Trial: Annual
Year Trialed: 2004 Year of Trial: First (from 2004 report)
Good Qualities
Great flower color (3); Short crop time (3); Very uniform flowering time (2); Nice strong rays, strong stem and neck; Very large flower, sold for $2.00 stem; Customers returned week after week for more ‘Procuts’; Favorite new sunflower; Very exciting new crop; Best sunflower I’ve grown in a few years!; Nice color, nice height, not too tall; 2 weeks earlier than ‘Sunrich Orange’; Size flower head good; Nice flower size; Big, even consistent headed flower with a very crisp look, held heads up in spite of size, no doubt smaller stems would hurt this attribute, but if heads were smaller as well....Problems
Stems too thick (2); Poor germination, bit raggety; The stems are too large (fat around) to use in mixed bouquets; I went on to purchase this seed and use it throughout the season, stems got progressively shorter and smaller, my cut this week of 10/10 is only 3 feet tall but customers are still buying it, we needed to put additional stems in the bunch though; Opens fast and turns sideways; Weak stems, floppy flower heads; Stalks were soft and got a brown rot; many plants fell over, would only grow in the field in the future; Stems too short; Slight problem with powder mildew.Postharvest
Editor’s note: see separate postharvest article in this issue for more information.Trial 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 | 1.3 | 37.4 | 3.7 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 92 | 9.6 |
| Range of Responses | 1-5 | 12-60 | 3-4 | 3-5 | 2-5 | 2-5 | 2-5 | 18-180 | 5-15 |
¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Comments
Similar to ‘Sunbright Supreme’ (2) or ‘Sunrich Orange’; Not a very bright orange; ‘Procut Bi-color’ flowered 1st, then ‘Procut Orange’ and then ‘Procut Lemon’; planted several plantings thru season; Good single stem; Quick producer, though I didn’t record dates, will try much closer spacing to bring stem size down; Will plant again.