#When to harvest sunflower seeds full#

Sunflower heads turn with, or track, the sun early in their development, but later stay east-facing before facing downwards. Commercial sunflowers have flowers that are self-compatible for pollination, meaning they do not require a pollinating insect, although some studies have shown bee pollinators providing a slight yield boost. The face of the head is comprised of hundreds of disk flowers, which each form into a seed (achene). What appears to be yellow petals around the edge of the head are actually individual ray flowers. Each sunflower head, or inflorescence, is actually composed of two types of flowers.

#When to harvest sunflower seeds full#

After reaching their full height and blooming, heads on commercial cultivars turn downwards, designed to make it harder for birds to eat the seed.Ī field of sunflowers in bloom is a striking sight, and many farmers remark about the pleasure they, and people passing by, get from seeing the flowers. Current sunflower varieties in Missouri reach an average of six feet in height, varying between five and seven feet depending on planting date and soil conditions. If planted in early June, sunflowers in Missouri will be in full bloom after about two months in early August, and be mature by late September. Sunflowers grow rapidly, producing large, rough leaves. Soil crusting can make it difficult for the large seedlings to push out of the soil. Emergence will take four to five days when planted an inch deep in warm soil, but will take a few days longer in cooler soils or when planted deeper. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is a broadleaf plant that emerges from the soil with two large cotyledons. Sunflowers are efficient at extracting water from the soil profile, especially in sandy loam soils, and can often tolerate drier conditions better than other crops. Sunflower is shorter season than most crops, so can be planted later or harvested earlier, helping spread out work load. Sunflowers can be planted from April through July, including as a double crop after wheat.īy adding sunflower to an existing crop rotation, pest problems such as corn borer or soybean cyst nematode can be reduced.

The growing size of the sunflower market, both for oilseed and birdseed uses, is creating new opportunity to add sunflowers to crop rotations in Missouri. New government policies are making it more economically favorable for sunflowers, primarily the availability of oilseed loan deficiency payments (LDPs) for sunflower.

Sunflower acreage has been increasing over the last few years in Missouri, with several thousand acres now produced. Sunflowers are well adapted to Missouri conditions, even though their primary production has lately been in the Northern and Western Plains. until the 1970s, there were tests of sunflower oilseed processing by the Southeast Missouri Sunflower Growers’ Association in Missouri in 1926. Although modern sunflower cultivars were not grown widely in the U.S. Sunflowers have a long history in Missouri, dating back at least a thousand years to when they were cultivated in fields by Native Americans. << back to Alternative Crop Production Overview