Mammoth Sunflower Dilema!?

Question

Help my dying flower :(....

Sometime around mid-March I had purchased the seeds for that plant. Well recently last month 2 of the 4 flowers began to bloom. One is already dead, it was the smallest one out of the bunch. The tallest one is starting to droop even more, so I'm guessing it's dying. I'm wondering, are they dying because I didn't water them enough? We have automatic sprinklers that do it twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. There are a couple of evenings where I go outside and water them myself. The area where I placed them gives them a lot of sunshine, and the weather has been really hot, so I don't think I'm over-watering them. Or I'm wondering if they are just naturally dying, like their lifespan is worn out. I'm pretty sad, I'll admit I was attached to those flowers. So, what's happening and is there anything that I can do?

Answer 1

Sunflower heads will droop because they are heavy.  They only flower once for a short period of time and then dry up so the animals can eat the seeds, unless you plan on harvesting them for your own use!

Answer 2

I think you are giving them too much water. Just water heavily in the morning and check again the next morning. If the foliage is drooping, water again. If not, check again the next morning.

My husband watered ours way toooooo much and they all began to bend, drop and lean. Once they dried out, they did much. I only water once every 3-4 days and I'm in CA.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Two years ago, I planted 20 sunflower seeds in a sunny location behind my parent's house.

I took better care of those plants than anything else in my life, and yet, only 4 of the 20 seeds emerged and began to grow.

Still, I was happy with my 4 sunflowers.

Once they were about 4 feet high, two of them stopped growing suddenly, and died.  The other two continued to grow, but instead of lasting for months, and then going to seed, those two also died early.

I still don't know the cause, however, my father's tomato plants that year also had problems.  And the plants were all near each other.  I'll research it on the net and if I find anything, I'll get back to you and edit my question.

EDIT - This may have some answers for you -

http://sanangelo.tamu.edu/agronomy/sunfl...

Answer 4

My husband waters our lawn with a sprinkler but it doesn't get enough water down throught the dirt for my sunflowers so I water then twice a day morning and evening.The heat here is 100 now so they need the water. I tie mine with a strip of   pantyhose I cut off old to a green bamboo looking steak to hold them up.Several of mine are 8ft. tall. I planted a variety so most are doing really good.I do baby mine with miracle gro and watering but I love them and they hide the old metal storage building.