I love this..."are they toxic? Yes but no. Here is why it is complicated......" and then you explain in a way that those of us without a degree in soil science can understand. Thank you.
Sunflowers do leave dead zone circles in my yard! These circles are about 1 ft and show up Jan thru March. It is not a big issue and goes away after spring rain.The ones that volunteer are crosses of mammoth and wild sunflowers and can get 12ft or more. I love sunflowers and use them for wind break, shade, pollinators, and for the birds! I do not let them grow directly in my beds but right next to them.
I love to plant giant sunflowers every year. This year however, the groundhogs have taken them all out. I found my last one decimated yesterday. I’m going to replant and hopefully get some happy sunflowers… we’ll see… lousy ottoman sized rodents! I’ll fence them off this time. You’re garden looks beautiful.
You always knock it out the park with the science of the plant. I always leave with a bit more than I came with. Thank you. I have you on notifications.
I’m in zone 3 and every year I battle powdery mildew and mold on all my squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, and potatoes. This year I pre-treated all these plants with a copper spray well before the problem typically begins. Guess what? I have ZERO mildew/mold! That only took me 10 years to figure out! Oh well. Better late than never. 😋
Oh no. I just planted two pots of small (24" tall) sunflowers not far from some petunias. I'm planting flowers in the front flower beds of my friend and next door neighbor, who died tragically last week. There have never been sunflowers in those beds before. Seems like they might be ok. Thank you Ashley. Have a happy Sunday! Oh, and I love your nail polish.
I have grown sunflowers the past few years, varieties specifically for eating. Each year they appear to do very well, but when I go to harvest the seeds, there’s no actual seeds within the shells. The shells are empty, or have a little “balloon” inside filled with air. I finally just gave up and didn’t grow any this year.
So, because there really heavy feeders... That's why it can appear that way? I've seen two different wear you can ramping lack of growth as you get closer with both onions and tomatoes in a sunflower was near.
Thank you for addressing this! I wanted to plant sunflowers this year, but I didn’t think it was worth the risk after hearing about the possible damage they can create
I plant them throughout my garden to recapture some of the leached nutrients from my crops with shallower roots. I compost them at the end of the growing season, and apply back to the garden (after my plants germinate). Some sort of deep rooted plant is likely an important part of maintaining healthy soil biology.
@GardeningInCanada I like to start some indoors and transplant these into areas where I want some level of summer shade. Later in the year, after everything has sprouted, I wander around the garden, and direct sow wherever I see a hole. Very random. I grow lots of annual flowers throughout my vegetable garden. I just find it visually appealing to have blooms, and wonderful smells, throughout the garden.
When I switched my bird feed to in shell Black oil sunflower seed it was one season before the, I think it's a sprawling Juniper bush under the feeder, started turning brown and nearly died off. I happened across a "they're toxic" video by coincidence, switched back to shelled seeds and my Juniper has made surprising comeback and looking great this year.
Hi Ashley, I know from decades of gardening, that sunflowers will poison potatoes as they cause the potatoes to rot underground. It's interesting. I let the volunteers grow all over my small farm, I love to see the Goldfinches land all over them during their migration from up your way. Also, planted near tomatoes is always good. We're just now seeing beans starting, the winter squash are forming flowers...very late summer here, but my Copenhagen Market cabbages are 12 POUNDS and super sweet! Thanks as always!
I love sunflowers too! Growing them in my vegetable garden this year for the first time (always grew them in my flower bed). After seeing a cluster of sunflowers in the corner of several gardens last fall in PEI - I just had to do it myself. I can’t wait for the blooms. 🌻
Excellent explanation - I saw the title and went "what" as I had never heard of that before. This year I planted 50 sunflowers in my garden. The whole garden is doing great. Last year I had squash and this year I have squash in the same spot and its doing better, and thought maybe the sunflowers are helping it??? Anyways wish I could post a picture here of them, a few heads have unfolded this week, excited to see all 50 come out. Also in the same plot is onions carrots peppers potato and bitter melon - so far they re all doing excellent . I did feed the soil before and a couple months after, also added worm castings to some of the transplants.
Grew 3 Russian mammoth sunflowers. Amazing plant. Thanks for telling us about the potential dangers on long term growing without rotation. Will be moving them elsewhere next season.
