How To Preserve Sunflower Seeds For Growing

It’s that time of year that the summer sowed Sunflowers are dying out and the fall sowed Sunflowers are on their last run.  So what now? You can leave them out and let nature take care of them OR save the seeds for next planting season!  About a month ago we started saving seeds off of our spent Sunflowers and I wanted to share that it’s so easy, that you can do it too! 

In our particular situation we didn’t have a bunch of rodents or birds flocking our Sunflowers for their seeds but if in the case that you do you can cover the heads of the flowers after all of the “flower” has dried and fallen off with organza bags, paper bags OR like we did go ahead and pick the heads before they’re 100% dry.  If you have a space to hang the sunflower seeds to dry, I highly recommend taking that route to assure you get the maximal amount of seeds!

If you’re bringing in the Sunflower heads to finish drying make sure you keep them hung in a warm, ventilated, dry place.  Low humidity is of upmost importance to prevent mold and moisture from sitting in the seedheads.  

Once the Sunflower heads are dry they shouldn’t bend easily and also should not hold any moisture to them, they should be crunchy in a sense. To remove the seeds from the heads you can brush your hands over them while holding them upside down over a clean bucket to capture them.  Some of the seeds may be stubborn to get out and you’ll have to bend back the head and “pry” them out.  

It is smart to continue to allow the seeds to dry on a newspaper or rack for another week or so to assure the moisture is out of them before storing.  

To store them over the winter until planting time towards summer, you can store these seeds you’ve collected and dried in paper bags or envelopes.  

Drying the seeds has been a fun activity for the kids to be able to help and on the plus side there’s very slim error room for anything to go wrong! Did you grow Sunflowers 🌻 this year?? 

XOXO- Sophia 
Creator & Owner 
Sweet Maple Living