Wonderful. I wish I had the room to plant that many. My friend who sells at Farmers Markets, will sell the seed heads in his stall for $3 - $5 depending upon the size. I love them, I buy them and stick or hang them along my old wire picket fence out back for the birds.

We stopped growing "Petal" type sunflowers and have switched to the doubles including Goldy, Giant Gold and Double Gold, all tall large flowering doubles. They all have long stems and are multi-branching providing many stems per plant. They are truly magnificent and sell-out at our Farmers' Market. We get $2/stem. We cut them when they are half- to fully-open and last at least 1 week. Teddybear is to short for us . . . go with the tall doubles and you'll have success!

Seems I've cahtted about my sicko enjoyment of tickle pollinating in several Forums recently. And now that word reminds me of another tip. Before bringing drying heads indoors, I like to tickle the faces - and let the flower chaff drop on the ground right there. You'll be able to seed the shiny black seed that way, and drying is quicker, and eventual separation easier and cleaner. Separating seed from the head is done once they are FULLY dry and falling out already. It doesnt hurt em to ruffle up the bag before opening to get that started. I peel back leaf edges and let seeds drop out as the heads are bent and ruffed up a bit. And no doubt - more tickling gets the remaining seed out! A friend sets his seed out on a wooden platform when he's going to be around to enjoy watching the birds. He lets soft soil be present underneath - that's a great place to look for natural starts to transplant around the garden. If you get a ton - give em away, or feed em to rabbits - they love em.

In the past I cut the heads leaving about 8-12 inches of stem. Then I placed inside a paper bag which had several holes cut into it for air circulation. The bag was suppose to catch any seeds that fell. These were hung from the trusses in the garage. This seemed like a perfect way to dry the heads before roasting, but the heads turned moldy. Factor in that we lived in the High Desert at the time...very low humidity, I was very surprised and disappointed. Now I've moved to a more humid climate. How do I dry the seeds before roasting without creating mold?