Sunflowers

[farmgirlwannabe]

I have many sunflowers that are just starting to pass the "pretty" stage. I planted them for summer garden privacy, but now what can I do with them? This may be common knowledge for some of you - but I have absolutely no clue. I hate to see them go to waste because I was to afraid to ask. I will save some of the seeds for next year, but beyond that?

 

These were standard, run of the mill dollar store seeds that I planted. I also have a few that the birds so graciously planted in the yard for me.

[Canned Nerd]

Harvest sunflower seeds after the flower begins to die back, and most if not all, of the petals have fallen off. Pull out a seed and open it to see if it is full. Cut off the head, leaving a few inches of stalk. Hang the stalks to dry in a well ventilated area. Do not stack them in a box, as mold can develop during the drying process. As soon as the flowers have dried, extract the seeds by rubbing two flower heads together. They should come off of the flowerhead fairly easily.

 

[Ambergris]

The seeds in the center never fatten up or ripen for me. I break the stem off the back. If you do this, you'll see the sunflower head is structured a bit like a pita bread, two layers with air between, and you've torn a hole in the center of one layer. Punch or cut a corresponding hole through the other layer and you have a doughnut shape. I hang these on a pole on the back porch, and if the coons and squirrels don't get them I can rub the seeds off sometime later.

 

The middle, with the unripe seeds, goes to the chickens. When I had rabbits, I would strip off all the leaves, which the rabbits fought to get. (I would feed them each a leaf every few days as soon as the plants got waist-high, so they were used to this as a treat.) This would leave the central stalk, which I always threaten to turn into a bean pole or tomato stake, but which usually becomes an inconvenient object in the compost pile. Now the leaves go to the chickens too, or would if I had them penned so they ate only what I fed them.

[Jori]

I was trying to grow them this summer and they didn't take. But I had tried to find some information on pressing them for the oil with no luck.