Can I still plant sunflowers from seed? Runner beans?

18 years ago

It's the 4th of July... okay, so it's late. Really late. But are these quick enough growers to be worth popping some more seeds in the ground?

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Comments (4)

rivers1202
18 years ago
Don't know about the beans, but I sowed some of the 'gigantic' sunflower seeds a week ago. They are already 6 inches tall and have developed their second set of leaves. (first set of true leaves) They are supposed to bloom 8-10 weeks from sow date. Here, in my neck of the woods, I'll still have plenty of time to enjoy the flowers before first frost. I don't know how long you'll have in your area.
tropicanarama
Original Author
18 years ago
hmmm... 8-10 weeks from now = +/-mid-September = that gives me 4-6 weeks of bloom. That's not bad!

Is there a way to *push* plants into blooming faster? Can I keep them super pumped on GrowBig or something? (impatient AND lazy - it's a bad combination, I know.)
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knittlin, as far as I could tell they came true to their parents. I cannot tell with the chickpeas since they have not even flowered yet. I also forgot I did plant the common (pantry) black eye peas a couple of years ago, and that was also very good. It was the first time I had them as shellies and they were delicious, too bad it takes so many of them to make a pound of beans. Lately I try not to plant from the same species close together, but with only 1/4 of an acre I cannot separate my species completely. However, I have many flowering bee attracting herbs (cilantro, mint, marjoram, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, lavender, borage), citrus flowers from the lemons, lots and lots of roses, still have tomatoes and eggplant flowering too. I have lots of bees! I put barrier crops all over the place, but with such small space I must have had bees transport DNA from one bean to another....bees have a radius of travel that is over a mile, don't they? I have not noticed any obvious crosses, except at first I was growing three varieties of P. vulgaris pole beans together, and the wax beans sometimes got a little purple tinge probably from the purple pole beans. I am not trading those seeds since I have only barely enough to replant (a bug got in the bean envelope and destroyed/ate a bunch of them, darn!). I am making an effort to only plant different species of pole beans together now. I also figure other gardeners will have similar problems unless they have a huge farm, and getting 1-2 % or so half breeds does not bother me.
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If you don't mind tedious labor you could sift the top inch of soil with screening material large enough to let soil through, but small enough to keep the seeds on top. Other than that just let em grow and kill them as they appear. I know some say they are allelopathic, but I have had a bird feeder with just sunflower seeds for years and nothing seems to have it's growth inhibited by the zillions of seeds that get scattered.
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rivers1202
18 years ago
You could try using Superthrive when you water. I water my seedling with a watering can 'most' of the time. When I'm feeling lazy I use the mist setting on my hose and mist the soil. Anyway, you could add Superthrive to the water in the can or attach a hose end sprayer and feed them that way. There are alot of gardenweb members who swear by Superthrive. When I used it I didn't see much difference, but maybe I just didn't give it enough time - I only watered with it a couple times very early in the growing season.
You can find it at Walmart.
lindac
18 years ago
You have lots of time to plant another batch of runner beans....choose a variety that will be 60 days to harvest....and you will have beans in September.
but lay off the super thrive!!....more stuff has been messed up by too much than too little fertilizer....extra nitrogen may make a big plant with lots of leaf and no beans.
Add some bagged compost of you don't have your own....can't go wrong with that.
Linda C

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Can I still plant sunflowers from seed? Runner beans?

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rivers1202

tropicanarama
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Can I still plant sunflowers from seed? Runner beans?

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rivers1202

tropicanaramaOriginal Author

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tropicanarama
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