Growing Sunflowers With Children
Sunflowers are one of the easiest plants to grow. They are a great way to get children into gardening as they can soon see the fruits of their efforts. During the growing season, children will enjoy watching the daily growth in the size of the plant.
Even if you don’t have a garden, you can try growing sunflowers in pots. All you need is a decent size pot, and just take extra care with watering and feeding.
Choose a tall variety such as Russian Giant. Children will get great joy from seeing a sunflower growing taller than themselves.
Sunflowers are generally pest resistance. The most important thing is to protect them against slugs when young.
How Children Can help Grow Sunflowers.
- Choosing packet of seeds.
- Sowing seeds in three inch pots.
- Protect against slugs. Perhaps they could make a beer trap to learn an organic method of dealing with slugs.
- Taking care of watering, on a daily basis.
- Feeding with an organic feed.
- Tieing the sunflower to a stake.
What Children Can learn from Growing Sunflowers
- The basics of gardening.
- What a plant needs to grow – light, water, food, heat.
- The responsibility of looking after their own sunflower
- How Wildlife can benefit from plants such as sunflowers (leave seeds in autumn to be eaten by birds.
Sunflower Competition.
I will never forget, the time at primary school when we had a sunflower competition to see who could grow the tallest sunflower. In April, we were all given a few sunflower seeds, and we had to bring the sunflower into school during September. My sunflower was not very tall. But, I remember almost daily looking after the sunflower, watering and feeding.
How To Grow the Tallest Sunflower
- Choose Tall Varieties like Russian Giant or the smaller but cuddly Teddy Bear
- Sow Early in March / April under Glass and keep in warm conditions.
- If really keen give extra light during early spring months
- Keep well fed and well watered, (but, don’t get carried away). Follow instructions from a regular liquid feed.
- Choose a position in full sun.
- Keep staked to avoid blowing over.
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23 thoughts on “Growing Sunflowers With Children”
I am growing sunflowers with my grandma. we plated 4 seeds outside in a tall pot about 12″ square. They have all sprouted. When the 2nd set of leaves appear should we pinch them out. We tried last year indoors but only managed very very thin stems which never did very much.
No Libby do not pinch them out, let them grow tall by watering the pot.
Good luck
I PLANTED 4 LOTS OF DIFFERENT SUNFLOWERS, ON THE 26TH OF MAY, HOW LONG BEFORE THEY START TO SHOW THROUGH PLEASE ?
I HAVE THEM ON A KITCHEN WINDOW-SILL AT THE MOMENT.
10-14 Days is an average time for sunflowers to show. Some sorts are slower than others.
You are just a bit late with your sowing so don’t expect giant plants but I hope you get some sunny flowers.
My sunflower is in a 8 inch pot and is about 20 inches tall. two of the lower leaves are shrivelling and the top leaves have a few brown spots. The plant is kept indoors in a conservatory. Any advice welcome.
I would move it outdoors. Pick a spot where it won’t be blown over by a high wind. Keep the compost moist.
Im growing some sunflowers with my children and 6 of them have just come up they are on my window sil in pots at the moment when would be the best time to move them and plant outside??
Thank you
Yesterday! (only kidding)
June is a good time. Stake them as the roots do not have a chance to get a good grip on the soil before they grow away.
hi. my 2yr old son planted 2 sunflower seeds in a pot at mother and toddler group a few weeks ago.they r quite tall now and as we dont have newher to plant them in the ground outside, i was wondering can they still grow in the house r should i buy a bigger pot and put them outside? all replies greatly appreciated, my little boy checks them every day and thinks its great how big they r getting!!
Sunflowers need to be outside to flower at there best. A bigger pot will help hold more roots and water. You could use a grow bag to plant your young plant into.
Hi, is it too early now to start growing a sunflower indoors?
Thanks
You will need to keep it free from frost until May. I would wait a bit most seeds can catch up if planted a bit later.
Hi, My daughter bought back a pot with a sunflower seeded last week and i have it on the window ledge where it gets lots of sun and it has just started to sprout, it is only in a plastic cup at the moment when should i move it to a proper pot?
When it has 2 leaves – before it gets too tall and top heavy.
Hi everyone,
Hopefully I can answer some questions, this year was the first time I grew sunflowers and this is how I did it:
Plant seeds about 1 inch apart in a pot 3 inches deep. I fit 10 seeds in my pot. Cover with cling film and put in the airing cupboard. I did this in mid March (when I had the heating on regularly) and they sprouted within 3 days.
I removed the cling film and moved the pot to the living room windowsill (south facing). Then I just watered them a little bit each day until they were about 4 inches tall and then moved them into a long pot outside. All have been fine. They were just seeds in mid March, now mid May they are nearly 2 feet tall! They are the ‘Giant Sunflower’ type.
I have had to separate them because of their size and overshadowing each other, so they are now 3 to a pot which is 2 feet wide so have lots of room. They need more water now though!
I hope this helps 🙂
i want to ask that if i sow sunflower seeds in a pot in june 2011 in pakistan hyderabad sindh so what type of seeds to choose, what size of pot to choose, also tell me what size they will grow per day and what amount of water i should give, as well what another things to use in sunflower a till aug 1 2011.
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