huge lol
new to your channel man and I want to say thank you! I bought my house 2 years ago and my backyard and front lawn is pretty big but empty and watching your videos have been a blessing and now i can say I am into gardening lol.
Very nice work! I will be trying these for the first time this growing season. I am in Zone 8a, so I am working on trying to time my Mammoth’s and Teddy Bear’s in my flower bed for multiple reasons.
I cured the stalks of my sunflowers. The stalks got so thick that they were basically as solid as bamboo. Now hard as wood . Really strong if they're the taller, larger variety; definitely something to think about if using sunflowers as a way to bring nutrients into the soil and growing cheap stakes for plants like legumes and tomatoes. Beware though, that sunflowers can attract more aphids and mealybugs, and leave a very large root ball behind (it's almost impossible to yank them out of the ground by the time they mature).
Cut down to the ground and leave the root ball in to rot through the winter. I did that with all my plants in my raised beds and all the roots added the organic matter back into the soil. Sunflower roots are excellent for breaking up clay soil.
Thanks for the advice. I was wondering what to do with the roots! I would imagine that shorter varieties are less of an issue in that regard?@@umiluv
You are SO good at youtube. You are so naturally charismatic on camera. I’m always blown away by the quality of your videos. Thanks for what you do!
Total newbie to growing anything but always wanted to grow sunflowers. Fingers crossed I can get them to grow and super excited to try my hands at this gardening thing. I want my backyard to be a oasis for my family.
Grew some after seeing this video a few months back. They are all over 5 ft tall and still have yet to flower. An amazing and rewarding plant.
Just today i found my sunflower buds are starting to open!! Very excited to see them in bloom
Sunflowers are my favorite. And you won't believe it.....I grow them on the north side of my house (2 story house) and the sun goes so high in the summer and my sunflowers do very well all summer long. My sunflowers turn their heads with the sun. I plant different seeds for different sunflowers. Thank you for your videos:)
Been gardening for years and I've never grown sunflowers! This will be my first year, so thanks for this video. Very informative!
I have a sunflower journal project and this really helped! Thanks!
This was my first year growing a garden! We had a terrible hail storm that would have wiped out all my tomatoes, if I hadn't planted a pollinator bed with sunflowers beside them. About half of my sunflowers were damaged but my tomatoes survived. The sunflowers that were left are always covered in pollinators and I have a nice stash of homemade sauce. Thanks for all the gardening guidance!
I grew sunflowers for the first time this year. I AM OBSESSED! I have taiyo, autumn beauty, mammoth (that got 9 inches across its face), Mongolian (by far the biggest), lemon queen, red, hopi black dye, and titan. I also put fantayzia between them to get multi headed ones in there. I hope that will cause some cross pollinating for some funky hybrids next year.
Dynamic accumulators... THAT is an awesome description! I did not know that they improve the soil until this video. My biggest problem is that the wood-chucks/ground squirrels seem to just chew them off and leave them laying on the ground. What variety produces the most prolific pollen through the growing season? That's the greatest benefit to my honey bees. Thank you, and a thumbs up! Much appreciated.
This is insane…. I just ordered some sunflower seeds a week ago and was searching for tutorials on your channel (because I get reliable info here), I was a little sad I couldn’t find any… BUT WOW the universe works in mysterious ways, I have no words 😂😂
Kevin!!!
The sunflower (or “soniashnyk”) is Ukraine's national flower and has been grown on its central and eastern steppes since the middle of the 18th century, cultivated for its seeds, which are eaten as a snack, or crushed into oil, a key ingredient in cooking and an export product of vital importance.
Sunflowers do follow the sun until their heads get heavy, and they face towards the east when the flower blooms because they station themselves to face the first sunlight in the morning. They can also take radiation out of the soil. Sunflowers symbolize loyalty, adoration and longevity.
Thank you!
I had two gorgeous sunflowers come up last year (planted by birds!) and I was so impressed with how long the stalks stayed in after they died and how firm/stable they were in the ground that now I want to grow them to be trellis supports next year. What I also thought was really cool about them was when I deadheaded the blooms (they were branched ones with more than one flower), I noticed that they develop this AMAZING like terpene/resin smell that could legit be perfume.
Perfect timing! (not in terms of season). My husband wants sunflowers around the house we're moving into and I've been resisting. After watching your video, I'm convinced and he'll have you to thank. Looking forward to planting different colored varieties next spring.
