Sunflower

Planting window

When to sow, by microclimate — foggier blocks run a different calendar than sunnier ones.

Sunlight

How well it does at each level of direct sun per day.

Soil depth

Root room it needs — useful for sizing raised beds and containers.

Soil pH

The soil acidity it grows best in — most crops sit just below neutral, so this mostly matters for heavily amended or long-reused beds.

Spacing

Room each plant needs — along the row and between rows — for sizing beds.

Growth habit

The shape it makes in the bed and how tall it gets — what tells you whether to give it a trellis, a stake, or just room.

Habit

Upright

Mature height

5–10 ft

Stands on its own; the tallest types appreciate a stake in wind.

Growing in containers

Whether it does well in a pot, planter, or window box — the SF balcony-and-deck question, weighing its footprint, form, and staying power, not just root depth.

Workable in a large, deep container with attentive watering and feeding.

How to start it

Sow it where it grows, or raise it under cover and set it out — and how far ahead to start the seedlings if it's the latter.

Usually

Direct-sow

Sown straight into the bed it will grow in.

Getting started

How it goes in the ground — how deep to sow or set it, and the soil temperature it needs to wake up. The cold-soil floor is the real limiter for direct-sowing in a foggy SF spring.

Started from

From seed

Ideal soil temp

70–85°F

Sow depth

0.5 in

Time to emerge

7–11 days

Watering & feeding

How thirsty and how hungry it is — the water it wants and how much feeding the bed needs to keep it producing. In the fog belt even a thirsty crop drinks less than it would inland.

Water need

Low

Gets by on less — water deeply, then let it dry out between; forgiving of a missed day.

Feeding

Moderate feeder

A balanced feed worked into the bed at planting usually carries it through the season.

A deep taproot makes it notably low-water — it draws on moisture well below the surface and finishes before high summer. A moderate feeder for a big plant.

Pests & diseases

What tends to trouble this crop — what it is, what you'll see, and what to do about it, least-toxic first.

Our sources document no specific pests or diseases for this crop; it's generally grown without major pest trouble in home gardens.

Harvest & storage

How to tell it's ready to pick, and how to keep it once it's in.

Keeps

MonthsA long keeper — stores for months.

Ready to harvest

Cut the head when the back has turned from green to yellow-brown, the head nods, and the little petals over the seeds have dried and dropped.

Storing

Hang the heads to cure a few weeks in a warm, airy spot, then rub out the seeds and store them dry in a jar for months.

Culinary use & nutrition

What it's for in the kitchen, and the nutrients a 100 g raw serving is a notable source of.

Pollinators & wildlife

What this crop offers the garden's wildlife once it flowers — often the payoff for letting a bolting plant stand.

Bees

Honeybees and natives — bumble, mason, and sweat bees — working the flowers for pollen and nectar.

Butterflies

Adult butterflies nectaring, and in some crops the leaves their caterpillars grow up on.

One of the few crops here that feeds wildlife while you are still growing it, no bolting required: the open face is a landing platform worked by sweat bees, long-horned bees and bumble bees for pollen and by monarchs and other butterflies for nectar, and some of the ground-nesting natives that visit nest right in the planting. Double-flowered varieties are the exception — the extra petals come at the expense of the florets.

Sources