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seeds and breeding

Free Sunflower Seeds - Will you help my son increase genetics?

Matt McSpadden

gardener

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Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 10 months ago

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My son Noah was given a variety pack of sunflowers by his grandparents when he was three. He planted way too many in the pot to start them, and only two survived. We planted them outisde and they grew, produced and died. I didn't get a chance to cleanup the garden, and we had several volunteer sunflowers the next year. We saved the seeds and replanted the next year. And the year after. Each year, he would try to get another kind of sunflower as well as his own landrace to mix them up some. The 8th generation of those sunflowers is in our garden right now.

He has way too many seeds to plant, and he likes to mix them with other sunflowers, particularly ones with large seed heads. Most of these have normalized to be around 7ft with multiple flowering branches. The flowers are a deep yellow with the red/brown inner circle, but he still gets some that are different. They have normalized to the Zone 4/5... but would probably do fine elsewhere as sunflowers are tough little guys.

Here is the idea. If you PM me your address, we will send you a packet of the "Noah" sunflowers. You grow them out next year, allowing them to cross pollinate is fine, and then send us a packet back the next year with those new genetics. This will create some cool surprises and see if there are any new traits he wants to breed for.

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Christopher Weeks

master gardener

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Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

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posted 10 months ago

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I'm in! I'll PM you.

Additionally, I'm drying down my own sunflower seeds (a mix of these and these) and would be happy to send a baggie of seeds soonish, even before trying to cross with Noah's plants, if that's something he'd like.

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Eino Kenttä

gardener

Posts: 823

Location: Semi-nomadic, main place coastal mid-Norway, latitude 64 north

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posted 10 months ago

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Nice project! Would love to participate, but unfortunately our summers are mostly a bit too cool for sunflowers to reliably set ripe seeds, I think. (We haven't really tried a lot yet, though.)

Timothy Norton

Steward of piddlers

Posts: 8196

Location: Upstate New York, Zone 5b, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall

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posted 10 months ago

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If I could keep the fuzzy woodland creatures from destroying my sunflowers, I would love to participate. I'm still working on my sunflower patch placement and size because the squirrels decimated mine this year.

I hope your son has great success!

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Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 6852

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

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posted 10 months ago

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Timothy Norton wrote:the squirrels decimated mine this year.

Shush -- don't say that where my squirrels can hear! I harvested mine a little early because the birds were going wild on them -- I *really* don't need the squirrels to figure it out too. :-)

(I should probably run a germination test before sending any out -- whether to Noah, or back to GTS.)

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 10 months ago

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Christopher Weeks wrote:I'm in! I'll PM you.

Additionally, I'm drying down my own sunflower seeds (a mix of these and these) and would be happy to send a baggie of seeds soonish, even before trying to cross with Noah's plants, if that's something he'd like.

I think he would love to try some of those! I got your PM, and we will send you a pack or two.

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1836

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posted 10 months ago

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Eino Kenttä wrote:Nice project! Would love to participate, but unfortunately our summers are mostly a bit too cool for sunflowers to reliably set ripe seeds, I think. (We haven't really tried a lot yet, though.)

Don't let that stop you from trying. Like I mentioned, he has way more than we have room to plant. It would not be a problem to give them a chance. If we get seeds back great. If they grow and feed some bumblebees and that is all, so be it :)

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 10 months ago

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Timothy Norton wrote:If I could keep the fuzzy woodland creatures from destroying my sunflowers, I would love to participate. I'm still working on my sunflower patch placement and size because the squirrels decimated mine this year.

I hope your son has great success!

Thankfully we have not had too many issues with squirrels. Deer have nibble a bit, and one year we had something chomping the leaves like crazy. Still, as I mentioned to Eino, feel free to take a chance.

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 10 months ago

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So... after looking into shipping internationally... I think I am going to have to limit my offering to the USA only. It is too complicated to send seeds legally across borders. Learn something new every day.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1668

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

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posted 10 months ago

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I'd love to have some sunflower seeds and help young Noah with his continuing experiment. I'll pm you my address.

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Ayva Jean Damas

Posts: 13

Location: Southwest Tennessee

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posted 10 months ago

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Sunflowers are one of the plants I want to add next year. If you still have seeds to send out, let me know, and I'll PM you.

-Ayva Jean

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 10 months ago

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I still have plenty!