P.S. our neighbor at the new house is a beekeeper -- bet she'll be happy with us planting sunflowers.
You can also hang cut seed heads for the birds to enjou and spread seeds in their droppings. Our garden is lettered with volunteer sunflowers
Everytime I decide to grow something you make a video within a week. I'm not even mad if you're stalking me Kevin!!
We did sunflowers when I was a kid in our back yard in the Bronx. After we moved out of that house it took me almost 20 yars but as an adult in Florida I'm finally planting sunflowers again 😁
First year urban homesteading and our sunflowers are 6 feet tall! Neighbors love them as they are the happiest flowers with long petals that flow in the wind. I absolutely love them. Hoping the seeds are tasty!
I have an Autumn Beaty one...took 5 seeds, since birds kept eating the young plants. Now with like a 2 inch stalk, 7 ft tall, and 20+ buds/blooms!
do the sunflowers come back every year?????
@@TheFlyEXTERMINATOR no they are annuals so they die. Just replant the seeds if you want another one next year!
Aaaah this is one of my favorite videos of yours. The history portion is cool. I'm glad you pointed out the pollen less varieties are kind of pointless unless you're doing cutflowers. Please do other flowers! 🌻
I grew them for the first time this summer. So easy to direct sow. The pollinators love them. We even let the volunteer ones from birdseed grow. I grew them for show and for the birds to enjoy once they're done.
Sunflowers are a major crop in Hungary, in summer you pass field after field packed with sunflowers. Stunning!!!
I love the summer and fall in california, there's sunflowers planted EVERYWHERE! Actually, i just went out to water my sunflowers and a bee greeted me! Sunflowers are soooo rewarding and easy
I planted sunflowers in random spots in my yard. Excited to see which ones do best. They’re already popping up after 3 days!
Love your video. I grew 61 sunflowers in a small yard. One neighbor said he loved watching the goldfinch activity.
I'm in Texas and I just harvested a ton of sunflower seeds!!
I transferred potatoes and their soil from a patch that had two sunflowers in it. Now I have like, a hundred😆😅 it’s so beautiful and wonderful to look out my kitchen window and see the bumblebees and hummingbirds at work, and these little sunshines shield the lower plants from the hot sun. I’ve harvested twenty so far, many more to come!! 🥰
Hello Gwen how are you doing today?
@@georgewilliams2410 Good, but TIRED lol. Got back from a four day UTV event, it was 70 degrees when we left the Willamette valley, and came back to 95 degree weather after a very cold and wet spring😅 Now I have to go water SO many things lol😰😅
@@gwengwen4535 oh really
@@gwengwen4535 I’m so sorry to hear that you have to and relax ok
@@gwengwen4535 I’m George Williams from Las Vegas Neveda but currently working with Saudi Aramco Oil Base Company as Chief Engineer Officer
Maximum sunflower are the best sunflower because you sow the seed once and it keeps coming up every year. You could also grow them with the tuber and if i am not mistaking you can eat the tuber
Thanks for the info about sunflowers, and Don't be sad about the size of your head. "We are all perfect and beautifully made." Just like the beautiful and bountiful harvest you provide for us to see.😊
Those spent sunflower greens, like the corn stalks, can also be fed to ruminant livestock/pets. I've bought some very expensive toys for my rabbit that had a sunflower stalk, and he went crazy over it, chewing it apart. It's an extra step before getting it into the garden as manure, but I love how there are so many crops that can be dual-purpose for plant food and turned into pet food or eventual meat input from a homestead. And don't forget that if you're pressing your own oil from the seeds, that seed meal is a high protein supplement for both ruminant and non-ruminant animals, your chickens or other birds, and pigs
I grew some sunflower microgreens this spring and early summer. The leftover soil, roots and other food scraps were going into this metal oval container I had lying around the yard since we didn't have a real compost, we just took it all to our parents. I also had some of their compost leftover I brought over for mixing with potting soil in there. Anyways, the last batch of microgreens I did, I didn't wait for the shorter ones to grow after harvesting the tall ones, we were moving to an apartment and didn't want to deal with extra things to move. Our partners took the compost mixture to their place and the flowers were already starting to get bigger, but now there are 5 full sunflowers in a laundry basket since tin with multiple heads... Long story, thank you for reading lol
As one large-headed lad to another, keep your chin up ✊🏻(Seriously though, thank you for all the epic gardening knowledge you've shared on this channel, I'm excited to finally start putting it into practice now that I have a yard!)
