I love growing sunflower seeds. If I was in the mood to find a happy plant to lift my spirits, I think that there would be no better choice than the sunflower, and they are really easy to grow from seed. If you don’t have a garden, don’t worry, sunflowers can be grown in pots so long as you have a nice bright and sunny indoor space to put them
Start the seeds off indoors in in the spring
Place the compost into a pot, almost to the top. Water this compost and allow the water to drain out of the bottom.
Poke your finger in the compost, up to your first knuckle, to make a hole for one of your seeds. Pop the sunflower seed into the hole, and then cover with a little compost.
Put the pot/s on individual saucers, and place somewhere sunny such as a windowsill. When the compost feels dry to touch, then give your sunflower a little water. Don’t drown it! You should see your new plant poke through the soil after about 1 or 2 weeks.
It would be a good idea to think about feeding your new plant/s when two sets of leaves appear. Here I would recommend using a fertiliser specially formulated for flowering plants, where there’ll be a healthy dose of the vital nutrient potassium. Liquid tomato food will work, and you can follow the dilution rates on the label.
When the sunflower grows too big for its pot, plant it in a bigger one, or outside if you have somewhere warm and sunny, and the risk of frost has gone.
Transplanting into the garden proper
Choose a bright sunny spot out of the wind. Dig a hole roughly the same size as the current flowerpot. If transplanting more than one, make sure you allow at least 50cms space between each plant.
Water the plant well before transplanting as this will ensure that the soil ball doesn’t fall apart. Carefully tease out of the pot, and place immediately into the hole that you have prepared.
As your sunflower continues to grow, it will need some help to support the stem. Sink a bamboo cane close to each plant, and loosely tie the plant’s stem to the cane using strips of cut up old tights. Using wire or string may cut into and damage the stem.
Water regularly and protect from slugs: broken eggshells or gravel spread around the stems are both helpful natural deterrents from marauding slugs and snails. Stand back and watch your sunflower reach for the skies!
Did you know that the tallest sunflower on record was 9.17 metres – that’s taller than five average height humans standing on each other’s shoulders!
auntieplanty.co.uk
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