How to Grow and Process Sunflower Seeds

Sunflowers (Helianthus) can be a wonderful sight in a summer garden. Tall stems towering above everything else in sight, and stunning flowerheads, sometimes over a foot in diameter, watching over the flora and fauna of the yard. They are a member of the Asteraceae, or daisy, family, and that huge flower we see is actually a whole bunch of tiny flowers clumped together.

Fortunately, sunflowers are really easy to grow and provide a ridiculous number of seeds that can be used for many different projects. Sunflowers are really fun to grow with kids as their growth rate is rather fast, and the kiddos can watch as the magical plant grows taller than they are in no time.

Grow Them

Source: Tonya, with the flowers/YouTube

Sunflowers can be started indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost of the year or direct sown outside in the yard after the last frost of winter has passed. Whether indoors or out, plant your sunflower seeds in soil about 1/2 inch to an inch deep and water them in. You should see them germinate in about a week.

Sunflowers work very well direct sown but are famously a bird attractor. Those little seedlings that you have so lovingly and attentively watched grow will be ripped up from the soil and eaten in a heartbeat. This can be a little heartbreaking.

To be safe, you can start your seeds in pots indoors and plant them out when they are 6-7 inches tall. They transplant really well. This will make them a little more robust and less appealing to tiny birds. Once planted outside, sunflowers aren’t particularly fussy. Just make sure that they get full sun.

Harvest Them

Source: LOve More/YouTube

After about 90 days, the flower heads will start to droop over, and the outer petals will dry up. The back of the sunflower head will start to yellow and show signs of browning.

The seeds themselves will be loose, and the tiny flowers atop each seed will rub away very easily. Unless you are leaving your seed heads out for the critters, you need to harvest your seeds at this point to avoid losing them.

First of all, cut the head from your sunflower and brush away all the tiny dead flowers until the seeds are revealed. Then, it is just the simple but laborious task of removing the seeds. They should come out pretty easily just by raking your fingers across them, but you can also break the flower head up into smaller, more manageable sizes.

Lay your seeds on a tray and leave them in a cool, dry place for at least 24 hours to dry out.

Note: the seeds toward the outside of the flower head are the most mature. This should be kept in mind when harvesting them for eating or seed saving.

Eat Them

Sunflower seeds are incredibly nutritious and make a really tasty snack. They can be nibbled from the hulls and eaten raw, roasted, or sprouted. Removing them from their shells for saving is quite a task and must be approached as a labor of love. Unless you have a hulling machine, it will also be an unprecise task.

However, if you want to try, you need to smash the seeds with a rolling pin or hammer. Drop the result into a pot of water. The kernels should sink to the bottom, and the hulls should float to the top. Now, you can just skim the hulls out of the water, drain the kernels and dry them out.

Source: RMSpeltz Farm – ReefDVMs/YouTube

Alternatively, you can roast them in their shells. Just make sure that you have given your sunflowers a good rinse to get rid of any dirt and dust. Then, lay them out on a cookie sheet and sprinkle them with salt or any other seasoning that you might like.

Now, pop them in the oven at about 250°F for about an hour. This will differ in relation to how dry your seeds are already. If they are fresh from the seed head, they will need a little longer than the ones you have had drying for days.

Once they feel really dry and have even started to crack, the seeds are ready. Let them cool thoroughly before testing them. If they don’t seem roasted enough, you can pop them back in the oven. Otherwise, you have yourself a homegrown nutritious snack.

Save Them

After following the same harvesting and drying steps described above, you can put some seeds aside for next year’s garden. You shouldn’t really have to buy sunflower seeds again. You can also leave the seeds on the flowerhead to dry naturally and harvest them later in the fall. However, the trick is to try to get to them before the birds and squirrels do.

Share Them

That said, seeing as each head produces so many seeds, there is certainly enough to share with our animal friends over the winter. The simplest way to do this is to cut the head and leave it face-up on a wall or ledge high enough for the birds to safely eat them. Squirrels will enjoy getting in there, too.

If you have a bird feeding station, you can harvest the seeds and dry them as described above and incorporate them into your birdfeed inventory.

Related Content:

• How to Fight Big Ag and Start Your Own Seed Bank
• Why Sunflowers Are So Green for the Garden
• How to Use the 10 Healthiest Seeds
• How to Sprout Your Own Plant-Based Foods at Home!

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