When we’ve had a good long summer with heat,
we oftentimes get a really great crop of sunflowers.
And oftentimes we get a lot of height to those
tall stems.
But in the fall when the flowers have begun
to wilt, they’ll tip over on the stem and
begin to dry out on their own.
It’s time to get out there and harvest those
before the seeds begin to fall out on their
own.
In order to collect the seed heads, you can
cut a real short stalk, or you can leave some
of the stalk on the seed head.
We’re going to place it into a brown paper
bag so that as those seeds dry, they will
fall loose in the brown paper bag and you
can collect them.
Once you get them collected into the bag you
can tie a string around that bag and suspend
it in your garage or in your basement so that
it will dry inside the bag and the seeds will
only fall where you can collect them.
If you’re planning to do craft projects
throughout the winter you’ll want to keep
those seeds attached to the seed head so that
you can put those into different kinds of
bird feeders or wreaths that the birds can
feed on through the winter months, or to use
them just to have dried sunflower seeds with
your family.
I’m Donna Hoffman with the University of
Wyoming Extension, and you’re watching From
the Ground Up.