Allotment Sunflowers Mixed behind shed 04-07-2012

Ooh im excited about mine now tho im a bit worried at how small mine are compared to yours! how big should i let them get in the greenhouse before i plant them balc? the biggest one is only about 30cm! :o)

Plant them out as soon as you possibly can! You should never have let them make more than 1 pair of true leaves before putting them out. Try to disturb the roots as little as possible as Sunflowers don't take kindly to transplanting. In the future sow them "in situ" if at all possible otherwise do as I said above.

All the plants you see above were sown "in situ". I sowed them in rows but even though I tried to sow them thinly they still came up too close & I had to thin them out just as the true leaves were developing to about 50cm between plants - still too close for anything other than for their seeds. Gerry keeps them for his aviary birds during the winter.

If you look amongst my fortnightly allotment blogs from last year you will see lots of photos with Sunflowers sown in rows like these for their seed.

Oh right, ill get them out asap then thanks for that! ill be more prepared next year, im only a beginner this year! :o)

Don't worry, they will eventually flower & may even produce viable seed for you to sow next year. Try to sow them at the beginning of May or even a couple of sowings if you have enough seed.

I find on the allotments the self-sowns start to germinate as early as April! If you can sow seeds twice or 3 times you can have them in flower from July till September or beyond!

If you are buying seed for their flowers only you might like to buy dwarfer ones that grow only waist high instead of the "monsters" that can grow to 10ft or more! You could also check out to see if they are multi-headed or just single flowers.