Its a BIGGUN!!

Here is my BIG sunflower. When I planted it, was no bigger than a No. 2 pencil, NOW look at it!! Its over 9ft tall

About 1 and 1/4 inches at the bottom

Ski - that's big! What type of sunflower is it? How & when did you plant? (direct seed or transplant?)
I had to replant as the crows that live in the vicinity pulled mine out. My Italian Whites were safe, but not the others. Have you had problems with crows doing this? Every year they do it, & every year I think I will beat them at their game. When I go out to the garden, they sit on the fence & squawk at me as if I am interfering with their fun...
Please post a photo of your sunflower when it blooms. I am a real sunflower lover & enjoy seeing what others grow. Thanks!

KATYE,
Planted about two months ago, they were about the size of a pencil, and less than a foot tall, lol. Dont know kind, bought them at garage sale kinda thing.

Will do, re: send pic of it. Feel free to pester me to get it posted, as I have CRS, (cant remember stuff). One of the smaller ones is SLIGHTLY open, you can see yellow, but thats about it.

I had those in my garden last year and when I went to pull them out this spring I had to dig up the root ball and compost it. It was so big and tough. It was fun cutting them down with my chain saw. I wish I had the picture up here in AK with me. lol Mine came in a sunflower package that was supposed to grow small Red Sunflowers, 3 to 4 ft. Talk about hybrid vigor!

Wow, I wonder why that happens. I haven't had crows yanking out my sunflowers and I can't be too far from Katye. Sammamish is not all that big. I certainly see a lot of birds here and hear crows, but they don't seem to fancy my garden. Anyway heres a much shorter than 9 ft sunflower.

Hi Kyra - I am baffled by the crow behavior as well - nothing remarkable about it except for the fact that they like to pull out seedlings - squash, melons, corn, sunflowers, cukes. Every year for the past 20 years, they pull up at least one or two crops...I have a huge crow population on my property - they hang out in the doug firs & hemlocks. When I am in the garden, they will often come down & sit on the fence to watch (?) me. So I don't know what's up with all this seedling attraction, but they do consume the sprouted seeds, especially the corn. Maybe they like to give me replanting angst - some type of bizarre crow-humor...

I have also had a problem with crows yanking out corn and bean seedlings to get at the seed before the new plant has used it up. This year I tried two tricks with success. I covered the corn with insect barrier cloth until it was big enough to hold its own. It was held down with fabric pins and rocks. I couldn't put cloth over the pole beans because I had their trellis already set up, so I used the pins to hold one foot long strips of tin foil down to the side of the newly planted bean seeds. They fluttered a bit in the breeze and made noise, which seems to have kept away the birds. The slugs did get a few bean seedlings, but at least they don't take it all.

Maury - thanks for the tips. Next year I will try this. I had used 1" hardware cloth & formed half-cylinders to place over the rows of seedlings. However, I neglected to close up the ends. So the crows went in & harvested! I hate to complain - it's not like I am dependant on them for my livelihood, but it can be so disappointing to expend the time & energy all for nought. Chalk it up to another learning experience! I really like the foil idea - wonder if this might work with mylar strips. thanks again! Katye

I have'nt noticed the crows after the sunflowers. Only thing I have that they like, I think is my garbage cans on collection, day. I dont know how they get under the lids, but they manage.
This is the first year I have actively grown sunflowers, usally the squirrls plant them everywhere... (from birdseed). Here is a red one that I really like.
Viv

Here is one the squirrls planted..

Viv

VIZZ, VERY nice!!