Josh Warfield

Posts: 101

Location: Egnar, CO -- zone 5ish, semi-arid, high elevation

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posted 10 months ago

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I've had trouble growing sunflowers in my garden, despite having 8 foot tall wild ones growing elsewhere on my property. Maybe I had too high of expectations for them to grow with minimal water, but I intend to try growing some next year with a bit more care vs. just shoving seeds into dirt and hoping for the best. If you've got plenty to give away, I'd love some for next spring.

If you want to try homesteading/permaculture/whatever-you-wanna-call-it, and the only thing stopping you is the price tag on land, PM me. I have more space than I need and I'm willing to share

Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 6852

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

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posted 5 months ago

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Matt, is this still happening? I never heard back or received seeds. (If you ran out of time or energy or Noah changed his mind, I get it -- just checking in.)

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1836

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posted 5 months ago

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Christopher Weeks wrote:Matt, is this still happening? I never heard back or received seeds. (If you ran out of time or energy or Noah changed his mind, I get it -- just checking in.)

This is absolutely still happening... we just ended up having a long series of crazy weekends :) Also, we don't think about seeds as early in the year as people farther south so... my fault :)

We had 3 or 4 people respond earlier. If anyone else sees this before March 13th, feel free to PM me and we can get you out a packet. We have plenty! I expect to mail these March 14th. As I mentioned earlier, it is USA only at this time.

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1836

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posted 5 months ago

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Hi All,
The seeds were dropped off at the post office today. Hopefully they find their way to each of you who gave me their address. Feel free to post pictures here later in the summer.

Noah packed each packet with a mix of the brown and white seeds he had saved. I hope they all germinate well and attract lots of pollinators.

Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 6852

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

4267

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posted 5 months ago

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I was out of town for a long weekend, but they were waiting for me yesterday when I got home!

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1668

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

208

posted 5 months ago

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Mine arrived in the post, looking forward to planting and growing them.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Christina Littrell

Posts: 1

posted 1 week ago

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Would love to and sent your a DM as well!!!
Just tell me what you need me to do

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1836

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posted 1 week ago

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Christina Littrell wrote:Would love to and sent your a DM as well!!!
Just tell me what you need me to do :)

Hi Christina,
Welcome to Permies! I replied to your message.

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1836

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posted 1 week ago

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Just wondering how the flowers did for those of you who got packets earlier in the year? Any pictures you can share here of these sunflowers or others?

Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 6852

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

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posted 1 week ago

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I combined Noah’s seeds with the ones that I saved, thinking the vast majority of the ones I saved were hollow and sterile. And then I planted them thickly in a patch that’s about 8 x 2 1/2‘. Some problems I have: they were slow to come up, too many came up, the sunchoke patch next-door is invading this bed now and it isn’t clear which things are safe to pull. I may not get any seeds to send back to you. :-(

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Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1836

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posted 1 week ago

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Don't feel too bad, ours were slow to come up this year too... not sure what it was. But if the ones in front are that tall... hopefully they will bloom before winter. That is quite the patch :)

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1668

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

208

posted 1 week ago

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Hi Matt, I planted Noah's seeds directly into the ground here in late April. And learnt as a result how even if I add a bit of compost my yard dirt sucks. They were little and not going anywhere, so I tried again in mid-June, planting some in the section of my yard which actually has slightly better dirt, and some in a container. The good news is that both are growing better than the first batch. But the bad news is that I'm not sure they'll have a chance to complete their life cycle in time to make seeds. If they do I'll send some back to you. If not then I'll plant more next year in April and those will no doubt grow correctly and I'll send seeds next year. I haven't forgotten about how Noah wants seeds back, I just can't guarantee it will happen this year. Fortunately you sent me a lot of seed so there's plenty to try again with next year.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 3286

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1836

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posted 1 week ago

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Thanks for the update Riona.

He understood there was a chance they would not grow well, or something might eat them. If you get some this year great, and if you get some next year that is fine too.

Riona Abhainn

pollinator

Posts: 1668

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

208

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I'd been thinking I should send you a pm so I'm glad this thread came back up/you brought it back to the top so I could update y'all. I haven't forgotten young Noah and his scientific endeavours and if I can't get him seeds this year then I'm pretty sure that next year will go better. Also if he wants calendula seeds or miniature white pumpkin seeds I can send him some for y'all's garden next year.

Celtic/fantasy/folk/shanty singing at Renaissance faires, fantasy festivals, and other events in OR and WA, USA.
RionaTheSinger on youtube.
Pop-up garden/vintage+ yard stand owner.

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