Susi,

I am growing pro-cuts and they are one of my favorites and no they arn't flowering to soon. I grow pro-cut orange and no problem. Maybe they were stressed. I have found when suns have little heads that is all they had . I had that trouble with peach passion and I just quit planting them. Also it has been so hot and that may be pushing them to head sooner. Hope you luck.

Rita

This is my second year with ProCuts. None of them have formed flower heads before they were good and tall. My guess, like Rita's, is that they are stressed. They don't form much in the way of secondary bloom, so if you pinch them, you may be losing it all. Or, with nothing to lose, you could try it.

If you find you need to use row covers in the summertime on flowers, you might want to make wire hoops to go over the plants to hold the row cover, so the flower stems don't get weighed down and bent or broken.

Good luck!
Jeanne

Jeanne & Rita, thanks for your replies.

I DO have hoops to support the row cover--I bought both together on one of those Parks/Wayside online sales last year.

Maybe I kept them too long in the six packs--I did TRY to get them out at the two week time period, but maybe they were there an extra week; maybe it's been too hot here; maybe I breathed wrong.

I had a few of what I think were Superior Sunset left over from a Gloeckner purchase a few years ago that I grew earlier this spring. Great big tall sunflower that was lovely! A few years ago I noticed that whichever tall sunflower I had, once cut, would start growing new babies whereever the cut was. Well, the Superior Sunsets are doing the same! Way up high on the stalk! So, that will be interesting to see. Looks a little like the skit on SNL where the commedienne is the "mutant" who comes to the party and has a doll arm & hand sticking out of her head! LOL! Everyone is "trying" to be polite and not notice, but ,.... LOL!

Since I ONLY have those 30 Pro Cuts until I can get more sown, I guess it won't/can't hurt if I pinch the tops of some of them. Maybe they'll surprise us all and WILL grow side shoots.

Since I'm up early, maybe I can get some things sown (or laundry folded or whatever) before work. Jeanne, you were up late! Or really early!

Happy Market Day everybody.

Susi.

Ok...I had to look "Pro Cut" up to find out that they're sunflowers. I am working on a theory on sunflowers.

I wintersowed and planted out/potted up almost 300 sunflowers this year, and am nearing the end of a string of experiments.

The seeds were sown into 1.5" square, 3" deep bottomless plant bands. After germination, I planted out/potted up seedlings at 3-6-9-12" in height, comparing the rootballs.

Plants that were potted up went into larger plant bands and recycled containers ranging from a scant half-gallon to 2.5 gallons. For the most part, each plant got either a half-gallon or a gallon of medium.

The plants that spent the most time in the small plant bands, and were potted up, have already finished blooming. These are not dwarf sunflowers, but full-sized ones, like 'Henry Wilde' 'Red Sun' 'Velvet Queen' 'Jade' 'Vanilla Ice' and 'Royal Flush.' They bloomed on stems up between 2 and 4' long, and the blooms were smaller than normal on all except Jade and Vanilla Ice, which are small anyway.

Plants with long times in the flats that went into the ground are just starting to bloom, on 3-5' stems with slightly smaller than normal blooms.

Plants that came out of the flats at 3" and went into larger plant bands, are starting to bud, on 3-5' stems. Short seedlings that went into the ground are growing like normal direct-sown sunflowers.

Other characteristics, like multi-head or multi-branching was reduced in most cases. I expect that's due to the earlier maturation of the plants. I had a Velvet Queen with 5 flowers, on a 4' stem. I've had as many as 13 heads on 8' stems on this variety in the past.

Not scientific, by any means, and I have no idea why it's happening, but the results tell me that sunflowers that are cramped when young will grow miniature flowers on short stems. This can be intensified by keeping their roots cramped as they reach maturity. The shorter stems are just as sturdy as normal plants, in relation to the smaller flowers.

Donn, I came to the same conclusion, with NO scientific studies. In fact, my experiences tended to be years apart, in different planting beds, with varying weather, even different varieties, but any sunflower plants that were rootbound stunted and never did achieve the right height or bloom size.

Susi, here's my experience with secondary bloom on ProCuts, in detail. Last year I cut some of the Procuts with short stems, since I could see more flowers forming in the leaf axils. I wanted to see if the secondary bloom was worth the time and worth having a shorter stem on the first cut. It wasn't. Those leaf-axil flowers tended to be malformed and no bigger than the huge stalk they were smack next to - they never did grow stems and were completely useless. I haven't seen the SNL skit you described, but I imagine the mutant you described looked remarkably like the tiny, misshapen flower stuck on the side of a thick stem that were the secondary flowers of the ProCuts.

Jeanne

And, I hope you didn't pinch out those buds. Yikes. Short stemmed sunflowers are fine for bouquets. You'll just have to bend over more to cut them close to ground level -- as opposed to most which can be cut near waist height. Direct seeded sunflowers, however, produce healthier and better quality plants. BTW -- Yes, they do start producing those tiny buds or flowerheads when they are 6-10" tall.

The Arnosky's don't let their seedlings sit in the trays for more than two weeks. They are seeding and planting on two week intervals I believe. Most likely for the reasons stated by Donn and his observations.

It's just another one of those Murphy's Law things. I seeded in the six-packs because one group of direct seeded seeds went STRAIGHT to the birds! Then these transplants probably did sit an extra week, now they're "marred" for life. And yet, I don't remember seeing the root system look root-bound at all, even at that 3 week period. Just healthy, fluffy soil ball and nice roots. Go figure!

As RoseanneRoseannadanna's Dad used to say, "It's always something!" LOL!

Maybe I need to direct seed a section under row cover. Hmmmm.

When/if my daughter let's me have my digital camera back, I'll try to take pics of whatever flowers these Pro Cuts produce.

Thanks Everyone!

Susi.

Many times I have left plants in 6-packs wayyyy to long, especially this year, perhaps up to 4-5 weeks. In fact, I hope to plant out about 10 806 trays today and tomorrow. They are between 18 and 24 inches tall. The earlier group that was too old sat in the field beds for a week or so, then started to green up and produced nice flowers. They were shorter than those planted in earlier years, but it may also be due to the drought or maybe because there were Pro-cuts rather than Sunbright or S Supreme. However, with flowers at about breast height, they were certainly tall enough to cut.
And yes, if you are starting them in the field from seed, row cover will save the seeds and even young seedlings from the birds. Just water through the row cover to keep the germinating area moist, and you'll get a beautiful crop. Once they have germinated I leave the cover on for a couple of weeks so that the plants are off to a good start and big enough that the birds and/or voles don't seem to bother them.
Good luck.
Ann

I always mean to plant out at seedling age 2-3 weeks, as learned from the Arnoskys, but stuff happens......I've found that most sunflower seedlings in 2" blocks (about the same size rootball as a 4-pack), can be transplanted any time from 3-5 weeks old, certainly no older. The exceptions seem to be Premier Light Yellow and the ProCuts, which may stunt after three weeks. I have a couple of other ultra-fast varieties, Mini-Suns and Sundance Kid, that don't stunt that easily. Go figure. BUT - I live in a cool, cold-nights climate, which affects even the greenhouse, so a seedling that is 4-5 weeks old here is probably the same size as a seedling 2-3 weeks old in Texas.

Jeanne