I planted 'solar eclipse' sunflowers last year as a divider between my new prairie strip and the rest of the garden. They were supposed to grow to 6ft. They were eight to twelve and thriving. They made an excellent screen to filter the harsh late afternoon sun. I left a few of the sturdier stalks in the ground to serve as poles for climbing plants and cut the rest off at the base. Spring forward to this year and I had many volunteers in the same area. I culled from around other plants but otherwise let them grow again as a screen. I haven't noticed them preventing or stunting the growth of weedy annuals like crabgrass, foxtail, or spurge (sadly). The prairie plants seem fine but many of them were on your list. Based on what you've said, this fall should I pull the entire plant out - roots & all, or would it be okay to just cut them of at the ground as I did last year? I can remove any volunteers from that area next year to reduce the chance of a multi-year accumulation-- I have other locations they can grow. I also wonder... if I grow them repeatly in an area with quackgrass & dandelion is there a chance they can take them out? :)
Thank you❤!! That was so easy. It only took me 35 minutes to find you and I think I'm subscribed. I couldn't seem to ask the question right. I'm planting sunflowers on the north side of the garden, leaving 3~4ft space, and not worrying about it.
Thank you! I have heard this, but was already intercropping sunflowers, so I didn't put much stock in it. I grow a lot of mammoth sunflowers and they put on so much biomass, so quickly, that it's obvious that they were taking a lot from the soil. I reamend a like I would if I pulled any heavy feeding plant for this reason.
Honestly it really doesn't have to take that long to see the effect of sunflower toxicity on other plants. We moved our birdfeeder to a different spot in the lawn this year, on the other side of the yard, and already the sunflower seed shells are creating a large bare patch on the lawn. We've sowed clover and birdsfoot trefoil into the lawn over the years to improve the soil, and everywhere else the lawn is very lush, so we thought it could handle some sunflower seeds...but nope. Just bare soil about the size of a dinner plate.
Thank you for sharing this information about sunflowers. my garden is lined on the North side with basically wild sunflowers that keep coming back each year. they are affecting my tomatoes I can tell but not the blueberries or other medicinal herbs
I have grown several varieties of sunflower in my garden over the past 4 years, and I have not seen any evidence of suppression of surrounding growth. I think it may be due to the chaotic way I distribute the annual plants in my garden. I always try to mimic Nature.
Well I had no idea. Last 2 or 3 years they've grown as volunteers in the same area in my garden and this year I noticed my potatoes which were close didn't do too well.
Im definitely not giving up sunflowers especially since whenever I look at the flower heads they have a bunch of ladybugs etc hanging out on them. I’m now wondering if sunchokes have those properties as well.
Do you think I could use those properties of the sunflowers to fight a patch of Reynoutria japonica that I have un my garden? I successfully kept them under control over the years with the help of daylily and weeding twice weekly, but the patch is trying to fight back by extending further.
thanks again! if I planted them in the alley on the other side of the fence would they disrupt the blueberry's and vines on the inside edge of my fence? love the channel thanks
Years ago I had a bird feeder and would use black oil sunflower seeds as bird food. I would find sunflowers starting to grow under the feeder. I thought it was kind of cool so I avoided them when mowing the lawn. But they would only come up about 16 to 20 inches form a small head about 1.5 to 2 inches then die. After observing the same thing for 3 years I just assumed it was some sort of genetic hybrid that was designed to prevent people from using it as seed. Is that possible or was it something else causing them to die?
If you use plants to recover soil due to heavy metal poisoning, you should not compost those plants. They should be bagged and thrown away or taken to a toxic waste recovery utility.
Most of them are oil seed varieties that are edible but don’t have much for seed. You could try roasting them… I’m just not sure what the flavour would be
@@GardeningInCanada Oh shucks, last year a friend gave me "Mexican Torch" sunflowers. They were beautiful and pollinators, hummers loved them. Volunteers came up this year, and I was so pleased to see these lovely flowers. Bummed. 😩. I'll maybe try to find an isolated area for them to grow next year. Glad to get your info though, thanks! 👍
Heyyy, maybe I'm okay: "The Mexican sunflower, otherwise known as Tithonia rotundifolia, isn't actually a sunflower, per se, but part of the daisy family. " I should've have researched more before bugging you. 😊
@@GardeningInCanada wow - new to me, thanks... i just got a compact tractor with a tiller. As society breaks down, i'm seeing the need for survival crops in vacant lots etc.
The Jerusalem artichoke, 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒖𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒖𝒔, is also called the sunroot, sunchoke, or wild sunflower. Do you know if this plant has similar allelopathic properties to other types of sunflower?
