Sunflowers!!!!
 

This is a rambling, near half year long vid on sunflowers. I did a vid back in December as a Thank You to Mike for his forum work. I couldn't send those seedlings in cold weather, so I grew them, pulled seeds, and made a plan.
Hope you enjoy, and that you send me questions. I probably forgot so much since this went on for so long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EerCL6kX95o

Joe my mom and lady friend will just love them they Love Flowers,


Thank You,

Clyde

I think those are the tallest Sunflowers I have ever seen!

Kewl beans. Thanks buddy

that was cool. We have huge sunflower fields here in SD, they are really an awesome sight...

My mom loves sunflowers.

They are my daughter's favorite, too. For that reason, I planted a small patch in my garden around Easter. So far, just little codyledons are showing. Need to feed them.

There are two kinds in each pack.......
Bright orange, should reach 4-6 feet
Bright yellow Mammoth, should reach 8 foot plus.

I dried these according to directions I read online. We have eight seedlings at about 6 inches tall from that batch, so I might have done something correct.

To plant the other seeds I would mix one bag topsoil, one small bag potting soil and 1/4 bag composted cow manure--->mixed well, punch a hole in the ground with the sharp pvc, fill with your new dirt, stick a seed or two an inch or so deep and water.

I am going to experiment with Epsom salts this go around. Epsom salts have my roses blooming like crazy. But ya hafta find 'em at maybe Deals, on special. Epsom salts are expensive.

I was a little nervous about mailing this stuff due to the manure. But the Post Office people assured me twice it was legal. They didn't know, but I guess it was the small amount.

I might start a Blog here on sunflowers if I can figger it out. My sons are in Little League playoffs in two different divisions, it's a little bit crazy around here. Yesterday was 200 eleven year olds at Kennedy Space Center. Last night was the last bit of my shine from SC.
Did I mention I am buying a still in Savannah, Georgia on my next trip to SC? Company there makes real stills, right on my way. Yes, soon I will be dabbling in corn likker. Maybe sunflower likker!!!!

Got the box, Joe. That woman says she is gonna decide where they go. Jake and I will plant them, everything she touches dies...with good reason

Knew a woman like that once...'bout thirty years ago....I think she died.

Very neat Joe, I wonder if tomato plants can be done the same way.

Great video Joe! Thanks so much, I got my kit in the mail yesterday. Great surprise when I got home from work. It still gets pretty cold at night. Today is actually last frost date. I'm going to get them started inside tonight. I'll toss in a little epsom salt in one to compare. I have a big bag of it that I use in my aquaponics setup in the greenhouse. Fired that up today, I plan to run it with fish in the tank this year. Last year it ran on ferts because my fish weren't really big enough, but they are now. I built that out of an IBC tank, you can check that out if you go back a little in my greenhouse blog. http://alex-dome.blogspot.com/

Your fish tank ran on farts? :confused:

Pissed mself......oh jeez

yup, part of the speriment was to be able to start sunflowers early in colder parts of the U.S.
I'm gonna do a epsom salt side by side, starting tomorrow AM with my daughter, sunflowers, tomatoes and green beans...
Gonna check the blog!

Will work....this is an ongoing speriment, gonna take years to complete. We are so lucky to have members all over the USA and I have access to alot of horse/cow doo-doo.

love that you sent me doo-doo by the way. nanner

Do you use the same pvc pipe? Is it 2 or 2.5in?

Haha, my father used to say I gave people sh*t since the day I was born.

I used 2 inch since the thickest stalk of the eight foot tall sunflower was 1.25 inches thick. Same size for the hole puncher piece.
HOWEVER, the length of the pipes was very, very scientific. That was the length that would fit into the Post Office box. :D

The concept is really to have a stable "pot" for starting seeds, then no need to transplant, just plant the pot, which is PVC pipe. At the same time the pipe funnels water and fertilizer to the roots. And it is re-useable. Plus it allows for the starter plant to stay indoors longer if needed, say cause of frost. It has a foot of pipe to grow roots in. Gives people in cold climates a month long jump on starting gardens. Win-win.

Today 5/18/2014

This Sunflower was planted eight weeks ago....near 20 flowers on one plant.
People walking by stop for pictures....cool.

[IMG]http://www.cotep.org/forum/picture.p...&pictureid=753[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.cotep.org/forum/picture.p...&pictureid=754[/IMG]

awesome. I'm still waiting for that woman to decide where she wants them

Pretty neat!!!:)

Awesome!

Very neat Joe.

Did ya plant a few in the pipes as starters?

Not yet. I aint waiting on her much longer

Plant 'em in the pipes, one seed each, stand the pipe in the sun and water it. They can stay in there for a month. At least you will have two going. use two different color seeds, I think the bigger, lighter color would be Yellow sunflowers and the darker seeds are Orange sunflowers..

I got one in each of the pipes and I planted the rest in some pots. 100% germination all 8 sprouted.

http://www.cotep.org/alex/sunflower1.jpg

http://www.cotep.org/alex/sunflower2.jpg

YES!!!! We will be growing all over the USA!!!!
I am so happy they sprouted already!!!

Kids and I are starting a new sunflower speriment this weekend.
Of course there will be a video!

Starting mine this weekend as well in SD

Planted 3 tubes of 'em tonight. Me and Jake got tired of waiting. Maybe too much water...floated out 2 of the seeds and had to reset them. We shall see. Thanks, Joseph

Mike......be sure to cut open the tape on the bottom so water leaks out. Floaters should be OK, my daughter is a pro at re-setting seeds!

as usual, a little bulls*** saves the day :p

all seeds have sprouted

Here it is Joe! This is my best one. Looks good in my back yard and I enjoy it. Got a smaller variety in the greenhouse if you can find it.
http://alex-dome.blogspot.com/

http://www.cotep.org/alex/sunflower.jpg

I have a confession, my first planting from Joe was about 12 seeds with two tube plants. They all were about 1 1/2 feet tall, we had a monster storm with hail and all the fixings. One survived. I babied that one plant it was about as tall as me 6 foot and about to open up the flower and we had a major wind storm, blew the darn thing over. I tried to replant it but the roots where just to far gone....so I am a non sunflower poster. Will try again next year though. Kaden thought it was pretty neat!

Hey Alex I guess Joe will have to goto Maine and show you how to weed out your flower garden,


Clyde

We got wiped out Saturday. Florida has violent T-storms, like I have seen nowhere else. Looked like a hurricane outside for maybe two hours, when it was over forty eight plants were snapped out front of our house. I need to re-think support sticks, the planting area is too wide open to wind. But the neighborhood loves them, so we will plant again!

Yah...whew......sunflower peeking over the top!funny

Yeah, they spotted a funnel cloud in Boynton Beach on Friday as well as part of that storm that hit around 2pm.

When I went to Sturgis, and I forgot what state it was, but there were fields of sunflowers as far as the eye could see.

That was the problem with Caryn's work meeting, people showing up late made her late. Nasty storm.

I tried to do this on 7.5 acres in SC, my horse pasture. Not one plant took, or they were eaten as sprouts. But not by horses, they were moved away at the time. Planted over 100 seeds in soil so fertile it grows tomatoes softball size, nothing. Next time I'm putting a camera on a planting area.