Help me with my sunflowers please!

Hello there, I've never grown sunflowers before, I have two large (14inch high by 16 across) pots. The flowers in one pot are growing really well, but the ones in the other pot, I noticed a couple of days ago the bottom few leaves are bright yellow. I just did some googling and discovered this means they've been over-watered, which would make sense cause there was a couple of days last week where it rained loads, and at one point there was even a couple of inches of water above the compost! In hindsight i definately should have tried to tip it out or something, but i dunno, im stupid, not sure why i didn't!

Anyway, is there anything i can do for them now? The rest of the plant seems fine, its just the bottom few leaves.

Also, Are they going to be ok in pots this size? They are quite large, but i guess the roots need a lot of space. I only have a yard, hence the pots, but if they need more room i could re-plant them in the garden of my grandparents house if i needed to.

 

I dont know anything about sunflowers as never grown them, but with regards to the pots - do they have drainage holes in them ?

 

Yep, drainage springs to my mind also. Water shouldn't be settling on top of the compost even if it rains torrentially.

If there are no drainage holes in the pots, some should be made as a matter of urgency, as the water will stagnate in the compost, the roots will rot, and there will be no air in the compost which the roots need.

On the yellow leaves point, if the leaves look ok further up and the stems are nice and upright, I wouldn't be worried at all. The lower leaves on sunflowers droop and sometimes fall off once the leaves further up are big enough to support the plant's photosynthesis needs.

As for pot size, they'll be fine. The wife always grows sunflowers and they always do well, and she never uses pots quite that big.

 

As well as the drainage issue the more you feed the bigger you get and they develop quite large root systems. It really depends on how big you want them.

 

Ok thanks for your help everyone. Yeah im pretty sure they dont have holes in the bottom, I didn't buy them from a shop, just got them from my grandad's house when they weren't being used anymore, completely didn't think to put some in myself. Im just about to try and do that now, hopefully that will make a difference.

I'll definately try to re-plant them in a garden if they start to get too big, it would seem a shame to keep them in pots.

Thanks again guys

 

i had two in a 30L pot a few years back which grew to about 9ft. The main issue was when the soil started to dry out, the pot toppled over as it became top heavy.

 

Hi Bianca I have grown sunflowers in a couple of green plastic troughs. They were a huge success and I put them against the fence so the little children next door could see them!

I find them fairly easy but yes you have to watch they don't tip over.

Good luck with them, let us know how they end up.
I am growing sunflowers in the garden this year [for a fun competition between a few friends]

 

To reduce the chance of them tipping over, put a couple of inches of sand or pebbles in the bottom of the pot before you add compost. This improves drainage around the roots, but it also because sand is so much heavier than compost it makes it a lot heavier at the bottom, so they are far less likely to topple over.

 

Thanks for your input everyone, they seem to be doing much better now.