Thursday, July 1, 2010

Sunflower, counting the seeds in thousands

seeds of different sizes
on a dinner plate,
from two different sunflowers
~ photo 1


The left  598 seeds
comes from a large sunflower head,
with bigger seeds and almost black seedcoats
The right 115 seeds
is smaller in size, clear white/black stripes,
coming from a smaller sunflower head.
~ photo 2


and
there are more 
totalling 2015 seeds,
safely kept in plastic bags in a cool place.

From one plant, it ended up with 35 seeds and now 2015 seeds. The seeds vary so much, from real black colour to white stripes.. How interesting, coming a single plant last year....

first generation ~ 1 seed (July 2009)
second generation ~ 35 seeds (October 2009)
third generation ~ 2015 seeds. (June 2010)
Kaklong 
my eldest sister had taken 100 seeds to her place. 
The place she is living is at the north of Perak, with cooler temperature due to mountains 
and virgin forest nearby. That will somehow recreate the original land of sunflower 
which is America. 
Our neighbour Noor 
has shown real interest  in sunflowers, 
and  Kakdah had  given away some to her.
Kakdah 
had germinated some of the seeds 
with some lavishness since there are thousands available, 
and a few are placed in a pot and the rest on vegetable bed. 


huh, what i am going to do with so many  seeds?

13 comments:

  1. Hello,
    Give some to the birds.

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  2. What a wonderful problem to have....too many seeds :-)

    I have enjoyed growing sunflowers for the first time this summer. I can't wait to do so again next year.

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  3. You were so patient to count all the seeds. How many flowers had good mature seeds.

    Some one says if you store your seeds in the fridge, they will last longer.

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  4. Oh my goodness, a lot of seeds, but really...I never would have had the patience to count them :P Quite amazing though to realize they all originate from just one little seed.

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  5. I calculated, it should be 2016.
    Wanna bet?

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  6. Bangchik can u n Kak Dah spare me some of the seeds..I would like to try them for the first time.TQ

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  7. wow! that's alot! Looking forward for new sunflower plants update from you!

    Bangchik,i need advice from you. My tomato plants are flowering but the flowers dries and fall off..... any idea why?

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  8. how lovely to have so many sunflower seeds! Here in Seattle Washington we grow a lot of them to feed to the birds. Do your birds like them too?

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  9. That's great! Good job Bangchik. Now you can fill up your whole garden with sunflowers... like a sunflower field. The possiblity is unlimited :-D

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  10. Hahaha, i've missed some posts but i tried to read down. congratulations for your wonderful harvests, and i can see the bittergourd are ready to harvest too. I just read somewhere that the face of the sunflower seed formation follows the Fibonacci numbers, and it is wonderful. Also your cabbage reminded me my first harvest during our first laboratory class in college, i planted cabbage and was very happy to get a nice-sized head!

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  11. We leave some seed heads on the plant over winter and the birds pick them out. The garden birds love the black ones especially.

    Some are also sold in health food stores as nibbles

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  12. ~Ellada. Birds here dont seem to bother sunflower seeds for now..

    ~Noelle. Seeds ability to germinate seem to diminish over time. So I cant keep them for far too long... So I got to keep growing.. haha.

    ~Ann. It is not difficult to count Ann. What interest me most is to know how many seeds would a plant produce.. and their size and colour. Just to understand their relationship. I havent figured out why some plants produce multiple flowers and some just single.

    ~Curbstone Valley Farm ~ yes, all originating from one seed. In fact counting is no big deal, just spread them on a tray and start pushing 10 each time to one side... very quick!

    ~rainfield61. But rainnie, to miss one out of 2000 odd seeds cant be very wrong. haha... within the accepted accuracy.

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  13. ~p3chandan. Just leave your address at my email address. mylittlegetablegarden@gmail.com

    ~Malar. New sunflower plants are growing now. About tomato, let me guess, they probably are suffering from extreme temperature.. Our tomato dont seem to suffer drying up of flowers, but ocassionally they wilt and die..

    ~Anonymous. It sounds many because I counted them... otherwise it would just be "a bowl of seeds". Birds here have not acquired the taste of sunflower seeds yet....

    ~Stephanie. I cant turn my little garden into a sunflower farm. Primarily I am still a vegetable gardener... haha.

    ~Andrea. You are right about arrangement of the florets and seeds. Perfect and similar in any sunflower. Fibonacci number is the guiding principle sunflowers seem to follow. So you have grown cabbage in college days... congrats to you too...

    ~Green Lane Allotments. They are sold as nibbles here too. We call them "kuaci". Birds dont seem to bother sunflower seeds at the moment. I am not too sure which bird will come and pick sunflower seeds. Later attempts at sunflower, I will leave some to dry and see what happen.

    ~AaronVFT. There will be sunflower all over the garden but vegetable remains as the main focus....

    Thanks everyone, happy gardening and a very nice day to all.
    BANGCHIK

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