Sunflowers are my wife’s favourite flower. That’s why you see them all over our website, including our favicon. We grow sunflowers every year for their beauty and for the bees, so I learned how to harvest sunflower seeds to save for next year’s garden.
Saving sunflower seeds will save you money and is surprisingly simple to do.
The important part is knowing when the flower head is mature enough to harvest, letting it dry completely, and storing the seeds properly until you’re ready to plant them next spring.
When Are Sunflower Seeds Ready to Harvest?
As sunflower seeds get closer to harvest, the flower will have finished blooming, most of the petals will have fallen off, the head will begin to droop toward the ground, and the seeds underneath the dried florets will look plump and full.
If you brush away some of the small dried florets covering the face of the sunflower, you can see the individual seeds developing underneath. At this stage, my seeds were clearly formed, but the flower head still had quite a bit of green tissue and needed more time to dry before I harvested the seeds for storage.
I took the photo above on September 24. Although the seeds were clearly formed, the flower head still had quite a bit of green tissue and wasn’t ready to harvest yet. I left it to continue drying.
By October 5, the flower head had turned brown and dried completely. At this point, the seeds came loose easily when I rubbed them with my fingers.
How to Harvest Sunflower Seeds
Once the sunflower head is mature enough to harvest, I cut it from the plant and let it finish drying before removing the seeds. I hang the heads upside down in my greenhouse, high enough off the ground that critters can’t reach them. Any warm, dry location with good airflow can be used.
Here’s how I harvest and dry the sunflower heads before removing the seeds.
1. Cut the Sunflower Head
Cut the sunflower stem below the first leaf under the flower head, leaving the leaf attached to the flower. This gives you a “hook” to hang the sunflower from.
2. Let the Sunflower Head Dry
To dry sunflower heads for seeds, hang the sunflower in a warm, dry location with good airflow. Make sure it’s hung in a location that isn’t easily reachable by rodents like mice, chipmunks or squirrels. I’ve personally had a rodent eat an entire crop of sunflower heads I had hanging to dry overnight.
3. Remove the Seeds From the Sunflower Head
Once the sunflower head has dried thoroughly, the seeds should be easy to remove. I do this by folding back the dried leaves around the flower head and rolling the seeds around until they come loose and fall out. If the seeds are difficult to remove, the sunflower head may not be dry enough yet.
To save the seeds, I do this over a large bowl and let them fall into the bowl as they loosen. Each sunflower head contains a lot of seeds, so it can take a little while to work your way through an entire flower.
4. Let the Sunflower Seeds Dry Completely
Before storing sunflower seeds, make sure they are completely dry. I spread the seeds out in a single layer on a large plate or baking sheet, depending on how many I have, and let them dry indoors for another week or two.
Even if the sunflower head felt dry when you harvested the seeds, the seeds themselves may still contain some moisture. Letting them dry completely before storing them helps reduce the risk of mold.
How to Save Sunflower Seeds for Planting Next Year
I normally save seeds from the first flower that opens on a sunflower plant. On our plants, the first flower is usually the largest, so it gives me plenty of large, mature seeds to choose from for next year’s garden.
If you’re harvesting more than one variety of sunflower, make sure to label them when you harvest the flower heads. Once the flower heads are dry, they will all look very similar and it can be difficult to remember which variety each one was.
We save sunflower seeds every year for two reasons: planting next year’s sunflowers and feeding our chickens. We supplement their regular feed with sunflower seeds in late summer and fall until we run out, making sure to save enough to plant again.
Will Saved Sunflower Seeds Grow the Same Flowers Next Year?
Sunflower seeds saved from your garden can be planted again next year, but the flowers they produce may not look exactly the same as the original plant.
Sunflowers can cross-pollinate with other varieties growing nearby. Since we grow several different varieties in our garden, there is a chance the seeds we save have been cross-pollinated and could produce flowers with different colours, sizes or other characteristics. Hybrid varieties can also produce different results when their seeds are saved.
If you want the best chance of growing sunflowers similar to the parent plant, save seeds from an open-pollinated variety and avoid growing different varieties close together. For us, a little variation isn’t a problem. We mainly save them so we can continue growing sunflowers throughout the garden for their flowers and the bees.
How to Store Sunflower Seeds Until Next Spring
Once your sunflower seeds are completely dry, they’re ready to be stored until next year’s planting season. I label my saved seeds with the sunflower variety and the year they were harvested so I know exactly what I have when spring comes around.
I store my sunflower seeds in a labelled Ziploc bag in a cool, dry and dark place. Because plastic bags don’t allow moisture to escape, make sure the seeds are completely dry before sealing the bag. Any moisture left in the seeds can become trapped and lead to mold.
I use a plastic bag because I save a lot of seeds, and sunflower seeds are too large for the small paper envelopes I use for most of my other saved seeds.
Can You Eat the Sunflower Seeds You Harvest?
Yes, you can eat sunflower seeds harvested from your garden. Some sunflower varieties produce larger seeds that are better suited for eating, while others are grown primarily for their flowers.
We save most of ours for planting next year and use some as supplemental feed for our chickens. If you’re growing a variety bred for larger edible seeds, you can harvest and clean the seeds, then roast them instead of saving them for planting.
If you plan to eat your sunflower seeds, only use seeds from plants that haven’t been treated with anything you wouldn’t want on food.
Frequently Asked Questions About Saving Sunflower Seeds
I don’t wash sunflower seeds that I’m saving for planting. Once I remove them from the dried flower head, I pick out any pieces of the flower and spread the seeds out to finish drying. Adding water at this stage would only mean the seeds need to dry again before they can be safely stored.
Sunflower seeds can remain viable beyond the following growing season when stored properly, although germination rates can decline as seeds age. Since we grow sunflowers every year, I prefer to plant the seeds I saved the previous fall and replace them with freshly harvested seeds each year.
No. Save and plant the sunflower seed with its shell, or hull, intact. There’s no need to crack or remove the outer shell before planting it in the garden.
Saving Sunflower Seeds for Next Year’s Garden
Saving sunflower seeds has become part of our yearly garden routine. Once they’re completely dry, I label and put enough away for next year’s garden while we use some of the extras as supplemental feed for our chickens. Along with sunflowers, we also save marigold seeds for next year, which is another easy flower seed to collect and store.
Next spring, we’ll bring the saved seeds back out and direct sow them in the garden to start the process all over again. Considering how many seeds we get from a single flower head, saving a few sunflowers each fall gives us plenty of seed to keep them growing throughout our garden year after year.
