Do you like roasted sunflower seeds? Then why don’t you grow a sunflower at your dacha? After all, your own, “environmentally friendly”, a good harvest can be obtained even on a 10 m² dacha plot.
In addition, these little suns perfectly decorate your garden and give it a unique flavor. And about how to plant a plant and care for him, which varieties will give the best harvest, we will tell you in detail now.
Sunflower planting
The sunflower is unpretentious to the growing conditions (for example, it can tolerate short-term spring frosts to -5 ° C), is drought-resistant. But in order for you to get large and beautiful seeds at harvest, you will need to pay enough attention to it.
Firstly, for a good harvest, planting sunflower is necessary on fertile soil. The best option is the soil with an average amount of clay in the roots of sunflower and with a sufficient amount of moisture under them. Landing on sour, marsh and saline land is not worth it. Another sunflower should not be planted in areas where earlier legumes (beans, peas, soybeans) used to grow, sugar beets and tomatoes (due to an excess of nitrogen in the soil after these plants), but the land after planting crops and corn is perfect .
Also, we do not advise you to plant a plant for several years in a row on the same plot (it is advisable to take a break for 3-4 years), since the sunflower very actively consumes the nutrients it needs from the soil, literally sucking them out of the ground. In addition, the sunflower is prone to various diseases, so this respite will get rid of most of the pathogens (from which the plant suffers), remaining in the ground. Another important factor is that the chosen landing site must be sunny and windless.
Oilseed sunflower is a one-year crop, which will need from 70 to 150 days to ripen, depending on the variety and place of growth. The planting of sunflower seeds is carried out in warm, heated soil (when the earth warms up to +8 … + 12 ° C), usually in April.
Before planting, seeds need to be pickled and calibrated. For dressing, you can use special disinfectants, but there is also an effective folk remedy that will help get rid of harmful microorganisms.
For the manufacture of this tool will need garlic and onion peel. Garlic (about 100 g) is passed through a meat grinder, then mixed with onion peel and poured with two liters of boiling water. This mixture is infused for about a day, then the infusion is filtered through cheesecloth.
Sunflower seeds are left in this infusion overnight before planting. Such treatment of seeds before planting will bring additional benefits: at first, it will scare off rodents and other pests who love to feast on seeds.
When planting, seeds are sown to a depth of 8 cm, in each nest we leave 2-3 seeds. The distance between planted sunflowers is also very important and depends on the variety. Between large sunflowers, the interval should be 75-90 cm, between medium-height plants – 45-50 cm.
The greater the distance between sunflowers, the larger the seeds with seeds will be. In small areas, sunflower can be planted in the aisle between cereals.
Sunflower reproduction
Since sunflower oilseed is a one-year plant, there are no special breeding methods for this species – only seeds 🙂 We strongly advise to carefully choose seeds when planting: sunflower is a cross-pollinated plant, therefore you shouldn’t take seeds from sunflower seeds that you plant for the third year in a row.
Because of cross-pollination with other varieties and hybrids, you will have many empty seed baskets, and the seeds themselves will be small and the quality of the seeds will be worse.
Sunflower Care
To get a tasty and big seed, for sunflower need careful care. It is necessary to fertilize the land under it properly, the plant itself – to water and plentifully on time and take timely measures against various pests, because many of them simply will not refuse from sunflower seeds.
Garter
Garter sunflower is needed only in one case – if you planted a plant in an open place with strong winds. Since the plant is usually tall, without a garter it can break or bend.
Watering
For better harvest, watering the sunflower needs a regular one. Usually enough once a day. If the weather is dry or the plant is planted in an area where there is insufficient moisture, it is advisable to water it 2-3 times a day.
Top dressing
Sunflower – kaliolyubivoy plant. But with nitrogen fertilizers need to be careful. With an increased dose of nitrogen in the soil, the sunflower becomes more susceptible to various diseases. Even if the plants on such a land grow big and beautiful, their baskets usually turn out to be empty.
Bee-whims prefer when pollinated sunflowers, fed with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers. In their opinion, their nectar is much sweeter. Fertilizers should be applied to the soil simultaneously with planting, after watering or after the first weeding.
Pest control
Sunflower seeds are loved not only by people, various rodents and birds also want to eat them. When planting for a while, the infusion described above for seed dressing will help protect the seeds from these dirty dogs.
Additional protection from birds will serve white threads tied on small pegs. In a few weeks, the emerged shoots will no longer interest the birds.
A new invasion of these pests will begin when the seeds are ripe. For their scare useful fabric strips, gauze and newspaper strings, strips of foil – the main thing that they shone brightly in the sun. There is another option to protect the seeds from birds: a light gauze bag with holes for ventilation is put on the pollinated seed box.
Harvesting
As soon as the seeds have ripened, the seed is completely cut off with a sharp knife. If the seeds in the seed are wet, leave the cut head to dry in the sun.