Sunflower seed help

West Hempstead, NY

Two years ago I planted evening sun sunflowers and saved the seeds. I have beautiful plants growing from the seeds now. I would like to use the old seeds again next year and am curious if I can use just the seed alone without it’s shell since they are floating around shell-less
Thanks

Thumbnail by knitter320 Thumbnail by knitter320
Mesquite, TX

Probably your best action at this point is to plant a few of the original seeds in a growing medium to see if they sprout and grow. When doing this, I usually plant 2/3 seeds to a small disposable pot since I'm usually going to dispose of the pot and seedlings after the grow/sprout or no grow/sprout experiment is complete. Placed in a sunny window, you should see results in as little as a few days unless you live in an area with a year round growing season.
I would caution however, that often its far more practical to start with "new" seeds every couple of years, especially if you know the type or variety of a favorite plant. I say this only because of the length of growing time wasted if in fact, your "old" seeds are no longer viable.

Ottawa, KS(Zone 5b)

Quote from knitter320 :
Two years ago I planted evening sun sunflowers and saved the seeds. I have beautiful plants growing from the seeds now. I would like to use the old seeds again next year and am curious if I can use just the seed alone without it’s shell since they are floating around shell-less.

It is certainly worth a try to plant your old original seeds. That second picture has "chaff" and not "shells".

So your original seeds are not "shell-less". They have just been cleaned of their chaff. If you wished, you could pick clean seeds out of the chaff in that second picture.

ZM

Ottawa, KS(Zone 5b)

Edited to remove a duplicate message. Dave's Garden, it is annoying that you posted my message twice.

ZM


This message was edited Aug 30, 2018 1:06 PM

Ottawa, KS(Zone 5b)

I guess this thread is complete.

ZM

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