Trial: Annual

Years Trialed: 2007

Good Qualities

Good bright sunflower color (6): Fast crop time (5), about 50 days; Early seedling vigor, early maturity of about 4 to 7 days earlier than Sunrich Orange or Orange Glory; Nice size flower (2); Open face with upward, pointed petals - nice brown center, didn't droop after being in water for 1 week; Small heads; Nice stem length; Really liked this cultivar, uniform blooming, most all plants produced a flower, seemed to last a long time; Nothing outstanding,my market currently appreciates traditional sunflowers; Early single stem; Very tall- so can cut at the needed length; Standard dark yellow sunflower of average disk diameter and stem length; Good size for bouquet work- stem size was nice and not too big; Pollenless- excellent field and cutting height- nice flower size - nice stout stems- excellent vase life; Good flower quality- big flower size (7.5" diameter), good plant height - easy for harvesting (slightly taller than "Orange Glory"); Strong stem and neck, good flower posture; The directions from Gloeckner indicated to compare to 'Sunrich Orange' - thus, at each planting an equal amount of 'Sunrich Orange' 'Tosca' and 'Orange Glory' were direct seeded - although the seed of 'Sunrich Orange' was over a year old it germinated better than either of the two trial cultivars in all four seedings - during the growth phase all three were indistinguishable - however, at flowering 'Tosca' flowered approximately 5-7 days earlier and than 'Sunrich Orange' and 'Orange Glory' flowered at the same time as 'Sunrich Orange' at all planting dates - the marketable flowers could not be distinguished by cultivar - in fact 'Orange Glory' and 'Sunrich Orange' are similar - they could not be identified as separate cultivars; First planting was useless--pollen on these pollenless cultivars, petals in the middle of the cone, misshaped - the 2nd planting yielded beautiful sunflowers; Huge heads.

Problems

Some of the flowers were not pollenless (2); Bloomed all at once in the heat of the summer - I didn't like that each batch couldn't be more timed, as flowers opened quickly; This did not germinate in three tries - not one flower; None; Short stems; Very daylength sensitive: flowers 17 days later in long days than short day conditions, on a plant that is 44 in. tall, vs. 28 in. for the short day plant; Petals curled back which I don't care for, makes the flower look "old" and not as fresh; Insects - all came on at once!; Non- uniform flowering window- can't harvest at the same period - very thick stems- hard to cut/harvest; Erratic germination; Numerous culls due to flowers in the disk, other floral parts in the disk, misshapen heads, double and triple heads, pollen in some heads, very erratic and unpredictable; Misshaped useless flowers; Prone to insect leaf damage.

Similar Cultivars

Sunrich Orange (2) - the heads were a bit smaller, but had similar color and petal shape; Very similar to Sunrich Gold (2) but about a week earlier; Probably closer to Orange Glory than Sunrich Orange in flower color; 'Tosca' is 5-7 days earlier 'Orange Glory' and is not different from 'Sunrich Orange' in habit and time of flowering.

Comments

I would grow this again; I planted 2 varieties for the trials, this variety the seed was treated - this variety was not eaten by birds at planting, the other variety was completely eaten by birds at planting; For our wholesale customers, it is hard to switch them from their reliable standard varieties; For me- it was just another sunflower - trends are changing in this area- large sunflowers as well as small flowered sunflowers are selling well - Procut Sunflowers harvested before this variety; Short day treatment (12 hr daylength for first 3 weeks after emergence) results in plants with short stems and profuse flower bud formation in upper nodes; Harvest a few days ahead of Sunrich Orange; Comparable to "Sunrich Orange" in terms of plant and flowering habit - came into 50% flowering on approximately 5/20/07 (planted 3/9/07, no zone listed), pollenless flowers; Send back to breeder for more work; I liked the similarity of the three cultivars - by having 'Tosca' flowering earlier gave me flexibility in harvesting to meet my markets.

Postharvest

Plain water (2) - keep in a cool spot; Cut when petals are ready to open (before the bees get pollinate), we also remove all leaves; Floralife.

Supplier

Fred C. Gloeckner Company 600 Mamaroneck Ave. Harrison, NY 10528-1613