A Seed Saver's Garden

[Decoy1]

In my experience sunflowers have been one of the trickier seeds to save because the plant tissue on the back of the seed head holds a lot of water, and can be difficult to dry down. If you decide to try saving sunflower seeds take measures to quickly move the moisture out of the spongy white fleshy backing, as it is so very prone to moulding. I'm wondering if cutting slits in the back of the sunflower head and placing it on a rack face down might help (in nature the heads bend and face down as the seed ripens). Maybe placing it in a nice warm location might speed things up, and have a fan blowing over it could help wick away humidity as well.

An interesting exchange. I hadn’t realised sunflowers are prone to inbreeding depression. Thanks @heirloomgal. I have a liking for the bronze coloured sunflowers, the darker the better. They self-seed readily in my veg garden and I have quite a lot, so perhaps that mitigates any effect of depression. But I have noticed this year that there’s a tendency to revert over the years to more yellow. Not much of a problem; I love yellow too!

I haven’t had a problem with mould forming when seed gathering, but perhaps I leave them longer on the plant to dry naturally. The problem then is getting the heads cut off before the birds get them. I’m happy to share to some extent but the timing is critical as the whole head’s worth can disappear very quickly.

 

[flowerbug]

...sunflowers...
I haven’t had a problem with mould forming when seed gathering, but perhaps I leave them longer on the plant to dry naturally. The problem then is getting the heads cut off before the birds get them. I’m happy to share to some extent but the timing is critical as the whole head’s worth can disappear very quickly.

yes, we have never been able to leave the heads out to fully dry (if we're lucky enough to get any at all to flowering stage) due to how many birdies and chipmunks are after them.