Marc, as you go on you will come to learn what shoots up in days and what takes several weeks, I always sow Lobelia and Petunias early because they take a long time to grow. peas, beans sunflowers, usually the bigger seeds come up in days, you will get to know what's what, have you got a book with the dates you sowed everything, and comments of when they came up, you can then look back next year and see what to sow that bit later.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Marc sunflowers are fast growers full stop. Sown now or a couple of weeks ago doesn't matter. In a few weeks they'll be OK to plant out and a touch of frost won't kill them. You can always fleece them if you're worried. Even if you lost them you could resow and they'd be just as quick. You're worrying too much.
This thread has been very instructive to me as I was beginning to think that I was late in sowing my sunflower seeds, given that they need a long growing season and lots of sun.
I bought seeds of the humongous 'Pikes Peak' variety (think: 'if Jack's Beanstalk was a sunflower!')- of course, I have never grown a sunflower in my life! So naturally I went the whole hog for the most unusual variety that I could find- Dovefromabove will have seen from my other posts my penchant for unusual varieties.
So my questions:
1. Should I sow them in 5-inch pots to later transplant or should I direct sow them?
2. If I direct sow them, when do you think I should do this?
3. Would it perhaps be wise to sprout them first and then sow the sprouted seeds direct?
I live in Buckinghamshire, to give you an indication of the temperature zone. The weather forecast for the coming weeks shows highs of 13, 14, 15, 14, 13, 13 and 12 and lows of 5, 5, 6, 7, 6, 3 and 3 degrees Celsius for this week, starting today.
personally it seems best to grow them on before they go out and we still have chances of frost
mine are still in the tray and another inch grown since last week. getting big very quick. i want to keep them in the tray for as long as possible and then hopefully go straight out in mid may but i may need to pot them on 1st if they keep getting big and start touching each other.
ill do another pic soon
gave 2 to my niece and nephew and they enjoying seeing them grow and its a competition to see who gets the largest
Right, well that fixes it- I'm sowing my seeds direct in May. According to that article, this is the best option. The SIZE of these things though- crikey!
I'm already have an elaborate plan to grow massive pumpkins and another one for super tomatoes so I think the sunflowers will have to make do and mend- from the size of the ones in that article, I think a bit of stunted growth is no bad thing!!
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It's so easy to sow too early in the year isn't it? I hope they survive.
Marc, as you go on you will come to learn what shoots up in days and what takes several weeks, I always sow Lobelia and Petunias early because they take a long time to grow. peas, beans sunflowers, usually the bigger seeds come up in days, you will get to know what's what, have you got a book with the dates you sowed everything, and comments of when they came up, you can then look back next year and see what to sow that bit later.
So I have sown about monnth early it seems so the question is if will be ok to continue or start some others off in a few weeks?
Seedlings getting close to 2" now. Getting good afternoon light and sunset at window
Marc sunflowers are fast growers full stop. Sown now or a couple of weeks ago doesn't matter. In a few weeks they'll be OK to plant out and a touch of frost won't kill them. You can always fleece them if you're worried. Even if you lost them you could resow and they'd be just as quick. You're worrying too much.
they are doing very well at this window and i slight open every so often to get a breeze. still worried that may fall over but so far so good.
id like to keep them in the tray until plant out if can which im thinking of at the start of may. some acclimatize to the garden 1st though
This thread has been very instructive to me as I was beginning to think that I was late in sowing my sunflower seeds, given that they need a long growing season and lots of sun.
I bought seeds of the humongous 'Pikes Peak' variety (think: 'if Jack's Beanstalk was a sunflower!')- of course, I have never grown a sunflower in my life! So naturally I went the whole hog for the most unusual variety that I could find- Dovefromabove will have seen from my other posts my penchant for unusual varieties.
So my questions:
1. Should I sow them in 5-inch pots to later transplant or should I direct sow them?
2. If I direct sow them, when do you think I should do this?
3. Would it perhaps be wise to sprout them first and then sow the sprouted seeds direct?
I live in Buckinghamshire, to give you an indication of the temperature zone. The weather forecast for the coming weeks shows highs of 13, 14, 15, 14, 13, 13 and 12 and lows of 5, 5, 6, 7, 6, 3 and 3 degrees Celsius for this week, starting today.
personally it seems best to grow them on before they go out and we still have chances of frost
mine are still in the tray and another inch grown since last week. getting big very quick. i want to keep them in the tray for as long as possible and then hopefully go straight out in mid may but i may need to pot them on 1st if they keep getting big and start touching each other.
ill do another pic soon
gave 2 to my niece and nephew and they enjoying seeing them grow and its a competition to see who gets the largest
im going to put out in my garden at weekend with a clear propagator top for a few days
and maybe prepare the site, i need to move some grass to make a nice space against a fence
what sort of distance will they need?
edit: 20" or so apart
http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/grow-sunflower.html
mine are not the giant ones though, evening sun
Right, well that fixes it- I'm sowing my seeds direct in May. According to that article, this is the best option. The SIZE of these things though- crikey!
I'm already have an elaborate plan to grow massive pumpkins and another one for super tomatoes so I think the sunflowers will have to make do and mend- from the size of the ones in that article, I think a bit of stunted growth is no bad thing!!
Me too
But watch out, the young plants are slug magnets - use the plastic bottles to help protect them
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.