Sunflowers-when and how to harvest the seeds

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creativedecor Dothan, AL(Zone 8b) Jun 12, 2007

Hi all,
I have grown alot of different sunflowers and now that the heads are wilting, can anyone tell me what to do to save the seeds for planting and for eating.

I have sunflower heads about 8 inches across on some and don't know what to do, cut them off to dry or let them stay on the plant and dry....

Clueless
Thanks for any help.
Gail

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Jun 12, 2007

Hi Creativedecor, normaly I just leave the flowers on my sunflowers and let them dry, but I let the birds feed on the seeds, they can strip them in a matter of days, however, IF you want them for human consumption, then you will have to keep them hygenic and clean. what I do if I want ANY seeds, I cut the flowers with a good length of stem, take indoors to a warm to cool dry place, pop a paper bag over the flowers and tie the bottom of the bag so air circulates within the bag but the seeds cant fall out, hang them up in bunches upside down, depending on the size of flowerhead, 2 tied at the end of the stem will hang over a coat hanger but dont put two many together as you want air to flow and dry them. you will look every few days to see how they are going, If you want the seedheads/flowers as decoration, dry them flowerhead up and you can buy florist spray to hold the seeds in place AFTER they dry off, hope this helps, someone else might know other ways to help you. WeeNel

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creativedecor Dothan, AL(Zone 8b) Jun 13, 2007

Wow, thanks for all that great info....I had tried cutting them and laying them flat to dry, but the seeds felt soft even after baking in the sun.(too humid here I think)...But bringing them in and hanging them in brown paper bags sounds like a great idea....I looked again tonight at the sunflowers outside and to my surprise there were these brown 1 inch creepy looking insect all over the flower heads...they looked like they were mating on them....I hope they were comfortable. So I think a few big heads I will cut and hang like you decribed...The pollen on the front of the seed head is pretty easy to come off, is it okay to brush that off or should I leave that on to.
Thanks for all your time and help.

Gail

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