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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 2 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

Posts: 5487

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

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posted 2 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: 713

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

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posted 2 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: 6913

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

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posted 2 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: 5487

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

3060

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posted 2 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: 3072

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1609

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posted 2 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: 3072

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1609

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posted 2 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: 3072

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1609

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posted 2 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: 3072

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1609

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posted 2 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: 1313

Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b

150

posted 2 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 2 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: 3072

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 2 months ago

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I still have plenty!

Josh Warfield

Posts: 83

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

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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.

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