What it is
Sunflower (Seed) (Helianthus annuus) is in the Asteraceae (Daisy) family. Cheerful, drought-tough, and dual-purpose — edible seeds for you and the birds, plus pollen for the bees.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it low, and give it tolerant soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.5. Space plants about 12–24 in apart. Expect roughly 80–120. Warm-season annual.
How it's used
Sunflower (Seed) is used: roasted seeds; oil.
🔎 How to identify it
- Tall coarse hairy stalk
- Big yellow flower tracking the sun
- Heavy seed head droops when ripe
Edibility
How to grow & propagate sunflower (seed)
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate sunflower (seed)
The daisy family is a seed family — those flower heads are seed factories, and most members come up fast and willing from direct sowing. The perennial members (coneflower, black-eyed Susan, the native sunflowers) also clump up over a few years and can be lifted and split in fall or early spring to make free plants and keep the center from dying out.
Growing sunflower (seed) in Texas
Give it full sun and tolerant soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Time your planting to our long warm season and watch the frost dates at both ends; the live weather tool on this site is built for exactly that.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 80–120 before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: seeds.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.