Sunflower - Giant Russian.

[triffid]

I would love someone to figure out how to breed a red sunflower that is not male sterile and is bred for seed eating with one large stalk.

Why is it that red sunflowers have CMS?

[reed]

My sunflowers are primarily red and they reseed and grow on their own every year.  The flowers and seeds are not  large, most flowers are maybe five or six inches across, some even smaller than that and lots per stalk.

Yellows and oranges, even brown is mixed in but 1/2 or more are red. Maybe cause primarily red, instead of all solid red, is why they are able to keep going? I don't know much about cms.

[Richard Watson]

I'm not sure, but I suspect the whole plant. And I suspect that some things tolerate them better than others. I tend to think of beans as being a bit sensitive in general, so I wouldn't be surprised if they don't like being too close to sunflowers. A little googling shows people do grow them up sunflowers, but at least one person was noting that they should not be planted too close.

For years I have grown sunflowers in the same bed the year after growing Oca, if I snap off any Oca growing while the SF's are growing all Oca tubers left in the ground are totally buggered by the time winter arrives, meaning the bed is Oca free the season after.

[Walt]

When I was breeding perennial sunflowers for seed production, we noticed that several common species of weeds, like wild mustard wouldn't grow within a half meter of H. maximilianii.  Some other weeds, like Bromus tectorum, would grow right up to sunflowers without any problem.