I’m currently living in a construction zone 😅 with wind. Please forgive me. Our sidewalks are getting ripped out.
Is sunflower petal tea toxic??? Is it safe to eat the head???
I love this..."are they toxic? Yes but no. Here is why it is complicated......" and then you explain in a way that those of us without a degree in soil science can understand. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed ❤️❤️ goal is always digestibility!
Sunflowers do leave dead zone circles in my yard! These circles are about 1 ft and show up Jan thru March. It is not a big issue and goes away after spring rain.The ones that volunteer are crosses of mammoth and wild sunflowers and can get 12ft or more. I love sunflowers and use them for wind break, shade, pollinators, and for the birds! I do not let them grow directly in my beds but right next to them.
Oooo what variety?
@GardeningInCanada I planted mammoth many years ago and I believe they have crossed with wild ones. They are giant but have tons of small flowers.
I love to plant giant sunflowers every year.
This year however, the groundhogs have taken them all out.
I found my last one decimated yesterday.
I’m going to replant and hopefully get some happy sunflowers… we’ll see… lousy ottoman sized rodents!
I’ll fence them off this time.
You’re garden looks beautiful.
Really! Do they eat the entire thing?
@@GardeningInCanada they chomp off all of the leaves and the head. They leave the stalks.
Interestingly, they have no interest in my sun chokes…?
🤬
You always knock it out the park with the science of the plant. I always leave with a bit more than I came with. Thank you. I have you on notifications.
Aweee thank you! I appreciate thay
I’m in zone 3 and every year I battle powdery mildew and mold on all my squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, and potatoes. This year I pre-treated all these plants with a copper spray well before the problem typically begins. Guess what? I have ZERO mildew/mold! That only took me 10 years to figure out! Oh well. Better late than never. 😋
Nice job!
Oh no. I just planted two pots of small (24" tall) sunflowers not far from some petunias. I'm planting flowers in the front flower beds of my friend and next door neighbor, who died tragically last week. There have never been sunflowers in those beds before. Seems like they might be ok. Thank you Ashley. Have a happy Sunday! Oh, and I love your nail polish.
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Fantastic info! I panicked for two minutes thinking I ruined my beds haha only to find out its totally fine and they may even benefit my soil! 👌😎
Hahaha yes!
Do you plant a lot of them?
I plant climbing beans with mammoth sunflowers and a tomato the beans cilmb the sunflower tieing the tomatoes up as they grow
I always grow 2-3 sunflowers in my vegetable garden. Thank you for telling me to rotate them!
You are so welcome!
I have grown sunflowers the past few years, varieties specifically for eating. Each year they appear to do very well, but when I go to harvest the seeds, there’s no actual seeds within the shells. The shells are empty, or have a little “balloon” inside filled with air. I finally just gave up and didn’t grow any this year.
That can happen if it doesn’t get pollinated or there is heat stress
So, because there really heavy feeders... That's why it can appear that way? I've seen two different wear you can ramping lack of growth as you get closer with both onions and tomatoes in a sunflower was near.
The heavy feeding can cause issues combined with the “toxins”
Thank you for addressing this! I wanted to plant sunflowers this year, but I didn’t think it was worth the risk after hearing about the possible damage they can create
Glad it was helpful!
I plant them throughout my garden to recapture some of the leached nutrients from my crops with shallower roots. I compost them at the end of the growing season, and apply back to the garden (after my plants germinate).
Some sort of deep rooted plant is likely an important part of maintaining healthy soil biology.
Great topic, and I live in a frost pocket in zone 5a. Lost all my peppers and tomatoes on June 21 this year. The sunflowers don't care about frost.
Oh interesting! Do you start them outside or direct sow?
@GardeningInCanada I like to start some indoors and transplant these into areas where I want some level of summer shade.
Later in the year, after everything has sprouted, I wander around the garden, and direct sow wherever I see a hole. Very random. I grow lots of annual flowers throughout my vegetable garden. I just find it visually appealing to have blooms, and wonderful smells, throughout the garden.
When I switched my bird feed to in shell Black oil sunflower seed it was one season before the, I think it's a sprawling Juniper bush under the feeder, started turning brown and nearly died off. I happened across a "they're toxic" video by coincidence, switched back to shelled seeds and my Juniper has made surprising comeback and looking great this year.
