Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Mammoth Sunflower Sprouts


This is not the prettiest of sowing or the cleanest.  This is what happens when you give all the tools to a seven year old and sit back with the instructions.  He had told me he wanted okra since he loves pickled okra more than fried okra.  He even told his Great-Grandpa that he wanted pickled okra for his Easter gift.  Well, apparently he told my Dad that he wanted sunflowers down by the pond.  Naturally, Dad goes to work on the adventure finding the right kind of seeds for the little guy to sow.

He found a little seed pack of organic Mammoth sunflowers.  The package said 7 to 14 days to germinate.  These little sunflowers where so anxious it only took them a few days to pop up making the little guy extremely happy. He loved watching as the little ones came up out of the ground with the seed still covering the leaves.  He looks every day to see if the little shells have fallen off to reveal the two green leaves. 

They plan to transfer them down by the pond to help feed the birds and grab a few seeds themselves.  I also know that sunflowers are great at removing any toxins in the soil.  There should not be a lot of toxins around the water since fertilizers, weed killer, ant poison, or anything close to being chemical is not used around the water.  We want to eat clean fish, not the toxins seeping through the soil, but if there is any hanging around from the run off else where, the sunflowers will pick it up leaving the run off a little cleaner for the fish. 

I am going to have to research this a little more.  Kinda worries on eating seeds now.  I know these should be as close to organic as you can get, but still want to find out some more information on this.  

4 comments:

  1. Ah! sunflowers. Aren't they pretty? I am imagining a forest of sunflowers by the pond. Wow! it will be lovely. Your son is such a curious, good kid. Great.

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    1. I can not wait for him to see how big they will grow and take some pretty pictures! I found a few red sunflower seeds I think we will add to these this year.

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  2. you son will be amazed when it is fully grown.i love sunflower too, i have 13 types of sunflower which i grow in succession to prevent cross pollination.

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    1. I hope so. He has put in a lot of hard work and is very excited. He told me we forgot to plant squash this year!

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