Sunflower Seed Harvesting Hacks: Get a Bountiful Yield Every Time!

Bhawana Rathore
3 min readJun 21, 2024

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The sunflower seed is the fruit produced by a sunflower plant. With bright beautiful flowers that bloom in-between mid-summer to fall, the sunflower is the ultimate summer plant.

In this blog article, I have covered various ways that you implement harvesting sunflower seeds.

Let us discuss how to harvest sunflower seeds in detail, along with the topics below.

How Do I Know When Sunflower Seeds Are Ready To Harvest?

There are several ways in which you can know whether the sunflower seeds you have planted are ready to be harvested. Growing sunflowers is easy but harvesting the seeds and knowing when the seeds are ready to be harvested is an exact science.

It’s essential to harvest when the flower’s petals are drying up and falling off. Gathering when the back of the flower is gradually turning brown is a good idea too.

If you wait too long to harvest, the seeds might dry out of their kernels and might get picked up by birds and other animals. Keep the following in mind:

  • Always harvest your seeds when they are developed and look plump.
  • When the flower petals are beginning to dry up and the fallout, that’s when you should harvest your seeds
  • However, if you are leaving the stem intact, you can harvest your sunflower seeds when the back of the flower turns brownish in color.

Apart from these above tips follow the below steps in order to begin Harvesting Seeds

#1 Choose The Appropriate Method Of Harvesting Seeds

It’s okay to let seeds develop on the stem and then harvest them when they begin to look loosened.

Once it gets to this moment, it’s best to cover the fruits with ethernet or paper to keep the fruits safe away from birds.

For good storage, you can let the seeds dry before taking them to the storage room; that way, you are sure that it won’t get worse while it is in your storeroom.

#2 Enjoy Your Harvest, After All, The Hard Work

Once you’re through with the collection of your seeds, you can go ahead and eat them.

You can even decide to roast them with a pinch of salt on them depending on how you want it or decide to keep them for the next planting season.

Store dried sunflower in a container for 2–3 months without getting wrong, or you can choose to hold it in the refrigerator for one year.

Should I Soak Sunflower Seeds Before Planting?

It is an old trick in the gardener’s handbook to soak your seeds before planting them. This is because by soaking them, you significantly decrease the amount of time it takes the seed to germinate and grow eventually.

A seed is made in such a way that it is resistant to cold, heat, fire, and winds. It can also survive in very dry and very wet conditions to give birth to new life.

Hence, when you soak the seed in water, you are giving it a nurturing platform to give it the opportunity to lower its defenses and begin to germinate.

Read the full article here to get everything on Best Way On How To Harvest Sunflower Seeds?

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