Trial Started: 2005

Year of Trial: First (from 2005 report)

Good Qualities

Beautiful, rich color (6); Shape, length and foliage, made it through 55 inches of rain and hail; Full blooms; Upright facing face - not so 'eastward' facing, nice in bouquets - good size; A very nice pollenless single-cut sunflower for short days - we pushed our sunflowers for late season in order to pair with grasses and because our ground was simply too hot and dry for sowing most of the summer! - this one (actually ALL of our late-sown) sunflowers came through for us before frost! - this was the last to do so, however... Plants stood well despite a severe wind on a couple occasions, no disease problems; Very striking contrast to "normal" sunflowers; Large petals; Very tall, florists really liked them; Nice flower substantive, huge head, good 5 foot height; early to flower (similar to Pro Cut series); Flower size good; Good standard sunflower but didn't really stand out above anything else that we grew, plants were taller than 35 inches but that height worked best for cutting.

Problems

Thick stems (2); Germination was a bit erratic on this one, but good nonetheless, brown stink bugs were plentiful on all our sunflowers (or were they the beneficial look-alikes spined soldier bugs?) as were swarms of corn rootworm beetles and cucumber beetles, but we suffered very little actual insect damage by cutting sunflowers just as the petals started to color and lift; Not very consistent in stem size - some huge, some very small; None; Preferred 'Orange King's color more - kind of bland yellow petals; Hard to keep up with bugs on sunflowers in our location without routine pesticide applications; Not a seller/too tall, hard to cut; Dry season - production was down, minimal germination percentage.

Postharvest

See separate postharvest report in this issue for results from NC State University postharvest evaluations.

Comments

Flowers much much too large for my customers; Despite problems growing them, there is a big demand for locally grown sunflowers in our market, especially among upscale event florists; Seeded in 128 cell flat on 4/24/05 before transplanting to field - harvest interval was 7/3-7/10; A nice sunflower; This was nothing special for me.