I just googled about it, after I already hacked my sunflowers about 3-4 feet up, they're about 8-9 feet tall, and it said they need the leaves because they provide the energy to the plant and too leave them, even the yellow ones. But then on RUclips your video came up and I was so relieved to see what you've done! Definitely makes sense and I'm glad you had the results to share!! This shows why people can't rely on the "internet" for information. You really gotta look around and get multiple sources for information. Thanks again!
I do this for any plant I want to grow tall. When it loses bottom leaves it wants to replace them and focuses energy into new, upward growth. Many times the lower leaves don't get as much sun so they become useless to the plant and take up unnecessary nutrients that could go to the top
It's my first year growing sunflowers and I was searching for the same thing after seeing the side shoots. Great video man, I'll be pruning mine right up
Be carefull, alot of false and missing information here, Not all sunflowers grow more then one head, you have to check and make sure of what your growing, if you prune the center of a single head sunflower you will get nothing, pruning side shoots on a multihead sunflower in defeating the whole purpose its growing multi heads. unless you purposely want to control its height to be very short because you growing in an area without enough space.
So my girlfriend loves sunflowers and I'm trying to figure out how to grow it well (we bought some random ass sunflower in a small plastic container in a store in Oslo and I have some, though little, experience with growing Basil using Kratky method (Hydroponics) and you can keep a Basil plant alive forever by just pruning it like done in this video. Anyway, I went to the internet in search to see how to prune sunflowers and this is the first video I see do it the way I did with Basil plants. Reading the comments I get the impression this is not normal for sunflowers, yet endorsed and encouraged by you the watchers. I'm amazed at this and, suddenly, excited to explore more!
Trimming off the suckers causes upwards growth, trimming off tops causes sidewards growth. This holds true for all plants that grow from the nodes. If you want bushy sunflowers with lots of heads, you can also terminate the top growth point. I prefer height with a cluster at the top
Howdy! I'm in Oklahoma .My sunflowers were almost destroyed last week in a storm with 100 mile an hour winds. Wooden boards were slammed into them. I have about 2 rows left. They are about 3 feet tall. I too have found nothing about cleaning them up. I to am having to use this method in order to get them cleaned up. Many broken leaves and branches ouch ! Glad to see this. It gives me hope. Thank you.
I had sunflowers last year for the first year and loved that they just grew haha but since every other plant you are supposed to cut off the damaged leaves so they don’t waste energy so I cut them off and it did great lol this year is the first year I am actually seeing side shot flowers so I am cutting the dead bad leaves but cutting the small side shoot flowers as cut flowers in my kitchen sink window ceil cause it just looks so pretty and is small enough! And I grew the sunflowers as an experiment hoping it would shade out the lettuce giving me a longer harvest and it worked perfectly
Garlic spray works but needs to be reapplied after rain. Crushed Oyster shells, copper wire around seedlings. I always plant extra knowing some will be slug food
I just trimmed my giant Sunflower yesterday. I just trimmed all leaves up to the first bud(4-5 ft. up) to see if more energy is forced to the buds. Now I'm thinking that I should have left a few leaves on the lower half for photosynthesis to go up the stalk.🤔🤜🏿🤛🏿😎
Possibly. Worth a shot to see what happens. Pruning is the #1 way to force growth. Not enough people do it. I prune everything. You might have found a method that works even better. Time will tell
I’m literally in my yard looking at mine and thought about this….ur video was the only thing I could find on it…mine are only about 2 feet tall but I like to stay ahead of the game lol…is there a certain time you’d advise to start this method?
I dont mess with them until they are over 4 feet tall. Unfortunately, some are just genetically small! You can always tell by the stem. If they develop a thick stem they are destined to grow tall and this pruning works great to make them even taller!
I always cut off many of the leaves off so nutrition can go to the flowers and fruit. ALSO, IT will help clean up faster when season ends. And nobody taught me that.
I actually used the same logic and in a week was amazed at the progress, I mean why would what works with tomato’s , and other plants not work for sunflowers…….. I’m not scared to try new things, I’m more scared staying idle and not pushing boundaries that could make a difference
Yes. When you terminate the center on nearly any plant side growth is encouraged. The plant's goal is to drop seeds. With sunflowers when you terminate the larger, terminal flower, multiple smaller flowers will take over. Cool thing about thos pruning method that I noticed is when you remove a lot of the bottom leaves and suckers it not only grows taller, but also sends out flowers on the higher suckers with that extra energy
Brilliant video mate. Just a quick one I'm from england and i have 2 sunflowers growing in my garden. I have no idea what to do now as they've finished growing. Only 2ft tall as i planted them coupled months ago. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
If they already have flower heads they are done growing vertically. Sometimes the seed genetics will give you smaller plants. Even in the same package. Technically every seed is from its own flower and the actual sunflower head has hundreds of separate flowers. So some could be big and some could be small. Nitrogen early helps the plant grow taller
@@colemon let them grow! Even if they're smaller they're still cool. Its best to plant a lot of them to make sure some are bigger. Ive got some that are 2 feet and some that were 13 feet (before a storm took them down). If you plant mammoths they will cross pollinate with other sunflowers and you'll get some cool natural hybrids
This is great. I couldn’t find much on google either. What about stopping vertical growth at about 6 feet, and hoping for lots of blooms? Chop the top before any blooms start?
