[Note: This documentary is written by Mama Snow as first-person narrative through the eyes of little Ethan so he can share the documentary with his teachers and classmates.]
The Story Begins
This year, mom and I planted Mongolian Giant sunflowers from seeds. We can direct sow the seeds in the ground or we can sow the seeds in a seedling pot.
At first, we planted the Mongolian Giant sunflowers in our backyard garden. The sunflower grew very tall and grew past my sister’s bedroom window. When the sunflower bloomed, my mom got so excited and decided to cut the flower stem off thinking she can harvest the seeds.
Mom and I learned that we can not cut the sunflower too early for seeds. To harvest sunflower seeds, we need to wait until the petals all drop off and the sunflower head starts wilting or becomes droopy. Mom decided to grow the Mongolian Giant Sunflower again, but this time in the front yard.
I am in charge of sowing the sunflower seeds in my flower seedling tray for my mom. I also sell sunflower seedlings in Oviedo too.
This time, mom decided to plant the Mongolian Giant sunflower in a plastic barrel pot in the front yard. The sunflower did not grow as tall as it did when it was planted in the ground, but the flower head is still big. I remembered there was a mysterious bug that kept munching holes in the leaves near the flower head. Mom and I could not see what pest was munching the leaves at night since the sunflower was so tall. So my dad had to climb up a ladder to check on the sunflower. Sure enough he found a green grasshopper making its home on the sunflower. The grasshopper was the bad guy that kept eating the leaves.
Mom learned to wait for all the petals to fall off and the sunflower stalk started to wilt. By now, the seed shells have formed. It’s ready to harvest the sunflower head! The parts of the sunflower head is that big round part of the sunflower plant. The sunflower face is where the pollens and seeds are located.
Mom and I removed the dry pollens to show the seed shells.
Mom took a few seed shells out to see if it’s ready. Mom discovered that not all seed shells contain a seed inside. Some seed shells are hollow. The shell is the outer part and the seed is the white part inside the shell that we can roast to eat.
Mom checked and sorted out each seed shell into two piles. One pile is for the empty hollow seed shells and another pile is for the firm seed shells. Mom got bored checking the seeds after five minutes so I took over the job. I think sorting sunflower seeds is a fun task to do. Mom taught me to check each sunflower seed by pressing my two fingers against the sides of the sunflower shells. If it is a hollow empty seed shell, the shell would burst open with air. If the seed shell contains a seed inside, it would be very firm and not burst open.
Mom said if I check the seeds and dry them, I can keep the money from the seed sales. I got excited!
After sorting out the firm and empty seed shells, I placed the good firm seed shells into a colander to air dry the sunflower seeds. We can also sun dry the seeds too. We need to dry out the seeds before storing them into seed packets or else the moisture inside the seed shells can cause the seed to become moldy.
After air drying the sunflower seeds for three days on the counter, it is time to pack the seeds.
Mom helped create and print out the seed labels for me.
My next task is to cut out the seed labels.
Then I insert a label into each seed packet.
My job is done!
Sunflower seed packets for sale! If anyone wants to buy sunflower seeds from me, please contact my mom!
I am going to grow a different sunflower variety next. Did you know there are more than 100 varieties of sunflowers existing on earth? That means there are more than 100 different kinds of sunflowers! Some sunflower varieties can be short, medium, or super tall. Some sunflower varieties can have yellow, orange, orangy red, red, bloody red, or chocolate brownish red petals too. Some sunflower varieties can have multiple or even hundreds of little flowers on one plant with many branches, or just one fat tall stalk with one big sunflower like this Mongolian Giant sunflower.
insert image
Sunflower seed shells can have different colors and sizes too. Some sunflower seed shells can be black, light gray, brown, small, medium, or big.
insert image
That is all I learned from growing and harvesting sunflower seeds.
The end.
A note from Mama Snow:
Mama Snow has over 200+ seed selections on the seeds for sale inventory list. Every seed packet is just one dollar each! Little Ethan started harvesting seeds since he was four years old. He keeps his earnings for selling the following types of seeds:
- Mongolian Giant sunflower seeds
- Celtuce seeds
- Roselle Hibiscus seeds
- Coriander (cilantro seeds)
- To be continued
