Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

Thanks this was very helpful. It has grown over 8 feet and has started to droop. The heads are huge. It's great that I can add the seeds to my bird mix.

Thanks again,

--- In Organic_Gardening@yahoogroups.com, "kenrogers911" <kenrogers@...> wrote:
>
> Simply remove the flower heads as they contain all the seeds. I had a couple of big sunflower seeds sprout this spring and allow them to reach maturity. The couple of seeds were missed by birds that I feed all winter. The stalk diameter was over an inch, and the height was just 4.5 feet tall. One had a huge flower about one foot in diameter. I cut off both flower heads once the yellow petals died out. I placed the heads in my greenhouse for about 2 weeks to dry and removed all the sunflower seeds, which were the wild bird preferred type, black oil seeds. Didn't get a whole lot of them, but about 3 cups of seeds. Once the heads are cut off, there is no way that plant can return next year, as they only grow from seeds. I go through almost 300 pounds of wild bird food every winter, and by October I will be putting out about 6 feeders again.
>
> On the other hand, all around the sunflowers, a LOT of dill sprouted everwhere. Most is mammoth size and reach nearly 7 foot tall. I left most to mature to seed heads and let them fall to the ground. Some actually took hold and are now 1 inch tall seedlings, but will die for the winter. The majority that remain can survive and hold off germination until next spring when weather gets warmer again. I don't mind having lots of dill, but because we had low temps in the 60's in all of June and most of July, my pickling cukes took forever to sprout and grow this year. The dill was almost all gone by the time cukes arrived. Usually most squash needs a LOT of watering.
>
>
> --- In Organic_Gardening@yahoogroups.com, "lifelongadventurer" <lifelongadventurer@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi, this year I planted Sunflower seeds (Mammoth). But now as the season is beginning to change I'm wondering what I need to do with it. I don't want to grow it again next year wondering if I need to unearth it or just chop it down to prevent it regrowing. It has grown quite huge. If only my squash was so hardy...
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > ps can that be composted?
> >
>

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