Hello! I have some sunflowers that were planted late (July 1 and zone 5B) and are at various states of maturity, although none are ripe yet. However, I am getting into some nights of light frost now. The plants are still in good shape and have almost full days of sunlight - they are green and growing taller still, but the leaves did not look happy this morning with a light frost (better once that it warmed up this morning). What is the best way to attempt to ripen them? Cut and hang in garage, or leave on the plant until the frost kills? Will they ripen when cut? I have some floating row cover I could toss over them... ps- I do not normally plant sunflowers this late - the builder regraded my lot and I have 2 new garden beds on the full sun side, so thought I would grow some late crops, instead of weeds ...tossed in the sunflower seeds to see how it goes! The bees are loving the late flowers, even today. The other good thing, is the lack of insect damage to the heads and leaves. BIG thanks!
Forget them for human food. Leave them on the plants for the birds and squirrels. Immature sunflower seeds are useless for human eating, since the meat core is too small.
