Things You'll Need:
- Sunflower seed (to grow the plants)
- Cheese cloth (optional)
- Clippers
- 1/2-inch wire mesh
- Bucket
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Step 1
Not all sunflowers produce seeds and some varieties produce seeds that are too small to eat or aren't very tasty. So, be sure to select a variety like "Lyng's California Stripe" or "Sunflower" (yes, that is the extremely unoriginal name of the variety!) that was developed especially for eating (see Resources below).
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Step 2
Sunflowers grow best when planted in a site that has full sun and well-drained soil. If you plant these tall flowers in your vegetable garden, be sure to place them on the north side of your garden so they don't shade other crops.
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Step 3
You can enjoy your sunflower blooms all summer. When you notice the spirals of seed beginning to develop (usually in late summer), you can cover the heads with cheesecloth to prevent birds and squirrels from getting a free snack. (FYI, I usually skip this step because I don't care if the critters take a few seeds, and I think it makes my flowers look like mummies!)
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Step 4
You'll know that the seed heads are ready for harvest when the heads become droopy with the weight of the seeds and the back of the flower changes from a pale yellow to tan. Using clippers, cut down the flowers, leaving about 12 inches of stalk.
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Step 5
Hang the heads up in a cool, dry, well-ventilated spot so they can finish drying. You can harvest the seeds when they loosen up. The easiest way to do this is to clip a piece of 1/2-inch metal mesh (also called hardware cloth) over the mouth of a bucket. Then, rub the seed heads back and forth over the mesh. Most of the loose seeds will fall into the bucket. You can either pluck out the remaining seeds by hand or toss the heads out into the garden where some lucky squirrel will quickly finish off the job for you!
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Step 6
Go ahead and fill your feeders with the dry seed if you grew the sunflower seed for birds. If you want to snack on the seeds, you'll need to roast them (Check out my eHow article "How to Roast Sunflower Seeds" for detailed instructions).
