Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Mammoth Sunflower Planting

The little monster had a nice surprise for me yesterday.  I was ready to water our little garden right before dark and he made me close my eyes as soon as I came close.  Our first Mammoth Sunflower had opened it's bloom to show a bright yellow face. A few more are getting ready to do the same during this week.

We planted our seeds one inch deep once the night temps started to stay around 50. (winter sowed seeds did not grow as tall and are no where near producing a flower)  We spaced our seeds one foot apart.  They started to sprout within 3 days of the first planting and watering.  Once they grew a good six inches, we packed a little more soil and fertilizer around the base of the plants.  We did this again at two foot tall to help prevent to sturdy flowers from falling over.  They were also watered daily during times of no rain.

Our first bloomer is around six feet tall with a flower that is eight inches in diameter.  The yellow is very bright on the petals and even with the weight of the bloom the plant is not sagging or bending over at all.  These heavy feeders are doing great with a little bit of lime, magnesium, calcium and fish waste to make sure the soil keeps providing nutrients for the plants. We used this  mixture every third week since the soil was very rich to begin with.

First day open
 Third day open.

 Sunflowers after a few weeks of growing.

6 comments:

  1. Who wouldn't smile seeing that in their garden. Wow!

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    1. He was very proud of the plants he grew from seeds.

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  2. Don't you have deer there? All my sunflowers are getting eaten by them :-(...

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    Replies
    1. Yes, but no problems with them. They always ate our peas so we have a things to keep them away.

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  3. beautiful! congratulations to your son for a job well done.

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