Hi Ashley, I know from decades of gardening, that sunflowers will poison potatoes as they cause the potatoes to rot underground. It's interesting. I let the volunteers grow all over my small farm, I love to see the Goldfinches land all over them during their migration from up your way. Also, planted near tomatoes is always good. We're just now seeing beans starting, the winter squash are forming flowers...very late summer here, but my Copenhagen Market cabbages are 12 POUNDS and super sweet! Thanks as always!
Ooo interesting
I love sunflowers too! Growing them in my vegetable garden this year for the first time (always grew them in my flower bed). After seeing a cluster of sunflowers in the corner of several gardens last fall in PEI - I just had to do it myself. I can’t wait for the blooms. 🌻
I love sunflowers and use them everywhere.
Very helpful information! I love sunflowers and planted them around my garden to encourage pollinators. I'll start moving them around.
I think they are gorgeous
Excellent explanation - I saw the title and went "what" as I had never heard of that before. This year I planted 50 sunflowers in my garden. The whole garden is doing great. Last year I had squash and this year I have squash in the same spot and its doing better, and thought maybe the sunflowers are helping it???
Anyways wish I could post a picture here of them, a few heads have unfolded this week, excited to see all 50 come out. Also in the same plot is onions carrots peppers potato and bitter melon - so far they re all doing excellent .
I did feed the soil before and a couple months after, also added worm castings to some of the transplants.
Haha. Yea… RUclips likes when I do titles like that
Grew 3 Russian mammoth sunflowers. Amazing plant. Thanks for telling us about the potential dangers on long term growing without rotation. Will be moving them elsewhere next season.
Thanks for watching!
I planted 'solar eclipse' sunflowers last year as a divider between my new prairie strip and the rest of the garden. They were supposed to grow to 6ft. They were eight to twelve and thriving. They made an excellent screen to filter the harsh late afternoon sun. I left a few of the sturdier stalks in the ground to serve as poles for climbing plants and cut the rest off at the base.
Spring forward to this year and I had many volunteers in the same area. I culled from around other plants but otherwise let them grow again as a screen. I haven't noticed them preventing or stunting the growth of weedy annuals like crabgrass, foxtail, or spurge (sadly). The prairie plants seem fine but many of them were on your list.
Based on what you've said, this fall should I pull the entire plant out - roots & all, or would it be okay to just cut them of at the ground as I did last year? I can remove any volunteers from that area next year to reduce the chance of a multi-year accumulation-- I have other locations they can grow. I also wonder... if I grow them repeatly in an area with quackgrass & dandelion is there a chance they can take them out? :)
If you want to be extra careful I would do a yank. But if you aren’t planting anything particularly sensitive there next year you could just chop
@@GardeningInCanada Thank you!
Thank you❤!! That was so easy. It only took me 35 minutes to find you and I think I'm subscribed. I couldn't seem to ask the question right. I'm planting sunflowers on the north side of the garden, leaving 3~4ft space, and not worrying about it.
Glad I could help!
Thank you! I have heard this, but was already intercropping sunflowers, so I didn't put much stock in it. I grow a lot of mammoth sunflowers and they put on so much biomass, so quickly, that it's obvious that they were taking a lot from the soil. I reamend a like I would if I pulled any heavy feeding plant for this reason.
Oh yes! Those are monsters. How tall do they get for you?
@@GardeningInCanada The tallest one I have grown was about 11ft (3.3m).
Honestly it really doesn't have to take that long to see the effect of sunflower toxicity on other plants. We moved our birdfeeder to a different spot in the lawn this year, on the other side of the yard, and already the sunflower seed shells are creating a large bare patch on the lawn. We've sowed clover and birdsfoot trefoil into the lawn over the years to improve the soil, and everywhere else the lawn is very lush, so we thought it could handle some sunflower seeds...but nope. Just bare soil about the size of a dinner plate.
Yea bird feeders in particular is a big dose in a small space.
Thank you for sharing this information about sunflowers. my garden is lined on the North side with basically wild sunflowers that keep coming back each year. they are affecting my tomatoes I can tell but not the blueberries or other medicinal herbs
Glad it was helpful!
I did not know this about sun flowers. I will continue to grow them as I love to dry them for fall arrangements, but I will rotate.
I have grown several varieties of sunflower in my garden over the past 4 years, and I have not seen any evidence of suppression of surrounding growth. I think it may be due to the chaotic way I distribute the annual plants in my garden. I always try to mimic Nature.
That could be it!
I was using another plant the black wallnut to try and change the spices I have around me not working yet still to small I think.
But very cool
Yes! That’s another toxic one
My squash winter and summer are loving being next to sunflowers!
