Sunflower Little Dorrit
Allyblueeyes
Posts: 403
in Plants
Good morning, I've purchased sunflower Little Dorrit, in the hope of growing them in pots - could anyone advise on how many seeds per pot - diameter approx. 15"/38cm. Has anyone had any success in growing dwarf,compact sunflowers in pots?
Thanks in anticipation ????
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Not grown "little dorrit", but have grown "little Leo". Have had them singly in 20cm pots or 3 in a 50cm trough. You could maybe get away with 3 in your pots.
I start mine off in module trays and plant them out when they're big enough. It saves sowing seed in two's (in case one fails to germinate).
Here are mine today.....
Thank you Kitty 2!!! I'll try 3 in each of the pots and also start some off in modules. ?
Hi, although this sunflower is a dwarf variety, it's not particularly small, especially with regard to overall spread and leaf size. With the pot size you've mentioned I would only want to grow one plant per pot. You could grow more than one but I think they would be all squashed and may not grow as large as they would on their own
If you're going to go with one I would plant two seeds per pot, each a few inches from the centre. When they've germinated and grown to 3-4 inches tall leave the strongest one in the pot and prick out the other gently and plant it elsewhere or discard it (I hate discarding any seedling).
You could also underplant the sunflower with some other seedlings or plugs and lop off some of the sunflower's lower leaves as it grows and gets much stronger.
If you want more than one sunflower to a pot I would either get a larger pot, if within your budget, or with the current pot plant a couple of seeds equidistant from the edge and centre of the pot. You can always trim the leaves as they grow if they become too squashed.
Also if you have a garden and have any room I would definitely put some in the ground as they would look wonderful, especially as a group. For this I would sow the seeds direct as I think they do better than when transplanted from pots.Sow them in groups of two seeds Place the two seeds just a few inches apart, and the next two about 12"/30cm apart and so on.
As with the pots, leave the strongest seedling in place and either transplant or discard the 'weaker' one. Protect the seedlings from slugs with slug pellets or you can cover them with cut up water bottles or similar.
Last edited: 15 May 2017 13:05:24
Soulboy - that's excellent advice. I'll plant two in the pots as you suggested and plant the others straight into the ground. I was looking for something to fill in some gaps in the middle of the border so I assume these would work well? Will keep a close eye out for the slugs but the nematodes seem to be working their magic so far!
Thank you!!
I'm glad you think so! And very glad to pass on my limited knowledge, I'm a relative novice having had my garden for only 7 years. I'm a bit of a sunflower fanatic, though I've reined myself in the last couple of years. previously my front garden has been full of various sunflowers, mainly giant ones. Last year I think I only had about 20 altogether, front and back (I know...).
They should great fill those gaps in the border. They grow to about 60cm and have a mass of large leaves, but you probably know that already. It would be good if you could post some pic's when they flower. I'm glad to see you've gone the organic route with the nematodes. I'm afraid to say that I still resort to pellets because I can't afford anything else at the moment.
Soulboy, I will most definitely post pics.
Nematodes are expensive I know, but the last two years have been hell for slugs and as we've got frogs, blackbirds (and we're hoping the hedgehogs will return this year) I daren't use pellets. my patience has been tested though over the years!!!
Thanks again for help and advice. Will keep you posted on how the ? get on ?