i want to show you guys the follow
sunflower
measures almost 13 feet tall
we're gonna head inside soon my camera
is getting wet here but anyways
just want to show you the signs of the
sunflower when they're ready to be
harvested
now when they're starting to droop like
that that's a healthy sign that it's
almost ready to be harvested
and if you live in a sunny and dry
climate
you can just leave the sunflower heads
on the stem let them dry there naturally
although i would put a paper bag over it
or a cheese cloth
that way if the seeds start falling out
you can catch them and you won't lose
any seeds
now in my case i live in zone 8 pacific
northwest we get a lot of
rain and we'll be getting a rain for the
next few weeks a lot of it too
so so that's a good thing that i
actually took the ones that fell over
on the ground i took them inside in time
if you are going to dry this indoors
like i am you want to leave at least 12
inches of the stem
on the sunflower head when you cut them
to dry them upside down i'll show you my
setup inside
okay it's great to be inside especially
when it's rainy and cold out it's been
like that for the past few days now i
think almost a week
but besides the sunflower head drooping
i want to show you the other slides to
look for
when your sunflower heads are ready to
be harvested and ready for drying
so if you are going to take up the head
and dry it indoors
you want to look for other signs such as
the petals
if more than half of the petals have
fallen off the sunflower head that's a
good sign that's ready
also the back of the flower the back of
the head
you want to look for like a light yellow
tan color and i actually
did not pick this off these are one of
the flower heads that fell because
the sunflowers toppled over so i kind of
took them off early obviously because
the
stem already broke off and also
i don't know if you can see these see
these little fuzzy things
on the sunflower head these are the disc
florets
i'm gonna show you a closer look this
little if you can see that
so if these are easily rubbed off or
they're easily falling off that's
another sign
that your sunflower heads are ready to
be harvested
now these are not ready quite ready the
seeds are not quite ready to fall off
the head yet so i'm gonna wait till
the back of the flower or the head is
brown before i do that
another way to tell if your sunflower
seeds are to be harvested is if it has
that signature
black so here's our sunflower heads and
i left about 12 to 14 inches of the stem
for drying so you want to put a paper
bag over the head
or a cheese cloth something breathable
for ventilation
that way your seats don't get moldy or
get rotten during the drying process so
you simply just slip the bag over it
and i'm not going to tie mine because
it's going to stay put in there i think
the text you know it fits pretty well
around the sunflower
the drying process it will take between
sometimes as
fast as two to four days maybe a week
longer for me because i live in a cooler
climate
now this particular sunflower head
you're probably wondering what happened
to this
it got devoured by the squirrels and i
want to save this one because it's one
of the first one that fell off
and i knew that it would dry faster so
that way i can show you how it would
look like when the seeds are ready to be
harvested
so this one's pretty much ready
everything that was green
is tan or yellowish tan and the disc
florets are all brown
and they're see that they're easily they
easily fall off
and the seeds are the black gray
signature sunflower stripe
and you can eat them raw i think they're
really good raw unless you want to put
them in a
salt water brine but i think it's good
the way it is and what you can do
is you can rub two sunflower heads
together and the seeds can fall off that
way you can just
gently brush your hands over the head so
that will be the next step is when all
the sunflower heads are ready i will
show you
i want to show you guys this sunflower
bouquet real quick
since a lot of them fell over these ones
are
from my daughter's sunflower garden and
they all ended up in the ground so i
just
chopped them off the stem and i put them
in a vase here
and don't they look beautiful it makes
our room bright and sunny
since it's so gloomy well i hope that
you guys found this helpful stay tuned
for part two on when we're ready to
harvest the seeds
drying them and roasting them thank you
so much for watching guys again this is
missella from learn to grow
have a wonderful weekend and happy
gardening