Sunflowers Update

The sunflowers are now about a foot tall.  Some, however, are considerably smaller because the seeds are still sprouting that didn't come up earlier.  When you plant the seeds and they get zero rainfall, they sprout according to how much moisture is in the soil.  The ones in the driest soil are taking much longer to sprout, but, incredibly, they are still sprouting.  We are still waiting for a rain to come!

Our best guess for bloom time is still the end of August.  They are usually only in bloom for a couple of weeks depending on the weather.  Last year, we had a run of 17 days over 100 degrees, so they only lasted a week.  We hope to not get a repeat of that this year.

If you are on Face Book, "like" Grinter Farms if you want even more updates.

They're up!

Ted got the sunflower field planted on the 28th of June.   That's a little early for us to get the sunflowers in the ground.

The sunflowers haven't had much in the way of water (I think maybe they've had a couple of tenths of an inch of rain) so they are coming up a bit spotty.  What I mean by "spotty" is that you will have every seed in a row sprout and then nothing for the next twenty feet.  A rain (soon) would help this issue.  There is no strong chance of rain forecasted in the next 10 days.  Good thing sunflowers will often grow without rain, so that the one's that are up will most likely survive.

What's not good is that the actual temperature today is supposed to be over 100*F, and the 10 day forecast is high 90's.  It'll be harder on the beans and corn than the sunflowers.  I guess we do live in Kansas, and nasty high temperatures are to be expected.  (I hate the heat...I was meant to live in Alaska.)  

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on the sunflowers.  You can also check us out on Facebook @ Grinter Farms.

Have a fantastic week!