Today, learn how to grow sunflower in the Philippines. I see a flower and it is beautiful. I smell it and it is fragrant. I feel wonderful, because of its color. I see a sunflower.
Sunflower is a kind of flower that grows well in the Philippines. Many sunflower farms are built around the country. Some of them make a sunflower garden to attract tourists to the area. Farmers or gardeners can grow sunflower but you as an individual can grow also. So here’s a short tutorial on how to grow sunflower in the Philippines.
1. Buy Some Sunflower Seeds
Where to I can buy sunflower seeds? Buy some quality sunflower seeds from the agriculture market or store. They sell high-quality seeds which you can use to grow your sunflower.
The seeds they sell sometimes have a coated color which helps the seeds to live longer. They sell those quality seeds you can use in gardening.
One pack can have up to 20+ sunflower seeds which can cost around 40+ Pesos. You can buy more packs which you can use in growing sunflower.
The sunflower seeds should look black and hard enough. Avoid those broken and not so clean seeds because they will have a low percentage of germination.
You can also buy sunflower seeds online on amazon.com, ebay.com, lazada, or other flower seeds store online.
2. Germinate Sunflower Seeds
The next thing is to start germinating the sunflower seeds. The seeds of sunflower are difficult to germinate. There are cases that it has a low percentage of germination so you can use this technique which is here now.
The technique to make sunflower seeds easy to germinate is using tissue paper or a piece of cloth. Prepare all your materials. The sunflower seeds, cloth or tissue paper, plastic with zip lock, water, and container.
Get a container with water then soak the sunflower seeds for about 3 to 4 hours. Then get the tissue paper or cloth and wet it also. Then after that put the sunflower seeds inside the cloth or tissue paper and roll it over.
Get the plastic with a ziplock and put the roll tissue paper or cloth inside. After that, lock the plastic and put it inside the container. After three to seven days, the sunflower seeds will start to germinate.
Not all sunflower seeds will germinate but it will boost and make the germination process easy and will improve the germination of the sunflower seeds.
3. Planting the Germinated Sunflower Seeds
Go to your garden. While you are just germinating sunflower seeds, you need to prepare your soil for planting.
Make a plot. Decide on how big is the plot you are going to make. If you have a bigger enough land space you can adjust it. Make sure that the spot you choose has direct sunlight from the sun. This will help the sunflower to grow well. The sunlight is the main food of the sunflower so it needs more sunlight.
To prepare your soil, remove first the unwanted materials like rocks, plastics, cans, garbage, and roots of the trees. Then cultivate the soil using the garden tools like a shovel and grab a hoe.
Next, remove the grasses. You didn’t want grasses in your garden so you should remove those grasses. Then pulverize the bigger bunch of soil. When all is prepared we need to plant the germinated sunflower seeds.
Get a garden tool like a trowel or bolo. Then plant the germinated sunflower seeds around one inch deep on the soil. Cover it after. Make a 12-inch sunflower plant distance. Then water it after. After several days the sunflower will start growing.
4. Caring for Sunflower
When the sunflower started to grow the caring process is highly essential. Put some barriers against the sunlight. The flower needs sunlight but too much direct sunlight can harm the flower. You can use a cut banana trunk and put it on the sunflower seedlings.
After several days it will continue to grow. How often do sunflowers need to be water? You need to water it regularly twice a day. One in the morning and in the afternoon especially during the summer season or when the weather is too hot. A very young sunflower needs just a little amount of water. Then when it grows bigger adjust it to 200 to 500 mL of water per day. That’s around 400 to 1000 mL of water if you are watering it twice a day.
You need also to apply fertilizer to the sunflower. There is chemical fertilizer being sold in the market that can also help the whole flower, but we recommended an eco-friendly kind of fertilizer. Use organic fertilizer instead.
To apply the fertilizer, you can mix it on the water so that it will absorb all of the roots. Or you can just put it on the soil.
5. Sunflower is Flowering
It takes around five to six months for the sunflower to begin flowering. To make it faster for the sunflower to produce more flowers you need to do your best. Water it regularly with enough amount of water.
As time goes by, the sunflower needs more water so add more from 500 mL every day to 1L. Use the 500 mL amount of water in the morning and also 1 mL in the afternoon. But you still need to base it on how big is your sunflower plant. It’s because there are big varieties of sunflowers and also smaller ones. The water you will apply will depend upon its size.
You need to remove those living grasses on the soil so that all fertilizer will get of the sunflower.
6. Enjoy Seing Your Beautiful Sunflower
After your hard work on how to grow sunflower in the Philippines, enjoy seeing your sunflower that produces more flowers. Make a picture of a sunflower and upload it on social media. You can capture yourself beside, under, or below the sunflower.
A few Questions about Sunflower
Can you grow sunflowers in the container?
The answer is yes, you can grow sunflowers inside the container. The whole process is just the same procedure. The difference is you have a small portion amount of soil.
We recommend that use bigger size pots as it will help the flower to sprout and produce its roots. You need to care also by watering it regularly and applying fertilizer to the flower. And soonest it will produce some beautiful sunflowers.
Can sunflower grow in a shaded area?
It might be hard for the sunflower to grow in a shaded area. But if you want it to grow, plant it in the container. Then every morning put the sunflower outside, on the place where the direct sunlight can hit, and then the sunflower will surely grow well.
Thanks for reading this article about how to grow sunflower in the Philippines. Thanks for your time and effort in reading this whole stuff. Hope you learn something coming from us even as little as possible. Thanks once again and good day.