SUNFLOWER ESTABLISHMENT AND HUSBANDRY

Land Preparation: The seedbed should be well prepared to allow good water penetration and seed emergence. Depending on the growing conditions it may be grown on the flat or in ridges. Ridges reduce erosion and also water logging. However sunflower grown on ridges is more likely to fall over (lodge) during heavy rain or strong winds than sunflower grown on the flat.

Time of Sowing

The ideal time of sowing should aim to coincide crop maturity with the end of rains. The main requirement of sunflower is that the crop should mature and ripen in dry weather.

Spacing

The recommended spacing is 75x 30cm between plants to give a plant population of 44,444 plants/ha. Normally 3 seeds are sown per hole and then thinned to one plant per hole 2-3 weeks after germination.

 Seed rate is 10 kg of good seed per hectare or 4 kg/acre).

Planting depth: Sunflowers should be planted 5 cm deep.

Fertilizer Application

Sunflower requires fertile soil to give good yields. Eighty (80 kg) of double super phosphate before planting (1kg for every 160 paces along the row or 1 small spoonful for each pace).Top dressing with 100 kg/ha CAN (2 large spoonfuls for every 5 paces when the plants are about 30 cm high).Too much nitrogen increase vegetative growth and lodging 

Weed Control

Weed control is very necessary in the first few weeks of the crops growth.

>> 1^st weeding 2-3 weeks during the 2-3 weeks after germination sunflower seedlings grow slowly and can be overtaken by weeds.

>> 2^nd weeding 4-5 later

To save labour the first weeding may be combined with thinning and building up the soil around the base of stems.

Chemical weed control

The use of herbicides has many advantages, of which the most important is that effective weed control can be applied during wet periods when mechanical weed control is impossible.