Trial Started: 2005
Year of Trial: First (from 2005 report)
Good Qualities
Great interesting color (5); Good for novelty; Beautiful rust color center; Small but good shape and light orangey color; Seem to hold petals well - pollenless; Easy; Pretty conventional sunflower; To say it is peach is a bit of a stretch; Like all of the Pro Cut series because they seem to all bloom about the same time; Florists like it better than yellow sunflower, farmer's market customers liked it better than yellow and requested this one; Love all the Pro Cuts; Nice cut flower with good stem length, uniform flowering time, and quick harvest period, had excellent germination both in transplant and direct seeding, plants were taller than 35 inches but that height worked best for cutting; No disease!; Fast; Strong stem; It grew well but not liked by my customers.Problems
Not very 'peachy' color (6); Droopy (2); Color not orange and not lemon, difficult for mass growers to use, tends to open all at once; None other than a wind storm that knocked them over- still useable; Hard to keep up with bugs on sunflowers in our location without routine pesticide applications; Stems can be weak and seems to need to be more open when picked; Too weak looking; Insects loved to eat the petals even before flower opens; My perception was a washed-out, sickly colored bloom; No one would buy this flower, people didn't like the color; Large size can be a factor in sales, not the best for everyday design, pale in color - not always what the designer wants; Could have grown more.Postharvest
Cut into hot water with Chrysal #2Trial Data
| Yield (stems/plant) | Stem Length (inches) | Market Appreciation Rating¹ | Repeat Again Rating¹ | Ease of Cultivation Rating¹ | Average Spacing (in2) | Average Postharvest Life (days) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale | Retail | Consumer | |||||||
| Average | 1.0 | 40.5 | 3.0 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 4.4 | 106 | 8.9 |
| Range of Responses | 1.0 | 18-48 | 2-5 | 2-5 | 1-5 | 1-5 | 2-5 | 36-256 | 2-14 |
¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Comments
I am not crazy about the Pro Cut series- I prefer 'Sunbright', 'Sunbright Supreme', 'Soraya 'and the Sunrich series for Farmer's Market; Sold only few since insects destroyed; I'll grow it again only because I have some seed left, but wouldn't necessarily specifically grow it again; Grown in high tunnel; Despite problems growing them, there is a big demand for locally grown sunflowers in our market, especially among upscale event florists; Both Pro Cut sunflower varieties grew well to about 6 feet tall, and with 8 inch diameter blooms - my favorite is the Pro Cut Yellow with the lemon yellow centers, this will definitely be added to my list of sunflowers to continue growing; Kind of disappointing from this series.