Harvesting Mammoth Sunflowers

This post may contain affiliate links, read my full disclosure here.

The mammoth sunflower. We grew our first this year and had a blast. The kids loved it so much that we’ve decided to do our best to make a tradition out of it every single year from here on out. It was a joy to see them grow taller and taller, thicker and thicker at the base until they were over ten feet tall and hovering above us. Amazing to see something so huge come from one tiny little seed.

Little Brown Flowers

I did not know this previous to growing these ourselves, but the brown center of the sunflower (see photo above) is actually made up of hundreds of tiny little brown flowers. This is where the bees come to pollinate, but really I should say where the bees love to hang out. All day. When our sunflowers were in full bloom, they were so massive that at any given moment there were at least four or five bees hovering and working their magic.

Also Check out:

Lentil Sprouts for Chickens- A Protein Packed Treat

Composting: The Simple, No Stress Way

Utilizing The Power Of Fall Leaves In The Garden

Amazing Results

Every single one of those small brown flowers will eventually become their own seed. The flowers will close up and dry out. Below those dried flowers, the seeds will start to develop. Once those seeds develop the mammoth sunflower heads droop from the weight of deliciousness.

Dried up brown flowers laying on a table. — Tiny, dried up brown flowers from the mammoth sunflower.

Some Kind of Alien

Our four year old rightly observed that, “Mom, it looks like some kind of alien!” I had to agree. Husband and I had a good laugh- decided they did look a bit like a certain creature from “Stranger Things”- if you’re familiar.

Harvesting Mammoth Sunflowers is Easy

Come September or so, the pedals will be dried up, some of the dried flowers will start to fall off, and the back part of the flower will start to turn a yellow color, with tiny hints of black. This is when you are ready to harvest. For our largest sunflower the trunk was at least four inches in diameter. We literally cut it down with a large handheld saw. It felt like we were cutting down a tree. The result is pictured below.

Another way to tell if you’re ready to harvest is if you see any birds swooping in on the seeds for a delicious morsel. As you can see below there are seeds missing from our largest sunflower. We cut it down in the morning and left it outside on our patio table until we could harvest seeds that evening. During that short time we had a sparrow snatching up seeds and flying off with them. We saw it with our own eyes, had a good laugh and the kids got some exercise chasing it away while giggling. The best part was that the sparrow just kept coming back for more despite their efforts.

Multiple mammoth sunflower heads, fully grown and ready to harvest. — Harvested mammoth sunflower heads – Ready to harvest seeds.

Our largest grown mammoth sunflower with flowers still attached. — Close up of our largest mammoth sunflower grown.

Next step is to simply remove all of the dried flowers. These will come off easily by brushing them off with your hands, as if you were brushing dirt from your jeans. It’s one of those satisfying, therapeutic things, and I wish I could describe the smell of those delicious flowers and seeds. It just smells like September with the change in season and smell of earth and natural fragrance. I can smell it now as I’m typing this.

A large mammoth sunflower head with the flowers removed from the top. — All flowers removed from the tops of the seeds.

Have Fun!

Next is the fun and social part. Many little hands make for lots of giggles and fine motor skills put to the test. We had a fantastic time as a family meticulously removing the seeds. Ours were not very pointy or sharp like I’ve read they could be, so we lucked out and the little people were loving it. To make the process faster you can also crack the head of it to loosen up a bunch of seeds.

Close up of a child's hand removing seeds.

A child's hand carefully removing seeds. — Many hands make light work.

Multiple hands working hard removing seeds.

A hand removing sunflower seeds from the head of the mammoth sunflower.

One sunflower head completely harvested of seeds. — One finished!

Before we knew it, the harvesting of the mammoth sunflowers was done. We had a beautiful fall evening and lots of laughs. Once we finished, we brought them inside to prep and then bake. We decided on soaking them in a salt mixture and baking. Our favorite is a mixture of Redmond Real Garlic Salt, smoked paprika and some thyme. Delicious!

Sunflower seeds on cookie sheets ready to roast. — Mmmmm the smell of roasted seeds in your home.

Enjoy this Post? Also Check Out:

Lentil Sprouts For Chickens, A Protein Packed Winter Treat

Composting: The Simple, No Stress Way

Utilizing The Power Of Fall Leaves In The Garden

Enjoy Harvesting Mammoth Sunflowers

Harvesting mammoth sunflowers is so simple. Thanks for reading, please let us know how your sunflowers have done. We would love to hear from you. If you like what you see here at Herbs, Birds & the Bees please subscribe and grow with us! Looking forward to next time!

Herbs, Birds & the Bees

Garden, Chickens, Bees & Homestead