Sunflower Seeds

[Wispy68]

I'd like to grow a couple of sunflowers and have seen packets of sunflower seeds on sale, but are they exactly the same as the sunflower seeds which you get in pet foods, but (obviously) cheaper? Also, is it too late to be planting them? Many thanks.

[Mowbray]

HI Wispy

Yes, the seeds are the same as you get in your rabbit/hamster/guinea pig food.  I planted a seed from my rabbits food and it grew into a lovelly tall flower!

It shouldn't be too late to plant it.

Goodluck!

[ursula62]

Seeds in seed packets are treated to ensure germination. Also they are usually special hybrids (known as F1) bred from parent plants that have the desired characteristics, e.g. colour, flower size, resistance to mould etc.

Seeds in animal food may or may not grow. They are not bred specially for anything other than animals to eat. Some seeds are baked at high temperatures before being used in animal feed to kill off mould spores without using chemicals. Seeds treated like that will definitely not grow.

If you are not worried about the particular characteristics of your plant, and you don't mind the possibility of non-germination, then use any sunflower seeds from anywhere.  Plant more than one just in case they don't survive.

[oxeyedaisy]

its not to late ..but beware sometimes you plant a sunflowerseed and it dissapears ..either the birds or slugs or something eats it..so the best thing to do now is plant a seed water it well ..cut the bottom off a plastic pop bottle and put over the seed like a minature greenhouse..remove it daily to water the seed..and it will provide extra heat so the seed will grow quicker..as soon as its through you can remove your minature greenhouse..

[woofgang]

You may find that the flowers are less attractive than the packeted variety, reason being that the farmer cares about big seed heads and doesn't care so much about petal size and colour so long as there are sufficient flowery flowers in the field to attract pollinating insects. Having said that I have found that the petshop type seed germinates readily, sometimes too readily when squirrels bury them in my plant tubs!!

[Wispy68]

Thank you very much for all your helpful answers.