Sow sunflowers indoors
- Prepare the seed tray
- Sow sunflower seeds
- Cover with earth
- Set up warm and bright
From the beginning of March, fill a cultivation tray with normal garden soil. If you have enough space on the windowsill, you can also sow the sunflowers in small pots. Then you do not need to prick out the plants later.
also read
- Sunflowers are not poisonous, they are even edible
- The right location for sunflowers
- Pull sunflowers in a pot
Always sow three to five seeds in a planting hole. Sunflowers germinate very irregularly and a plant does not grow from every seed.
The kernels should be inserted about two centimeters into the substrate and covered with soil.
Maintaining sunflowers indoors
Place the seed tray or the small pots in a location that is nice and warm and light.
Keep the soil well moist, but make sure that the water does not back up. This would rot the kernels.
It only takes a few days for the first seeds to germinate and for the small plants to start growing.
Prick out sunflowers
As soon as the plants have developed at least two leaves, snap off all but one of the plants per seed hole. Only the strongest remains.
When growing in the seed tray, you have to prick out the sunflowers and transplant them into small pots.
Only repot sunflowers that have been grown in the pot if the pot is too small and the roots peek out from below.
The sunflowers can move from the end of May
You may only plant pre-grown sunflowers outside when it is warm enough outside and in all likelihood there will be no more night frosts. This is usually the case at the end of May after the Ice Saints.
If it is already very warm outside and you do not want to wait any longer to plant out, be sure to watch the weather.
If night frosts are announced, protect the small sunflowers with a protective cover at night. You can get protective hoods at the garden center. You can also easily make them yourself from cardboard or foil.
Do not plant sunflowers too densely
Make sure that you do not plant the sunflowers too densely. A maximum of four plants should grow on one square meter of soil.
When caring for sunflowers in pots or tubs, only ever put one plant in the container.
Otherwise, the sunflowers will compete for nutrients and remain small and meager.
Tips & Tricks
Quite often, when feeding birds sunflower seeds in winter, some seeds fall to the ground. If winter doesn't get too cold, some sunflower seeds will germinate by themselves in spring.
