Join us on a virtual field trip to a sunflower farm in Mentor, Minnesota! John Swanson is a sunflower farmer who will share the different types of sunflowers, explain their life cycle, and show how sunflowers are planted, grown, and harvested. We will also discover how sunflowers connect to the food we eat, and why Minnesota farmers grow sunflowers.
John Swanson
John Swanson has been involved with sunflower production and research for over 50 years. He served on the National Sunflower Association Board of Directors for 12 years and has also been involved with the Minnesota Sunflower Council, Minnesota Wheat Growers, Minnesota Corn Growers, Minnesota Soybean Growers, the National Canola Association, and the Farm Bureau.
Sunflowers
Sunflowers are commonly 5 to 10 feet tall, and the average sunflower head contains around 3500 seeds! The size of the sunflower head varies depending on the amount of moisture it receives and other growing conditions. Watch the virtual field trip for more details about the parts of a sunflower.
Sunflower roots can grow as deep as the sunflower is tall, or even a foot or two deeper, which helps them grow tall and collect water efficiently. Sunflowers prefer dry climates because they easily absorb water. This means that sunflower farmers rarely need to irrigate their fields.
Once the sunflowers have dried up in the fall, they are ready to be harvested. By this time, the sunflowers will hold only 19% or less of the moisture they contained over the summer. Sunflowers are harvested with a combine equipped with a special sunflower header designed to pick up the plants and separate the seeds. The two most common products from sunflowers are sunflower oil and seeds for snacking.
Growing sunflowers comes with challenges, including pests and diseases. Both birds and insects commonly eat or damage the sunflower fields, which impacts the sunflower yield. In Minnesota, sunflowers are most often affected by the diseases Phomopsis, which causes the plants to become brittle and wilt, and Sclerotinia, which causes the sunflower heads to rot and appear black.
For more information about sunflowers, check out the virtual field trip recording.