I did this with my sunflower, had 2 growing but something or someone broke the stalk of one. The other, is now at around 10ft from trimming and pruning
@@FastGardeningMichigan yeah i didn’t even think about trying to fix it, like the top half of the plant was folded over. Next time if it happens I’ll fix it and see what happens!
Hey I just got finished watching your video of the sunflowers. Go check out the video I uploaded. I think it's actually a short I uploaded. Joey420 look for this!!
I just googled about it, after I already hacked my sunflowers about 3-4 feet up, they're about 8-9 feet tall, and it said they need the leaves because they provide the energy to the plant and too leave them, even the yellow ones. But then on RUclips your video came up and I was so relieved to see what you've done!
Definitely makes sense and I'm glad you had the results to share!!
This shows why people can't rely on the "internet" for information. You really gotta look around and get multiple sources for information.
Thanks again!
I do this for any plant I want to grow tall. When it loses bottom leaves it wants to replace them and focuses energy into new, upward growth. Many times the lower leaves don't get as much sun so they become useless to the plant and take up unnecessary nutrients that could go to the top
Thank u! Exacly what I wanted to confirm! But you were right.. there is little to none content regarding pruning sunflowers. THANKS!😊
Many other plants grow the same way and can be pruned this way for more vertical growth as well!
It's my first year growing sunflowers and I was searching for the same thing after seeing the side shoots. Great video man, I'll be pruning mine right up
Works to top them at the center bud if you want more flowers too!
@@FastGardeningMichigan Carefull with the fake news, some sunflower are not multi headed and pruning the center = 0 sunflowers.
Be carefull, alot of false and missing information here, Not all sunflowers grow more then one head, you have to check and make sure of what your growing, if you prune the center of a single head sunflower you will get nothing, pruning side shoots on a multihead sunflower in defeating the whole purpose its growing multi heads. unless you purposely want to control its height to be very short because you growing in an area without enough space.
So my girlfriend loves sunflowers and I'm trying to figure out how to grow it well (we bought some random ass sunflower in a small plastic container in a store in Oslo and I have some, though little, experience with growing Basil using Kratky method (Hydroponics) and you can keep a Basil plant alive forever by just pruning it like done in this video. Anyway, I went to the internet in search to see how to prune sunflowers and this is the first video I see do it the way I did with Basil plants. Reading the comments I get the impression this is not normal for sunflowers, yet endorsed and encouraged by you the watchers.
I'm amazed at this and, suddenly, excited to explore more!
Trimming off the suckers causes upwards growth, trimming off tops causes sidewards growth. This holds true for all plants that grow from the nodes. If you want bushy sunflowers with lots of heads, you can also terminate the top growth point. I prefer height with a cluster at the top
Howdy! I'm in Oklahoma .My sunflowers were almost destroyed last week in a storm with 100 mile an hour winds. Wooden boards were slammed into them. I have about 2 rows left. They are about 3 feet tall. I too have found nothing about cleaning them up. I to am having to use this method in order to get them cleaned up. Many broken leaves and branches ouch ! Glad to see this. It gives me hope. Thank you.
They will grow from the suckers, kind of like a tomato, too. So if they are chopped almost to the ground, they will regrow!
Wow. Sorry to hear that.
This video is awesome... I got a million heads over here and I didn't know what the heck to do with 'em! Thanks for the break down! 💚💚💚💚💛💚💚💚💚
Thanks!
Thanks man great video very informative and im happy you shared your results was looking for information like this
Thanks!
Solid video! I may need to do this to my sunflowers in the next month or two 👊🏻🌻👊🏻
Likewise you can top the plant to get bushier plants with more flowers.
I had sunflowers last year for the first year and loved that they just grew haha but since every other plant you are supposed to cut off the damaged leaves so they don’t waste energy so I cut them off and it did great lol this year is the first year I am actually seeing side shot flowers so I am cutting the dead bad leaves but cutting the small side shoot flowers as cut flowers in my kitchen sink window ceil cause it just looks so pretty and is small enough! And I grew the sunflowers as an experiment hoping it would shade out the lettuce giving me a longer harvest and it worked perfectly
I planted some to use as melon trellises. And they just look so cool!
Great video.
Thanks!
Thank you for the very useful information you gave to me exactly what I was looking for
Great!
Makes sense to me👍
Real good advice 👍QUESTION How do you keep snails from eating your sunflowers overnight ? We got an invasion of this guys here with the non stop rain.
