Harvesting Sunflower Seeds from the Heads

For ten days, I had been drying the cut sunflower heads in a wicker storage box in my Florida Room. Today, I worked on my first dried sunflower head to harvest the sunflower seeds.

By the way, imagine my surprise when I Googled sunflowers and harvesting sunflower seeds from the heads! Holy smokes, but I found so many content scrapers out there who don't have a clue how to be original and authentic, but feel the need to steal other people's work. Shame on you. Why don't you try and grow your own gardens and then you can share your own photography.

Dried Sunflower Head Before Harvesting Seeds

I knew that my sunflower head was about ready for harvesting the seeds as the top layer was easily falling away from the head. In the above picture, you can see the seeds exposed near the center of the head.

Dried Sunflower Head Before Harvesting Seeds

Checking the dried sunflower head, the rest of the top layer was easily falling away, exposing more of the sunflower seeds below.

Completely Removed Top Layer of the Dried Sunflower Head

Carefully running the ball of your finger over the top of the dried sunflower head, the top layer should easily fall off. Now you can see your seeds are completely exposed.

Some Sunflower Seeds Removed from the Dried Sunflower Head

As you gently brush the top of the dried sunflower head, the seeds will literally pop out. If you look closely at the above picture, you can actually see the remainder of the seeds within the seed head.

More Sunflower Seeds Removed from the Dried Sunflower Head

I found it amazing to see just how many sunflower seeds were neatly tucked into that dried sunflower head. In the above picture, you can now clearly see the honeycomb structure within the head that held the seeds. It rather reminds me of a bee's honeycomb.

All Sunflower Seeds Removed from the Dried Sunflower Head

Holy Smokes! Look at all those sunflower seeds. You can see them in the right side of the picture. On the left, is the top layer which covered the seeds. And, the honeycomb sunflower head has had all the seeds removed.

Grading the Sunflower Seeds Removed from the Dried Sunflower Head

I was curious how many sunflower seeds I gathered from harvesting the dried sunflower head. Can you make an educated guess how many there are without looking ahead at the answer?

How Many Sunflower Seeds Can You Harvest From One Dried Sunflower Head?

You can see I made 4 little piles of seeds. I was rather "grading" the types of seeds by A, B, C and D grades. To the far right is A; to the far left is the D group. After completing the counting and grading, I found that A and B were pretty comparable in quality and size.

Piles A and B have 100 sunflower seeds each. Pile C has 90 sunflower seeds. Pile D - I did not count but estimate that there are at least 50 little seeds. That's 290 good seeds from one dried sunflower head plus the 50 little seeds = 340 seeds!

I was more than a little impressed with the amount of seeds that I harvested from that one sunflower head. It measured 3.5 inches in diameter and weighed about 4.5 ounces. So, that's about 100 sunflower seeds harvested per 1 inch.

These sunflower seeds were harvested to be used as seeds for planting more sunflower plants. I hope to be distributing my sunflower seeds before the end of the month.*

By the way, I started with Burpee! You can get a variety of Burpee Sunflower Seeds on Amazon. I have enjoyed the Autumn Beauty variety the most. The colors are quite outstanding!

And, now I have a 7 foot sunflower garden -- how about that? All from little Burpee sunflower seeds.

*UPDATE: I started The Sunflower Project on June 11, 2013. Within the first three days of the project, I had a number of early adopters - participants who signed up. I've sent out free packets of sunflower seeds to everyone on the list. Don't miss out! Add your name to this pay it forward project.

Starting Sunflower Seeds for a Flower Garden

Now that I had prepared the area in my backyard for the flower garden, it was time to start the seeds! On March 2nd, I stopped by my neighborhood Target store to check out their garden department. I knew that I wanted to pick up some sunflower seeds, but I hadn't thought about a seed starting kit.

I was quite surprised to see a really nice selection of seed packets. There were so many different sunflower seed packets, that I found it rather challenging to settle on just one. So, I didn't. I opted to try 3 different packages of sunflower seeds.

Burpee Sunflower Seed Packets - Photo by JaguarJulie
Photo Taken: March 2, 2013

Left to Right: Del Sol Hybrid (Pollenless) Classic Cut Flower 5-7 feet - $1.89, Summer Evening Mix Warm Colors 6-7 feet - $1.09, and Summer Cutting Garden Mix for Vases and Blooms 5-7 feet - $1.69. Each of the seed packets are from the Fordhook Collection. Of course, they all require Full Sun.

By the way, I am really amazed at the variety of Burpee Sunflower Seeds on Amazon. I believe you will be personally challenged to settle on just one sunflower seed packet.

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 2, 2013

For me, finding the Burpee Seed Starting Kit was a real blessing! I was a complete novice with such a kit. The kit of 25 cells cost $6.99 at Target.

Since it was my first time going this route, I thought the size was perfect. You get a tray of fiber planting cells with the super-growing pellets and a biodegradable germination sheet.

There is also a watering tray, wooden plant labels and a package of organic fertilizer.

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 2, 2013

Reading the directions helped! It was really cool how the pellets expanded to fill the fiber cells once you added water.

As I had 3 packets of seeds to work with, I decided to plant, left to right, 2 columns of $1.09, 1 column of $1.69 and 2 columns of $1.89 sunflower seeds. One packet had smaller-sized seeds, so I planted 2 seeds in each cell. The other two packets had fairly large sunflower seeds, so those got planted one per cell.

Burpee Seed Starting Kit
Photo Taken: March 2, 2013

Once I had planted the seeds, I placed the starter kit on a plastic placemat on my kitchen table.  I covered it with the biodegradable germination sheet. Next, all I had to do was check the cells each day to be sure they did not dry out and had plenty of water.

See the complete process with the seed starting kit.

By the way, I found a similar kit on Amazon, in case you want to try it: Burpee Eco-friendly Seed Starting 25 Pellet Greenhouse Kit.

Planting a flower garden, step 2 completed! Now, onto Nurturing Sunflower Seedlings for a Flower Garden.