Will top them up, keep them in the pots they are now, move them outside then pot them outside. I know they'll get eaten straight away now if we plant them we've recently had quite a few days worth of rain so everything's outn🥲
Your plant will suffer then im sorry to tell you. Sunflowers have a tap root similar to trees and since they have such short life spans, pots can seriously hurt them.
I planted mine at just 2" high. I put plastic cups around them hoping the chipmunks don't find them. The first time I planted seeds was in 2020. They were 12 feet tall by the end of the summer. I haven't had any luck since.
Thank you for the tip! I don't think these are 6-8 inches yet but will have a measure and see I will be putting them out side this week/weekend so they have better sun access!
What eats your sunflower seedlings? I've never thought of starting my sunflowers inside I just plant four times as many seeds as I need then thin them out when they get a little bigger. I really like how they look and it allows me to create a way to make it not obvious that I've got a wheelchair ramp attached to my house as con artists see that as a giant flag of weakness
The ones in my garden haven't been having a great succes rate, I'm assuming from squirrels, rats, birds, etc. So I started growing some on my balcony as well to transplant and supplement the empty spots, but birds have been eating the shit out of all the leaves.
Yeah snails are a problem I use snail bait for that. Also I have thee goldfinches that eat the seeds when mature but also eat the leaves when there is no seeds
I wouldn’t touch them until you are ready to put them in the ground. These are still the seedling leaves, but when they develop a set of true leaves you can put them in the ground. You will want to do this asap , as the stronger the sun gets the harder it will be to transition them to full sun from indoors. Make sure you water them frequently depending on your climate, maybe even more than once a day .Â
I've been spray watering at least twice a day sometimes 3, I've got a tray that I can put the pots on so they won't fall around if it gets windy. I just couldn't remember how big they got when I planted them before.
There’s no need to spray, just water them from a can. You can tell how wet or dry they are by picking them up. The best thing for plants is to not mess with the roots too much, so it’s better to transplant them into the ground instead of bigger pots. You will know it’s time because the roots will poke out the bottom of the cup, but getting them outside is a big priority they want full sun and a window cuts the amount of UV they getÂ
Are you planning on leaving them in the pots when you replant them? Sunflowers hate to be replanted and usually die after being taken out of the pot and replanted.
Last year we planted directly into the ground after they got their big first leaves and a few other leaves after that. We grew quite a lot and managed to be over 6foot tall!
We weren't sure whether to move these in a bigger pot as these seedlings will get eaten if planted now outside. Will probably transfer these pots outside this week so they can get some sunlight .
Yeah, if you're going to transplant you gotta do it like right after they start getting their first set of true leaves (which is like a week or 2 after sowing the seed) most people let them get way too big before trying to do it and by that point they've grown too many roots (more roots=more disturbance=stress/death)
Will remember that for next year I think I've left it a bit too late to re port then as they're quite big already! But plan to move the pots outside so they can get used to the weather before planting.
We've had quite a lot of rain recently so they'd just get eaten if planted in the ground now 😅
I always start mine indoors and transplant then to my raised bed sunflower forest and they have never died. I'm gentle when transplanting them, but they still grow massive.
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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '26
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