Garlic spray works but needs to be reapplied after rain. Crushed Oyster shells, copper wire around seedlings. I always plant extra knowing some will be slug food
Great video, brother. Just the info I was looking for!
Thanks!
I just trimmed my giant Sunflower yesterday. I just trimmed all leaves up to the first bud(4-5 ft. up) to see if more energy is forced to the buds.
Now I'm thinking that I should have left a few leaves on the lower half for photosynthesis to go up the stalk.🤔🤜🏿🤛🏿😎
Possibly. Worth a shot to see what happens. Pruning is the #1 way to force growth. Not enough people do it. I prune everything. You might have found a method that works even better. Time will tell
@coreyjenkins3056 What ever happened to your sunflower that you pruned all the way up to the first bud??
I couldn't find anything on sunflowers either but I'm new to growing them.
Hardest part is getting them to grow before being eaten by something!
@FastGardeningMichigan Well I'm growing in town near a townhouse so hopefully I'll get to harvest at least some seeds. 😆
Thank you, the exact info I was looking for!
Great!
Thanks man. I've got 6 footers' right now (Canada) but was wondering how to get them into overdrive.
I use this method for anything that sprouts suckers. I like to send that energy vertical
I’m literally in my yard looking at mine and thought about this….ur video was the only thing I could find on it…mine are only about 2 feet tall but I like to stay ahead of the game lol…is there a certain time you’d advise to start this method?
I dont mess with them until they are over 4 feet tall. Unfortunately, some are just genetically small! You can always tell by the stem. If they develop a thick stem they are destined to grow tall and this pruning works great to make them even taller!
Thank you
Thanks for watching and good luck growing big sunflowers!
Lovit!! Thank you for the advice and the video 👌🙏🏻 🌻
Thanks for watching!
THANK YOU!!
You're welcome!
So how high did they get?
Excellent video, bro, so much information that is very usable. I’ll definitely come back to this over and over.
@@ChefZee1964 thanks!
I always cut off many of the leaves off so nutrition can go to the flowers and fruit. ALSO, IT will help clean up faster when season ends. And nobody taught me that.
ty well done
Thanks!
I actually used the same logic and in a week was amazed at the progress, I mean why would what works with tomato’s , and other plants not work for sunflowers…….. I’m not scared to try new things, I’m more scared staying idle and not pushing boundaries that could make a difference
My apple tree seedling that my cat bit in half ended up being my tallest! Pruning creates a survival response
Thanks, but now I'm thingking, what if we cut the top and let the suckers grow, will it spread more rather than grow taller?
Yes. When you terminate the center on nearly any plant side growth is encouraged. The plant's goal is to drop seeds. With sunflowers when you terminate the larger, terminal flower, multiple smaller flowers will take over. Cool thing about thos pruning method that I noticed is when you remove a lot of the bottom leaves and suckers it not only grows taller, but also sends out flowers on the higher suckers with that extra energy
Brilliant video mate. Just a quick one I'm from england and i have 2 sunflowers growing in my garden. I have no idea what to do now as they've finished growing. Only 2ft tall as i planted them coupled months ago. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
If they already have flower heads they are done growing vertically. Sometimes the seed genetics will give you smaller plants. Even in the same package. Technically every seed is from its own flower and the actual sunflower head has hundreds of separate flowers. So some could be big and some could be small. Nitrogen early helps the plant grow taller
@@FastGardeningMichigan what do I do now with both plants please? Thanks for replying very quick.
@@colemon let them grow! Even if they're smaller they're still cool. Its best to plant a lot of them to make sure some are bigger. Ive got some that are 2 feet and some that were 13 feet (before a storm took them down). If you plant mammoths they will cross pollinate with other sunflowers and you'll get some cool natural hybrids
What kind of sunflowers are these that get more then one head?
Can't remember all of them but some are autumn beauty, velvet queen, and mammoth Russian. The suckers can flower even on single headed varieties
@@FastGardeningMichigan thank you!
Thank you, i searched and finally found you❤
Hello!
This is great. I couldn’t find much on google either. What about stopping vertical growth at about 6 feet, and hoping for lots of blooms? Chop the top before any blooms start?
That would absolutely work! All those suckers off the main leaves would grow out. I've done it
I did this with my sunflower, had 2 growing but something or someone broke the stalk of one. The other, is now at around 10ft from trimming and pruning
Ones I had bitten off still grew! Not as big but still flowered. It's amazing how resilient some plants are
@@FastGardeningMichigan yeah i didn’t even think about trying to fix it, like the top half of the plant was folded over. Next time if it happens I’ll fix it and see what happens!
I'm pruning mine because it just makes sense to me to focus the energy on the head
I prune just about everything for that same reason. Focusing energy and stimulating growth.
Hey I just got finished watching your video of the sunflowers. Go check out the video I uploaded. I think it's actually a short I uploaded. Joey420 look for this!!
Cant find it. Post a link and I'll watch it!