Why are sunflowers drooping

Kerry Mauck commented, Hi Naveed. Generally it is best to avoid planting the same thing twice in one pot or plot of soil. Diseases and pests may be present that can do damage to young seedlings.

Your soil may also be lacking in the nutrients that the young sunflowers will need. If you want to reuse the soil, make sure you add some compost and then you can plant something that is very different from sunflowers something that is not in the family Asteraceae. As for your second question, sunflowers are actually composites of many flowers. The center of the sunflower head has tiny flowers called disk flowers and the big outer "petals" are another kind of flower called "ray flowers".

The disk flowers of sunflowers should have both male pollen making and female seed making parts, so you should just wait and watch and both your sunflowers should produce seeds in the disk part of the head. They will start out small and get larger over a couple if weeks. As the plant matures and eventually dies, the seeds will dry on the head.

Watch out because at this point they are very tasty to birds and other seed eaters. Naveed commented, Quite intriguing. I will study further about asteraceae. Thanks Kerry. Could you also look into my journal for the recent photos and tell when will the seeds be forming. After the bees came around, last seen 4 days ago and pollinated the flowers, a few petals started falling and now the petals are drying up.

Member Login: Username or email:. Pinterest Facebook Youtube Twitter Instagram. We planted a couple rows of sunflowers and they first grew in looking very strong.

Now the petals look wilted and some of the flowers stalks are falling over. Why is this and is there a way to fix it? Sunflowers Helianthus annuus Posted by jmorth This is about the time of year that the flowers have done their jobs and the seeds are beginning to ripen.

Shaded conditions or imbalanced soil moisture are two common causes of wilt in sunflower seedlings, as are poor soil, hard frosts and competition from weeds. Sowing sunflowers in a sunny site with moderately fertile, draining soil will give them a good start and help prevent wilt, as will providing 1 inch of water weekly.

However, the top one-half inch of soil must be allowed to dry out between waterings to prevent fungal infections that may also cause a drooping appearance.

Fungi such as fusarium, pythium and phytophthora cause a range of illnesses in sunflowers, says North Dakota State University, including the common juvenile disorder damping-off. The first symptom is wilting or drooping, followed by yellowing foliage, stunting and premature failure. Many infected seedlings never emerge from the soil and die before germination is complete. Damping-off may strike despite proper cultural conditions, but proper sowing and watering will significantly lower the risk.

Keep the bed weed-free and immediately destroy any seedlings that show signs of damping-off to keep the infection from spreading.