No, sunflowers thrive on neglect. They also thrive in very, very dry conditions. They will reseed without help very easily. Great soil builders, I encouraged mine to reseed in the garden, as they are easy to pull up when their massive stems get in the way of harvesting other things.

[–] SchmidtGenetics 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The birds have been tossing their seeds everywhere and lots of random ones anyways haha. Thats good to know though.

These ones here I actually started inside in Apr, but the ones I planted during planting in June are almost looking better. Funny how that happens.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Yeah, my volunteer tomatoes look almost as good as the carefully selected, propagated and pampered ones. I try to use it as a example of how I should let go of attempting to control nature and just go look at the zinnias, instead. Sunflowers are great as chop 'n drop mulch, the stems compost relatively quickly, the old ones are full of brownish white pulp that decomposers (grubs, ants, etc.) seem to love. Outer fibrous shells are very tough, will last a while and act as shade and surface moisture conserver. Just chop 'em where they stand or pull them up and lay the whole thing down on the spot. Roots are shallow, no tap root.