In article ,
Digmeup wrote:

Hi Guys

My daughter has come home from school with a sunflower seedling. The
idea is that we grow it and take a picture when fully grown for a school
project.

This has now grown to about 18 inches tall - and is now in a good sized
pot.

Whats the best care we can give it for maximum growth and health.

Have noticed that some of the older leaves have now become discoloured
and very limp looking - is this normal as it grows?

any help will be appreciated - and may even put the pic on here once it
is fully grown.

Thanks for reading and helping out.

Like any food plant it will need full sun.
Feed with 2.88 oz chicken manure/1 sq.ft.,
.48 oz. bone meal/sq.ft.,
and one gallon of ashes per square yard on loam to clay-loam
soil, and half as much on sandier soils.
If you are top dressing the lawn or flowerbeds use only about
1/4 to 1/2 inch of ashes per year.
If worse comes to worse, get some organic 10-10-10. These things are
heavy feeders, so you may want to give it fish emulsion every 2 weeks,
or as directed on the bottle.
I'd also invest in a small tomato cage or a tube made from wire fencing
and fastened to stakes to give the sunflower support, at least until
it's sturdy.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
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