Russian giant sunflowers
By piersdad
7 comments
while you nice folks are freezing i am enjoying the hot weather you sent me in the south.
boxing day i noticed the giant flowers had reached the temporary cloths line and today they are 1/2 meter taller ie 500 millimeters.(8 days approx)
with another 3 months of growing to go i will update then.
interesting is the smaller plant next to the fence is in the shade and the ground temperature there is 12 c while the others are in 21 c ground temperature.
i am experimenting where to plant different things and my row of potatoes tell me very definitely where the best ground is with 1/2 the row nearly 2 meters wide and the rest under 1 meter.
last time i grew them they reached 4 meters so this time i may have to get a chain saw to harvest them.
this was the last time i grew theses monsters the person climbing is err 6 inches tall
4 Jan, 2010
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Aren't they tall !. Do you have to give them any support incase they topple over ?
4 Jan, 2010
Great pics Piersdad. Shame you spoilt it by telling us the fellow was only 6 inches tall.!!! Let's hope they grow strong enough this year for you to be able to climb them yourself!!!!
As we are deep in our winter over here, I can only dream of sowing sunflowers at the moment. But when my little mate ,Jack(our neighbour's 10 year old )came in the other day to thank us for his xmas present he mentioned the spring and sowing sunflowers as I always do with him so he's looking forward to it already!
4 Jan, 2010
Jack(our neighbour's 10 year old )
save a pic of the sunflower of mine from last year and let him have a copy.
they have grown 2 inches since yesterday.
i have a rope support around their trunks lower down but will have to support them higher up soon
last year i planted them in a circle and they formed a sort of tepee tent and the grand kids were able to play under them as a sort of natural house.
they are only teenager plants now so the will need plenty of food
4 Jan, 2010
I will show him your pics Piersdad! Ours have never grown that big!
5 Jan, 2010
checked them this morning they have grown 2 inches over night
5 Jan, 2010
I got some sunflowers to grow to over 2m just in my flower troughs a few years ago. I put some photos of them in my photos page. They were part of a trail by BBC Gardeners' World a few years ago. So it goes to show that you can get them to grow even if the soil is only about 30cm deep!
10 Jan, 2010
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4 Apr, 2009
My goodness ... paraphrasing a famous aussie movie character ... "That's not a giant sunflower ... THIS is a giant sunflower!" Fantastic photo.
Who's that climbing up the sunflower? Would be a great illustration for a story called 'Jack (or whoever that is ) and the Sunflower!'
Also interesting your point about the ground temperature and its effect on growth! That's definitely one of the considerations I have to make over here in north-east Oz too ... the ground temperature during our summer is rather toasty!!!
4 Jan, 2010