How to take care of sunflowers – A Beginners Guide

Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are a colorful type of flower to include in your garden with cheery and bright yellow blooms that look like the sun. We're sharing how to grow these beautiful plants with the green thumbs of a beginner, i.e. you! Sunflowers are also quite low-maintenance and can be kept healthy with a bit of simple advice. With information on how to plant, sunflowers are impressed and in this beginner sunflower care guide will provide you with both planting guidelines into maintenance.

1. Choosing the Right Variety

Choosing your Sunflower Variety Before You Plant Sunflowers range from towering giants up to 12 feet tall, down to small bushy types that only get about two feet high. Each variety music is famous independently like

• Mammoth Sunflowers — Good sunflower option if you want to add height and oversized blooms.

• Dwarf Sunflowers — great in limited space like container gardening.

• A Cutting Mix: Perfect for having a little of the outdoors inside.

When selecting sunflowers for your garden, consider the space available and what you want from this new addition.

2. Planting Sunflowers

Sunlight: Select a location with 8 hours of direct sunlight each day. Rain lilies like well-drained soil, but they are tolerant enough to put up with a wide range of different soils.

Soil preparation: Sunflowers aren't particularly fussy about the type of soil they're planted in, but a rich loam will yield best -- not too wet and never dry.Phone: 1-2 foot spacingReadStream / Check out how this entry was read on AI Season. If you have heavy clay or sandy soil, mix it with compost to improve drainage and nutrient score.

Sew directly into the soil: plant sunflower seeds in the garden plot after danger of last frost when ground temperature is always above 50°F (10°C). Plant seeds 1-inch deep and space them 6-inches apart. If you plant multiple rows, space the rows 24-36 inches apart to allow plenty of room for growth.

Water: Until the seeds germinate, usually in about 7 to 10 days, keep soil consistently moist. After seedlings appear, water less often but keep planting medium moist, especially during dry weather.

3. Caring for Growing Sunflowers

Watering: The established sunflower plants are somewhat drought-tolerant, but they should still be watered regularly. Water them with 1 inch of water per week, either via rainfall or you watering the garden. Water the soil directly at the base of the plant, watering from above can lead to fungal diseases.

Feeding: Sunflowers like to be fed with a general purpose fertilizer. Use a general-purpose garden fertilizer when plants are 6 inches tall and again at bud set. Avoid overfeeding, as this can result in too much growth at the expense of flowers.

Weed your Sunflowers: Make sure that you keep the area around your sunflower plants free from weeds, which can take nutrients and water away from them. Be careful not to weed around your plants especially those that are just growing as their roots systems have yet grown mature. Mulching around the base helps in reducing weed pressure and retaining soil moisture.

Sunflowers especially benefit from some support. Taller varieties like our Mammoth Grey Stripe just plain need it – they can grow 8' or more in height, and sometimes wind will cause them to topple over if staking isn't used. Stake or support the stems, and loosely tie to avoid damaging.

4. Managing Pests and Diseases

Naturally, sunflower is resistant hardy but there are some pests and diseases that can somewhat affect the plant. Common issues include:

• Sucking insects referred to as aphids may infest sunflower stems and leaves. If need be, wash them off with a strong jet of water or use insecticidal soap.

• Sunflower BeetlesThese pests heavily feed on sunflowers plants, leading to them spending considerable time amidst these crops. Pick them by hand or spray with an effective insecticide.

• Powdery Mildew: A fungal disease that shows up as white powdery spots on leaves. Increase air circulation around the plants and prune out affected leaves. Fungicides are a possible method of controlling its spread.

5. Harvesting and After-care

Seeds: Sunflowers make seeds to harvest for food or re-seeding. Once the back of flower head becomes yellow and seeds are round black, have patience. Remove the entire flower head and hang it upsidedown in a dry, well-ventillated area to finish drying. After it dries, separate the seeds from one another by rubbing the seed spikes in your hands or brushing them.

General deadheading: With no claim of being exhaustive, the following are a few common examples of where to remove spent blossoms. This will stimulate the plant to grow more blooms.

Protection From Winter: These plants, grown as annuals in colder climates – they do not overwinter. If you live in a milder climate, they may be allowed to self-seed. The heads of the flowers do all the work themselves so just let them drop their seeds where they will.

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