Growing Sunflowers in Kent

[Bignor Farmer]

I am in a yellow bit, so I do still have a chance or at least worth a try anyway. I only want some flowers, no expectations of seeds.

I would get them planted, they definitely won’t grow in the bag.
ours started flowering in mid July last year and were still flowering hard at the end of October when they went flat in a storm. We mixed about 5 varieties.

 

[Kidds]

I would get them planted, they definitely won’t grow in the bag.
ours started flowering in mid July last year and were still flowering hard at the end of October when they went flat in a storm. We mixed about 5 varieties.

I followed the advice from you and @nxy

 

[Badshot]

How are the sunnies progressing @Bignor Farmer and @Ginger2022 ?

 

[bobk]

Saw a crop near the M6 last week , heads just going over , should be cutting by xmas

 

[Bignor Farmer]

How are the sunnies progressing @Bignor Farmer and @Ginger2022 ?

Sunflowers have been brilliant again, started flowering hard in early July, still going strong now.
Probably 12ft high, A few starting to go over now.
I’ll try and combine them if they don’t go completely flat and I can get in the field in November! We might use them as a halloween spooky trail first.

 

[Headless chicken]

Has anyone grown sunflowers in conjunction with maize? Thinking they’d grow a large biomass oils would increase energy too? Coops they be wholecropped?

 

[Farmer Roy]

Roy I have to say they look pretty impressive, what sort of yields would your crops achieve and do your yields vary much from year to year? I am assuming these are dryland?

Our varieties rarely produce such big heads even when given space.

The main concern when looking at varieties even half way down France is how early they come to harvest. We are almost bang on the 46th parallel north. From a southern hemisphere perspective 46th South is the southern tip of New Zealand and way south of the whole of Tasmania.

We only grow early, very early and ultra early types due to a lack of day degrees, these tend to have smaller heads than the late varieties grown in southern Europe.

Sorry, didn’t see this post before now.

tbh, that crop wasn’t anything great, I have certainly grown better in the past but don’t have any pics.

that head size is pretty normal, usually about the size of a dinner plate

dryland sunnies here can go anything from .5 t - 3 t / ha, largely dependent on seasons & stored soil moisture. I would normally budget on 1.5 - 2 t / ha

All our varieties are bred & grown for seed. Either oil - mono or polyunsaturated, or for the birdseed & confectionery markets.
Specific varieties for specific markets

we plant at relatively low populations, say 40,000 plants / ha, on wide rows of 75 - 100 cm

the MAIN trick with sunnies is having even spacing & population, to get even sized heads. Like cotton or corn ( maize ), even spacing is crucial.

46 parallel wow . . .

we are in 31

personally, I wouldn’t even think about growing them them on our southern mainland, let alone Tasmania or god forbid, as far south as @Kiwi Pete lives

but, if your varieties are bred for those conditions, then . It is outside of my experience, but our growing seasons are very different then

 

[Exfarmer]

Sorry, didn’t see this post before now.

tbh, that crop wasn’t anything great, I have certainly grown better in the past but don’t have any pics.

that head size is pretty normal, usually about the size of a dinner plate

dryland sunnies here can go anything from .5 t - 3 t / ha, largely dependent on seasons & stored soil moisture. I would normally budget on 1.5 - 2 t / ha

All our varieties are bred & grown for seed. Either oil - mono or polyunsaturated, or for the birdseed & confectionery markets.
Specific varieties for specific markets

we plant at relatively low populations, say 40,000 plants / ha, on wide rows of 75 - 100 cm

the MAIN trick with sunnies is having even spacing & population, to get even sized heads. Like cotton or corn ( maize ), even spacing is crucial.

46 parallel wow . . .

we are in 31

personally, I wouldn’t even think about growing them them on our southern mainland, let alone Tasmania or god forbid, as far south as @Kiwi Pete lives

but, if your varieties are bred for those conditions, then . It is outside of my experience, but our growing seasons are very different then

sunflowers will struggle here
One year had a great crop , never repeated

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Sorry, didn’t see this post before now.

tbh, that crop wasn’t anything great, I have certainly grown better in the past but don’t have any pics.

that head size is pretty normal, usually about the size of a dinner plate

dryland sunnies here can go anything from .5 t - 3 t / ha, largely dependent on seasons & stored soil moisture. I would normally budget on 1.5 - 2 t / ha

All our varieties are bred & grown for seed. Either oil - mono or polyunsaturated, or for the birdseed & confectionery markets.
Specific varieties for specific markets

we plant at relatively low populations, say 40,000 plants / ha, on wide rows of 75 - 100 cm

the MAIN trick with sunnies is having even spacing & population, to get even sized heads. Like cotton or corn ( maize ), even spacing is crucial.

46 parallel wow . . .

we are in 31

personally, I wouldn’t even think about growing them them on our southern mainland, let alone Tasmania or god forbid, as far south as @Kiwi Pete lives

but, if your varieties are bred for those conditions, then . It is outside of my experience, but our growing seasons are very different then

We can grow them well down here, harvesting them before they're full of mould is a different story.

That's the hitch with growing them as a cashcrop. For wholecrop or grazing, because of the better airflow around the heads with a lower plant population, they do reliably better