I've had the same prob with mine, i had to strip the first lot of leaves from the plant,i then sprayed some insect repelent on the rest of the leaves,i did this every other day for a week. Once i done this i no longer had any probs

I'm betting Squirrels. I lost most of my sunflowers to the little critters a couple years ago. You can try "bitter apple" spray or hot pepper oil. Apply it to the plants to make them not so tasty to the animals. Good Luck!

Hi Heidi, I couldn't resist saying that. I see similar damage to some of my taller zinnias. Birds are most likely the culprit. They land on the bloom and are too heavy or come in too fast for the stem to bear the stress. In the case of sunflowers, the birds may be seed eaters. You need some way of scaring the birds away. In the past I have had some luck using pinwheels on long poles. The pinwheels incorporate some reflective mylar, which creates a flashing effect. There are other bird scarers, including the balloons that look like giant eyes. They are called something like "Terror Eyes". I have no idea if they work. The classic scarecrow might be worth a try, but I have seen pictures of birds perched on scarecrows. ZM

That's about what mine look like, a shriveled nothing basically! But normal looking shell. In fact more robust to the parent seeds(which I still have some of). I was worried maybe something had some how gone into the shell and caused it to not form.Like maybe aphids or something. I have found at least one seed, that looks to be a full fertile seed. But, maybe that's the case.