Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Sunflower going into second generation.

 
sunflower seedling
Notice the seed shell or hull still attached at the tip.

  
sunflower seedling
  
sunflower seedlings
  
Rows of sunflower seedlings
a big difference compared 
to the first attempt last year, 
with a solitary sunflower plant.  

It was fun having sunflower in the garden last year. The single sunflower plant matured, produced the most exotic looking flower. The 35 sunflower seeds saved, were kept in a plastic container until a week ago. We decided to germinate all of them directly onto the vegetable beds. Little shoots pop up from the ground one after another. If these little plants survive to maturity, we are going to collect almost 1000 seeds in a few months time. Hmmm...

To see how they fare with other plants, we squeezed them beside chili plants and basils, which also has eggplants, asin-asin, marigolds, lady's finger amongs others. On the other bed, sunflowers has to share with ginger, tomato plants , sweet peas, radishes, spinach and pak choy. Lets what the big community of plants can do to sunflowers. I do believe they will support one another.... None is invasive enough to wipe out the others.

Now, a few has gone to the second pair of leaves while the rest still at the first pair. The mother plant was short, about a foot and a half. It must be the dwarf sunflower. Now our garden is ready to see how the second generation of  sunflower fares . Fertilizing is almost weekly, both poultry manure pellets and liquid spray.

~ bangchik

16 comments:

  1. It will be interesting to see how this second generation fare. Will they be dwarf like their parent, or will they grow taller? We'll have to wait and see.

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  2. Isn't it amazing that such a large flower can grow from such a tiny plant?

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  3. Kansas is the Sunflower state. I love sunflowers. I am planting giant sunflowers again this year because the birds love them! I will also plant regular sunflowers (Iris Eyes).

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  4. I love sunflowers. Can't wait to see the grow in your beautiful garden!

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  5. You are going to have a stand of gorgeous sunflowers. It will be fun to watch them grow.

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  6. I love sunflowers! That's the only seed I feed the birds and squirrels in my yard. Every now and then I'll see a plant popping up in the grass. When I was little I used to grow the ones that got over 6 feet tall. How tall will these plants become?

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  7. You are such a diligent gardener, your plants are all very healthy-looking and are promising good harvests. They seem so happy at your care!

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  8. I love sunflowers too. Two of the best ones we ever had were volunteers (naturally!) One was a volunteer from a bag of sunflower seeds for birds, and it was a multi-flowered sunflower that had a very long bloom time. The second was a Texas Sunflower that came up in the middle of a little field on our farm.

    It looks like you are going to have a forest of Sunflowers this year. :)

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  9. Hope you have some nice sunflowers from your seed saving. I noticed that I had some volunteers that have already come up, not sure how they will fair in our coming blast of cold now that we have had spring before it really was spring!

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  10. Hurray for sunflower seedlings! I don't think it's possible to look at a sunflower and not smile. They make me instantly happy, that's for sure.

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  11. We grow a huge line of sunflowers along the south side of our house. We leave the seed heads on the ground and during the winter, many birds come to feast on them. I love sunflowers!

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  12. I have tried growing them but sadly they were all eaten by snails and slugs once I planted them out. They obviously taste good to some wildlife. Good luck with yours.

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  13. Jo
    Noelle
    Rebecca @ In The Garden
    David in Kansas
    Meredith
    Hocking Hills Gardener
    Green Iris
    Andrea
    sweet bay
    Lanny
    jodi (bloomingwriter)
    Jeanne
    easygardener

    Thanks everyone. It is true that all plants start from tiny seedlings. They keep on growing on track of their own DNA makeup. Some will grow into massive trees 100 feet high, some retains their dwarf characteristic and will not venture high up.

    This specie of sunflowers is the dwarf type, matured at a foot and a half. I guess most will come up to that expectation, but I play up with the wildest imagination that one or two will go out of the way to 10 feet.. huh!

    It wont be too long before they start blooming... But grasshoppers seem to intimidate them, biting leaves at will. Snails and slugs are now under control. Let nature handles these baby plants to maturity.

    ~bangchik
    Putrajaya, Malaysia.

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  14. Bangchik, All these sunflowers will make your garden more cheery! They are so vulnerable at this stage... good luck with them all! Do you notice how when you open a fresh sunflower the seeds are white... in all of our food they are grey... most likely rancid by the time we eat them. I have stopped buying granola with sunflower seeds since growing the plant myself and seeing the pearly white color of the seeds. I grew the mammoth variety. You are inspiring me to grow them again. ;>)

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  15. Carol ~ The beauty behind growing plants is the chance to see them phasing through the incremental growth. Each plant has its own character, the way seed coats break, then letting out the first pair of leaves. At early stage, most baby leaves come in pairs. After series of germination, one begin to recognise the little seedlings. Carol, growing sunflowers is fun that we appreciate the existence of the nucleus of our solar system, The Sun! Lets grow sunflower.
    ~bangchik

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