I had 8 foot sunflowers last year, and will try for taller ones this year.
The most important thing is the seed. If the parents were tall, yours will
likely be tall. Many varieties of sunflower are short. Perhaps that's what
you have.

I have found that starting them indoors in LARGE inverted drink cups and
transplanting them to the outside has been most effective for me, because of
my very short summer (latitude 50 N, zone 3) but if there is ANY root
disturbance during transplanting the plants are set back and never really
recover. In zone 7 I would work a lot of manure into their bed and just
plant them outside well separated from each other.

Andrew

"Jim" wrote in message
...
Hi Rhonda,

I wonder if something might be stunting them during the starting and
transplanting stage. I've grown huge sunflowers in zone 3 by direct
seeding in the garden. Maybe a good test would be to direct sow a few
at the same time you set out your seedlings. I'd bet a nickle the
direct sown seeds will outperform.

$.02

Jim

On Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:36:39 GMT, "Natty Dread"
wrote:

I'm sure you master gardeners will laugh at me, but how does one grow a
sunflower to be 6 feet tall? I've tried growing sunflowers from seed for
the past two years, starting them in pots and transplanting the seedlings
to
containers outside when it gets warm enough, but the seeds I've planted
have
set one small bloom at about 18" and then nothing. (I haven't pinched or
anything - I was always told that sunflowers are the easiest plant to
grow,
so I just planted 'em and watched 'em grow.) Are those huge Kansas-style
sunflowers perennials that take a few years to get that tall? Any info
appreciated!

Rhonda
Richmond, VA
USDA Zone 7


********
Basic human psychology is one of my subroutines.