
Planting, Growing, and Caring for Sunflowers
Recipes
Cooking Notes
Just one ounce of sunflower seeds contains about 6 grams of protein and 14 grams of oils. The fats are almost entirely unsaturated with 9g of polyunsaturated and 3g of monounsaturated fats per ounce (NSA). The oil is high in linoleic acid and is a good source of vitamin E.
- Some varieties produce small black seeds used in cooking oil, margarine, cosmetics, and animal feed; they are the best sunflower seeds for attracting the greatest variety of songbirds.
- The bigger, striped seeds are grown for snacking and as an ingredient in bread and health foods. They, too, are used for feeding birds, especially larger species, such as jays and mourning doves.
How to Roast Sunflower Seeds
Re-soak seeds overnight in salted water. Run through a strainer and dry on a layer of paper towels.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 325 degrees on a baking sheet. Seeds should be spread out in a single layer. Stir frequently during the baking and remove seeds when they look slightly browned. Don’t burn!
That’s it! You can add some olive oil, salt, and spices to your roasted seeds if you wish.
Or, you can also make suet cakes for the winter birds! See how to make suet.
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This is my first time growing sunflowers and they are doing well. They are from 5 to 7 feet tall and still growing. They have been fine up to about two weeks ago. They are now getting holes in the leaves, like something is eating them. Now I have found earwigs and small yellow flies on the plants. Do these help or hinder. What can I do?
Hi William,
It could be sunflower beatles or grasshoppers eating your sunflower leaves. However, once your sunflowers are that tall, there is no real worry of them harming the growth of the plants. The plants can survive and even thrive despite some foliage being eaten. We hope this helps!
We garden in a very windy spot. This article says to avoid winy places for growing sunflowers, which is the one part of which I disagree. Sunflowers love the wind! Thanks to the wind, our sunflowers grow massive and impressive looking trunks like trees. A very few get knocked over when the soil is wet, and a hard wind comes through, but they just make up for it and grow stronger with a bend at the base. By the end of summer, the thick stems tower overhead like the canopy of a magnificent flower forest.
Back in 1986 & 1987 I was stationed in Turkey, the Country. We took a road trip and after passing the mountains surounding the capital we found ourselves driving through miles and miles of sunflowers. I asked a Turkish friend about them when we got back into town and was told that they harvested the heads for seeds and oil and the white pulp in the stems they used to fabricate Insulation.
This is fantastic, I love it.
Some have told me to cut the seed head off my monsters when birds start eating them. It's cold here and I didn't have alot of room in the house so I put them in paper bags (cut in 3-4 pieces each) and put them in the shed. The backs have turned black on some and some of the seeds have mold on them. Can they still be harvested and eaten? Do I need to bring them in where it's warmer or is it too late?
We would not advise eating the moldy seeds. They are also unhealthy for birds, so it’s probably best to toss them. Unfortunately, if the others were kept in the same bag, they may have mold spores on them despite looking alright.
Planted six seeds this spring. Five survived and now are from eight to ten feet tall. One of them has a head about ten inches in diameter and drooping over. What, if anything do I do with it? My first time for Sunflowers. What do I do with them this fall?
Hello. We have been stationed in Germany for almost a year. I decided to buy some bags of sunflower seeds for the birds and one of the seeds germinated in my flower bed. I left it alone to see if it would grow. It is now approximately 4 feet tall. The interesting thing is that it is one stalk with 3 flower heads on it. Is this a normal thing? One head is now opened, second is half opened and 3rd is just starting to open. I can send a photo if you need to see it.
Yes, this is normal! Many sunflower varieties produce more than one flower, while others (typically the giant ones) only produce one.