I would like to buy some sunflower seed for planting…the eating variety and also any advice on seasons, soil, bugs, fertilizer etc. that might help! I won’t grow anything commercially just for the novelty and maybe give aways!

I'm in Northern Thailand …Samoeng area in the mountains!

You should be able to buy seed from an agriculture shop ,or failing that Lazada should sell them ,but look at the packaging date sunflower seed has a short life ,and germination soon falls .

As for growing them ,where I am they are grown commercially ,after maize crops ,at the end of the rainy season ,main reason sunflowers do not like a lot of water ,it rots the roots, but saying that over the past few years I have seen some crop growing during the latter part of the rainy season ,but they are on free draining light land.

I have seen crops grown that have never had any rain, just moisture coming from morning dew ,and if your soil is heavy that will hold water.

As far as I know they seem insect  prof, never seen a crop sprayed ,most farmers  do not put any fertilizer on, but a bit of compound say a 20 -10-10 ,or something similar would be OK .

Now ,you are in the mountains ,I would say that should not be a problem ,but if it does turn cold 5-10c,they might not grow ,or not produce full head .

Normally it is 100 days from planting to harvest ,by then the seeds should be dry.

12 minutes ago, kickstart said:

You should be able to buy seed from an agriculture shop ,or failing that Lazada should sell them ,but look at the packaging date sunflower seed has a short life ,and germination soon falls .

As for growing them ,where I am they are grown commercially ,after maize crops ,at the end of the rainy season ,main reason sunflowers do not like a lot of water ,it rots the roots, but saying that over the past few years I have seen some crop growing during the latter part of the rainy season ,but they are on free draining light land.

I have seen crops grown that have never had any rain, just moisture coming from morning dew ,and if your soil is heavy that will hold water.

As far as I know they seem insect  prof, never seen a crop sprayed ,most farmers  do not put any fertilizer on, but a bit of compound say a 20 -10-10 ,or something similar would be OK .

Now ,you are in the mountains ,I would say that should not be a problem ,but if it does turn cold 5-10c,they might not grow ,or not produce full head .

Normally it is 100 days from planting to harvest ,by then the seeds should be dry.

That’s what I needed…thank you

im going to get some in and see what happens…rainy season over in a month or so and chilly around night but hot as hell during the day for next 90 days!

if it fails I’ll replant in Feb or so and I’m sure they’ll get the heat they need then! I’m growing for fun and to give away the extra????

gets really hot here in Samoeng and not a lot of wind in the valley (normally)

Thank You for taking the time!!

Birds love the seeds, you have to get up early to beat them.