- Sunflowers are heavy feeders
- The right fertilizer
- How often do you need to fertilize sunflowers?
- Do not plant sunflowers too closely
- tips and tricks
Sunflowers in the garden reach considerable heights of three meters and more. If you want to go that high, you need a lot of nutrients. Regular fertilizer application is therefore particularly important when caring for sunflowers. How to fertilize properly!
The sunflower is always happy about nutrients from compost or horn shavings
Sunflowers are heavy feeders
The sunflower is a so-called heavy feeder. This means she needs plenty of nutrients to grow to her full size and beauty.
Without regular fertilization, the flower remains rather small and puny.
Before sowing the seeds or planting out early sunflowers, you can enrich the soil with mature compost. This offers the plants the best starting conditions.
The right fertilizer
Sunflowers like it nitrogenous. Therefore, make sure that you use fertilizer with a high nitrogen content.
Good fertilizers are:
- horn shavings
- nettle manure
- mature compost
- cattle manure
- Ready liquid fertilizer
Avoid chemical fertilizers as much as possible, especially if you want to harvest the sunflower seeds for your own consumption or as bird feed.
If you grow a lot of sunflowers in the garden, it is worth preparing a large barrel of nettle manure and bottling the manure. Then you have a good supply to fertilize the sunflowers regularly.
How often do you need to fertilize sunflowers?
What would lead to over-fertilization in other plants is just right for the sunflower. You can feed the plants with nutrients twice a week. At least once a week is mandatory.
Do not pour liquid fertilizer directly onto the stem, but draw a two to five centimeter deep trough around the plant, into which you pour the fertilizer. Otherwise there is a risk of “burning” the stems.
Do not plant sunflowers too closely
Do not plant sunflowers too densely in the garden. If they are too close together, they compete for nutrients. In this case, frequent fertilizing does not help much. Maintain a planting distance of at least 70 centimeters.
tips and tricks
With their long roots, sunflowers improve the garden soil. Do not uproot the plants in autumn, just cut them down. The root rots in the soil, loosening it and enriching the soil with nutrients.