I have sunflowers in my front yard. 2 years in a row now.
We are always thinking small flowers as a border.
But everyone does that.
I like yo be different.
Last summer, looking out my living room window and seeing butterflies, bees and cool looking birds every day!
Sunflowers are very easy to grow and a good first plant. They were my first plant
I love the trivia about them as well as the information about how to grow them. Will make me look Jeopardy Smart when I tell people that stuff in my garden.
Hi Kevin! I’ve heard from flower farmers that even though pollen-less sunflowers lack pollen, they do have nectar and are therefore not completely useless to bees! I can also attest that I have seen bees on my pollenless sunflower cutting garden 🐝 🌻
Good to know!
Hey you! I was about to say this too. And some pollenless varieties will make a little pollen when they get older.
PS Kevin, strawberry blonde @3:47 is a pollenless variety.
@@elderberryjamz3654 Team flower assemble!🌻
Yeah I think they can still be worth planting for people with pollen allergies.
Hello from Georgia. Kevin, I checked out your new homestead. Love it; so excited to see it come alive. Thanks for all the great advice; stay safe.
you can also eat the inside of the stalk when its at a certain point (near harvest time ish ) I sauté or fry the "meat" from the inside of the stalk and its like eating buttery artichoke heart. It blew my mind. There is a window on getting that meat before it becomes like a rubbery foam. Youll have to play with the harvest times.
I first saw your channel awhile ago when watching Charles Dowding before some of my accounts got hacked while I was living on some land. Prayers for flowers to make a comeback. I’m a California gal and grew up with a grandfather in the industry. Thank you for your videos.
I grew sunflowers for the first time this year. I have 10 Mammoth sunflowers with heads as big, or bigger than dinner plates. Some of them grew 9 and 10 feet tall. I was sad to see the heads wilt over, but I realized they were too heavy to stay upright. Almost ready to harvest.
What beautiful flowers!
That's actually pretty awesome, as my kitchen window faces west and I planted sunflowers directly in front of it. Now we'll see if it actually happens and they face my window.... Stay tuned.
I had a neighbor who loved to grow giant sunflower and leave the heads on all winter. It was for the bluejays which he loved. This year I'll be trying the much smaller Teddy Bear variety, partly for the sake of my grandson. But I also look forward to the plants contribution to the garden as well.
Great timing I am about to plant out a mix of different coloured/sizes of sunflower seeds here in Australia. I plan to grow some out for us to dry and eat. Our native parrots (mostly Cockatoos) also go crazy for sunflower seeds. Back when we lived in a townhouse and only had a courtyard backyard, my sunflowers were the only thing that brought Cockatoos into the garden. I didn't realise they were such great bio-accumulators. What an easy chop and drop.
Omg I totally had a dream where I met Kevin, and he was 5'2". And I was like, "Wha-?! On your channel you always say you're tall!" And he looked around to make sure no one was listening, and then whispered that he makes everything in his garden miniature so that he looks bigger in comparison, and to please not tell anyone. ;'D
So basically these sunflowers are probably not all that impressive.
😄
Oh my gosh 😂😂
I am growing sun flowers for the first time this year. I love the idea of using sunflowers as a trellis. I just learned about this method a few weeks ago and I am trying it in my own garden. I’m a RUclips gardener too. I think I may have already messed up. My pole beans and morning glories that I planned to grow up the sunflower and growing so much faster then my sunflowers! Do you have any advice on what I should do now? I may make a trellis out of branches but I’d love to see this work out as is. Thank you for all your help. You have taught me something new. I hope we can continue to support and learn more from each other.
Thank you! I accidently grew a sunflower this year, because I had a birdfeeder above my raised bed. It is big and has a huge flowerhead. Also it grows a babyflower from the stem now. I love it.
Due to the quality of care my multi head sunflowers get. Some can get 12 feet tall and be as bushy as a dwarf fruit tree. I routinely break off lower branches once they get so tall. Doing this also makes them valuable as shade tree of sorts in the garden. After some time even the single head varieties can go wild and produce multi head offspring. Especially if they cross pollinate. Every year I have thousands of volunteer sprouts to strategically thin out. They tend to sprout in early to mid spring in 7b. They don't follow the plant after the last frost like on seed packets. Aside from the wild ones I also plant Skyscraper. I have no problem using them as a hedge or like a living fence. The wind likes to bend and break some of them. I find myself supporting really tall ones that start to fall over.
