Planting Seeds of Friendship

1. Planting Seeds of Friendship Tiana Date 3/16/2011

2. Plant name - Sunflowers Three facts • Helianthus annuus • It blooms and yields edible seeds within 3 months of plantation.(annual) • Grows Tall

3. Plant Details • 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day • Grows to more than 15 feet. • Late June • cultivated soil and red soil or add waste of animals like cow

4. Watering your seeds • Feed  often and water regularly. While the plant is small, water around the root zone, about 3-4 inches from the plant with about 2 gallons of properly diluted liquid fertilizer solution per week. For larger plants, scrape out a small doughnut-shaped moat about 18 inches around the plant and about four inches deep. Pour several gallons of properly diluted fertilizer into the moat every week.  Sunflower roots can grow to 4 feet below the soil surface. Avoid pouring fertilizer directly on the stems, since this can cause them to rot.

5. Uses • Sunflower oil is used for biodiesel fuel and the sunflower plant is used to clean toxins from the environment. • Sunflower seeds are used today as bird food, a nutritious snack, for sprouting, cooking oil, medicine, and animal feed.

6. Plant Varieties • Autumn Beauty • Big Smile • Holiday • Ikarus • Lyng's California Greystripe • Moonbright • Moulin Rouge • Pacino • Ring of Fire • Sonja

7. History • Around the world, the sunflower is the only crop harvested for seed that was domesticated in the United States. Sunflower was a common crop among Native American tribes throughout North America. Evidence suggests that Native Americans were cultivating sunflowers in the Four Corners area of the southwestern United States about 3,000 B.C. Sunflower seeds were ground or pounded into flour, cracked and eaten as snacks, mixed with other vegetables, or even squeezed for oil which was used in making bread. Non-food uses included purple dye, medical uses, and using the dried stalk as a building material. The plant and the seeds were widely used in ceremonies. Spanish explorers took the exotic sunflower plant to Europe in the 1500's, where it was widely used as an ornamental plant. By 1716, an English patent had been granted for squeezing oil from sunflower seeds but the sunflower was never really viewed as a food plant until it reached Russia. By 1830, sunflower oil was being commercially manufactured. The Russian Orthodox Church increased the popularity of sunflower oil when sunflower was left off the list of oil foods prohibited from being consumed during Lent.

8. Sources • http://agmarknet.nic.in/amrscheme/nagpursun041.htm • http://www.buzzle.com/articles/annual-flowers.html • http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_types-of-soil_are_best_for_growing_sunflowers#ixzz1GlrQpknD • http://www.city-data.com/forum/kansas/312326-sunflowers-bloom.html • http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_sunlight_does_a_sunflower_need • http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/grow-sunflower.html • http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/herbs/crops/agritourism/sunflower_varieties.html • http://www.cyberspaceag.com/kansascrops/sunflowers/sunflowerhistory.htm