Best sunflowers to grow for feeding and saving seeds?

[FourRingCircus]

OK, super long title says it all...

Which sunflowers are the best to grow for both a source of food (human and rabbit!) and also being able to save the seeds for future batches. I bought some this past year that were supposed to be tall with huge seed heads and was sorely disappointed with their output (2 feet tall, biggest seed head was maybe 3" across... pitiful). I know BOSS is pretty popular, but didn't know if there were better options out there or just go with the tried and true?

 

[Dood]

Well, big plants need a lot of water for their shallow root systems and rich soil to grow all those seeds. They also need support systems as the huge 12 inch flower heads can become too heavy and cause the stalk to kink over but they will have the largest seeds that are easy for humans to shell.

BOSS are actually rather small flowers but the can be grown on huge acreages like corn as they won't get damaged by a breeze and can stand up to being harvested by machinery. They have more than double the calories of other sunflower seeds because of their high oil content but are rather small and not a good choice for humans to open

The choice is yours - I no longer grow either as the wildlife raided the seeds before they were even half ripe but I use to have the big 12" + ones

__________ Wed Aug 19, 2015 7:14 pm __________

Also

Sunflowers require bees to pollinate so if they are lacking in your neighbourhood you'll have to do it with a small paint brush to maximize the number of seeds produced and flower head size and preferably with two or more varieties (cross pollination)

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

While I'm by no means an expert, I have found that I can get DRASTICALLY different results here in South Texas depending on when I plant them. Either 12 feet tall with platter-sized head that need to be supported, or nothing or stubby ones if I plant too late (because it can so suddenly get crazy hot). I've read that, depending on how many you want to plant, you can get a head start by starting the seeds indoors early. That's what I'm going to try next year.

I successfully grew some of the Russian Mammoth, the biggest striped meaty one (they call them confection sunflowers - for meats), but wasn't happy with the meat I got out of them (I may not have fed/watered them sufficiently for them to produce well as a "food" crop - I think they got a lot of neglect). I did a quick search and found that the Peredovik sunflower (a Russian variety) is the one where most folks get BOSS - not only does it have good oil, but the shell is soft enough for birds to get into. They sell them at my favorite online seed vendor for heirlooms and hot climate varieties, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange:

http://www.southernexposure.com/peredov ... p-169.html

I'm gonna order some myself!

(I think growing them under bird netting would be in order...)

- Ant Farm

 

[FourRingCircus]

I don't remember when I planted them, and I know we had some dry stretches this year so it's is pretty likely my pitiful out come was user error (didn't know it could be that drastic of a difference!). There are plenty of bees - a few hives up the hill (DH's grandparents let someone set some up on their property). I'll have to work an area this winter and get it prepped for spring. I am thinking I could set up a section of wire fencing and plant on either side to have something to tie them to. I also will grow them in front of the chicken coop and rabbit hutch area which will help shield from some of the elements and also give me something to attach them to if need be. Live and learn I guess... at least I am starting to actually be able to keep some plants alive! They may not flourish, but it's better than dead - it's a start, right!?!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I don't remember when I planted them, and I know we had some dry stretches this year so it's is pretty likely my pitiful out come was user error (didn't know it could be that drastic of a difference!). There are plenty of bees - a few hives up the hill (DH's grandparents let someone set some up on their property). I'll have to work an area this winter and get it prepped for spring. I am thinking I could set up a section of wire fencing and plant on either side to have something to tie them to. I also will grow them in front of the chicken coop and rabbit hutch area which will help shield from some of the elements and also give me something to attach them to if need be. Live and learn I guess... at least I am starting to actually be able to keep some plants alive! They may not flourish, but it's better than dead - it's a start, right!?!

They're not necessarily hard to grow, but I have definitely found that vs. growing them for "oooooh, pretty flowers," growing them for production of seeds/meats took a little more effort. Than again, I haven't done a lot of experimenting with it (yet). I suspect you'll need to find out what works for your garden and climate. I would avoid anything that required TOO much work, but a little carefully applied time and attention, or a tweak in planting time, might be refinements that could lead to growing your own BOSS being as easy as falling off a log. (At least, I hope so!). My challenge is that I KNOW I should keep notes from year to year on what I did, but I am not so great at that.

This year has been one big unintentional (and somewhat embarrassing) experiment in "what plants/varieties do well in the garden with near complete neglect, no rain, and 100F+ temps". The winners are as follows:

Tomato: "Ninevah" and "Basrawyah" (very heat/drought hardy varieties developed in Iraq and "rescued/salvaged" by a local seed saver there) and "Matt's Wild Cherry" (closely related to wild tomatoes from Mexico, so that tracks). "Hungarian paste" and "Michael Pollan" didn't do to badly either.
Cucumber "Poonah Kheera" and "Lemon"
Watermelon: "Hopi Yellow" - COMPLETE neglect and weeds, and I dug around and found two good ripe watermelons hiding. There are another two back there still going. (Blacktail mountain, a previous favorite, turned out to be a wimp AGAIN this year. I'm about fed up with it, no matter how yummy.)
All six sweet potato varieties look amazing (they seem to be saying "Heat, What heat? We love it! Who needs water...")

- Ant Farm

Edit to add: I DID get some nice paprika peppers... just finished drying them.