Please save sunflower seeds for the seed library!
Sunflowers. Photo credit: Vengolis/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
by Sara Swanson
Did you grow sunflowers this summer? If you did there is a good chance you have sunflower seeds ready to be harvested in your garden right now. The Manchester Seed Library is asking for anyone who grew any kind of sunflowers to consider saving the seeds and donating them to the seed library this fall. They will mix all of the donated sunflower seeds together to create a sunflower mix for next year!
To save sunflower seeds, first confirm seeds are fully ripe. When seeds are ripe the rear of the flower head changes color from green to yellow, the outer ray petals dry out, turn crispy and fall off easily, and the heavy flower head begins to droop. Mature seeds feel hard and firm when squeezed, unlike immature seeds which feel hollow or soft. Another tell is whether the birds are eating the seeds or not. If the birds are eating the seeds, they are ripe!
When you are confident the seeds are ripe, cut the head off the stalk and put the seed heads somewhere warm and dry with good air flow for a couple of weeks. If you have rafters in your garage, you can leave on a bit of the stalk on and tie them to your rafters.
After the initial dryig period, remove the seeds and spread them out to dry for a couple more days. They must be completely dry for the next step.
To kill insect larva that may be living inside the seeds, bag up the seeds and freeze them for at least 3 days.
Set aside any seeds you want to save to replant next year and donate the rest to the Manchester Seed Library by taking them to the front desk of the Manchester District Library located at 912 City Road. Please write on the bag or envelope “sunflowers” and the year you saved them (“2026” if it was this year.)
The Manchester Seed Library encourages the saving of all types of seeds and will accept seed donations of any seeds saved within the last 5 years (or germination tested within the last 5 years to determine whether they are still viable.)
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