Very nice!
Well I had no idea. Last 2 or 3 years they've grown as volunteers in the same area in my garden and this year I noticed my potatoes which were close didn't do too well.
Ooo! Noticed anything in regards to suppression
@@GardeningInCanada well I definitely didn't have to weed as much however it may have been because they were so thick
Great video ! Thank you for the information
Glad it was helpful!
Great video! Thank you 🌱🌻💚🌻🌱
Interesting facts explained. Thank you.😊
Glad you liked it!
Wow. Sunflowers are jerks. I had no idea. They're so pretty on the outside.
That was so cool to learn about. Great info, thanks Ashley! You always put on a top notch show! Enjoyed, take care!
Thank you! You too!
Im definitely not giving up sunflowers especially since whenever I look at the flower heads they have a bunch of ladybugs etc hanging out on them. I’m now wondering if sunchokes have those properties as well.
Those are ginormous plants
Do you think I could use those properties of the sunflowers to fight a patch of Reynoutria japonica that I have un my garden? I successfully kept them under control over the years with the help of daylily and weeding twice weekly, but the patch is trying to fight back by extending further.
thanks again!
if I planted them in the alley on the other side of the fence would they disrupt the blueberry's and vines on the inside edge of my fence?
love the channel thanks
Yes, absolutely
Thank you for the science. I love it!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Years ago I had a bird feeder and would use black oil sunflower seeds as bird food. I would find sunflowers starting to grow under the feeder. I thought it was kind of cool so I avoided them when mowing the lawn. But they would only come up about 16 to 20 inches form a small head about 1.5 to 2 inches then die. After observing the same thing for 3 years I just assumed it was some sort of genetic hybrid that was designed to prevent people from using it as seed. Is that possible or was it something else causing them to die?
They are actually toxic to themselves in high doses!
Well, now I know why almost none of my poppies grew around my sunflowers
Is it ok to shred and put into my cold slow compost bin? Or is the low level of toxicity bad for growing compost?
You can but just make sure you allow your compost to cure.
@@GardeningInCanada thank you… you and you channel Rock!!
Ok one more dumb question 🙋🏻♂️ (if I may) what if I don’t have a hot compost pile??? Should I avoid putting them in?
If you use plants to recover soil due to heavy metal poisoning, you should not compost those plants. They should be bagged and thrown away or taken to a toxic waste recovery utility.
Good point.
No you would not compost anything used for reclamation.
Are All Sunflowers seeds edible? I have an assort seed packet and they are all flowering now
Most of them are oil seed varieties that are edible but don’t have much for seed. You could try roasting them… I’m just not sure what the flavour would be
am i going to be sterile if i eat to much seeds ?
HAHA no I don’t think so
I donno if they are toxic or not but at least the lical weeds happily grow amongst my sunflowers 😛
i lovesunflowers ! I grow 100's yearly
Yea they are so pretty
What is a bit or bob?
So a tinture of sunflower & tabacco as natural herbicide/ pesticide could work then!
Could be an diy experiment!
I understood shredding sunflower stems is okay for the compost bin. Is this correct?
So don't let them volunteer in butterfly garden?
Native species in particular ideally no
@@GardeningInCanada Oh shucks, last year a friend gave me "Mexican Torch" sunflowers. They were beautiful and pollinators, hummers loved them. Volunteers came up this year, and I was so pleased to see these lovely flowers. Bummed. 😩. I'll maybe try to find an isolated area for them to grow next year. Glad to get your info though, thanks! 👍
BTW: I live in north Florida. 😃
Heyyy, maybe I'm okay: "The Mexican sunflower, otherwise known as Tithonia rotundifolia, isn't actually a sunflower, per se, but part of the daisy family. "
I should've have researched more before bugging you. 😊
💚💚
❤️❤️❤️
They're supposedly good for breaking up clay soils with their deep roots...
They absolutely can! Tillage radish are the best
@@GardeningInCanada wow - new to me, thanks... i just got a compact tractor with a tiller. As society breaks down, i'm seeing the need for survival crops in vacant lots etc.
@@GardeningInCanada I bought 50lbs of turnip seed - any other ideas for mass plantings? Might be a good subject for a video
🤙🤙
The Jerusalem artichoke, 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒖𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒖𝒔, is also called the sunroot, sunchoke, or wild sunflower.
Do you know if this plant has similar allelopathic properties to other types of sunflower?
Very mild. Nothing to be concerned about
@@GardeningInCanada
Thank you very much.