We are growing 2 in our house Lol They are doing pretty well so far. I used boxes to build a deep enough base. They are about 5 ft tall now 😅 kids made me do it🤪💚
Thanks for showing the different varieties
I had no idea
You have a bright cherry happy sunflower face . Love and how you look like you passion. I mean this as a compliment ❤The world needs more of this .
Sunflowers are great to grow - they improve soil, can provide shade for other plants and protect the soil and since they have a long taproot, they can withstand drier conditions while shading the soil below, helping to keep moisture in the soil for other plants.
I love watching the goldfinches perch on them and eat the seeds on the flower :)
The gray squirrels literally decapitate my sunflowers. It's carnage.
I’ve watched a gopher suck one down into the abyss before, I feel your pain.
The neighborhood squirrels haven’t discovered mine yet but I’m holding my breath 😶
Same. I had a row of decapitated sunflowers this year.
I use squirrel traps to decrease the pressure. Catch them and release them two miles away
@@spencerpeterson8695 Same, but a whole hedge of them, one at a time--like in an old WB cartoon. Our gophers must think we're so great, to keep planting all this wonderful food for "them"
I grew the big sunflowers and also Shoc O Lat sunflowers. They were so fun! I got in trouble by HOA but I cleaned them up when they started to die back. Too bad I couldn’t harvest anything.
And it’s cool that all my sunflowers face where the sunrises!
I sure did this year! 9 seeds Rouge Royale (Botanical Interest), 9 huge sunflowers with multiple flower heads! And the bonus is that they are supporting my Luffa vines (finally got some!!). Side note: These are maroon-orange sunflowers but I got a few bright yellow ones that grew! Like a box of chocolates…..
This is only the second year that I'm trying sunflowers. Good info brother. Will help
No way! I'm sowing Sunflower seeds today! Cheers from Aus.
I recently read that sunflowers face east so that the early morning warmth from the east sun attracts bees. I also leave the mammoth stalks to dry up in the ground over winter as they make a great first layer in my compost pile.
My 97 yrold Dad still on farm in Id.and I love sunflowers. I hadmoths this yr that caused trouble
This was my first year growing sunflowers and the golden bear variety has been the cutest! ill def grow them again next year, and maybe a variety to eat!
Will be growing lots of sunflowers this year. They get attacked by snails and birds when they're younger in my garden so I like to keep them under a small clear plastic covering until they get a 3 or 4 inches tall. I've been putting the seeds in just laying them flat and they still come up just fine. I've heard that you can make tea out of the leaves and use the stalk to make flour.
Good info! I'm in Virginia growing some Russian mammoths for the first time. I've never grown anything so big and beautiful, I have noticed mine facing east also. I happy for the harvesting tips you provided.
I like the new house. The containers look good. I used to follow you when I had just started growing microgreens. I am not creating a channel to lend to our niche..... I appreciate you my friend.
Growing these as a trellis for morning glory heavenly blue, Glory to Ukraine! 💛💙🇺🇦🌻
They’re the most beautiful flower in my opinion
I have heard you can make flour from the piff inside the stem, and also that dried stocks are good for fire. Would also be good animal fodder.
My seeds have sprouted. I hope they bloom right around graduation time for my niece 👩🎓
So satisfying to grow bigass sunflowers. :)
It really is!
The deer loved the leaves and the immature flowers this year. Thankfully they came back and produced some smaller flowers on some side shoots.
I thought growing sunflowers was a no-brainer, but this was great info. I didn't know there are varieties that do nothing for pollinators. This year the frost in the spring and the long drought during the summer stole the flowers from the pollinators in my area. We have some flowers in a flowerbed and every morning they are full of bees, so I would like to grow flowers next year and it's a great plus if I can eat some part of them too. Great video. Thank you!
I'm so happy this video came out! I sowed some teddy bear sunflowers several weeks ago and they're budding now, and I also started some pacino and ring of fire sunflowers
Epic Sunflower lesson. As an aside, the greatest honey extraction invention video I actually watched, learned, enjoyed and am now considering.
All sunflowers are perfect. Pretty cool.