Like the photograph below, when the stem and the leaves would be brown, you can pick seeds. If you do it before then, you must have some unmature seeds. It takes about one month after the flower withered. Wait untill then.

I think that they can germinate basically because the sunflower seeds for pet are not processed. Actually, I know a man who grew the sunflower by that. However, there is possibility not to germinate in the case of badly preserved seeds or the seeds which are more than 1 year old.

The seeds whirl like the photo.

The seeds lay like the whirlpool, and you can see the two lines. This flower has 56 clockwise lines and 34 counterclockwise lines. I think that the clockwise which has more lines is the truer row than the counterclockwise one, because I think much of the dense of the seeds.

	+		=
The clockwise direction: 56 lines		Counterclockwise: 34 lines

The clockwise direction has more lines than the counterclockwise one. The both lines cross like the right photo. There is no law in the center seeds.

Martien Heijms of Oirschot, the Netherlands, grew the tallest sunflower in 1986. The sunflower's total height is 7.76 m (25 ft in 5). This record has not been broken for a long time.

Reference:Guinness World Records(Tallest Sunflower)

Like the photos, the multi-flowers sunflower comes out from between a stem and a stem. And that makes a bud soon, so that blooms sooner.

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Naturally, the sunflower gets mature seeds and drop them. And the sunflower is going to germinate next year, too. However, the surface of soil is hard or very smooth make it be difficult. The place it germinates decides what the wind's like. In case of windy place, the sunflower will not germinate at the same place.
These are natural germinated sunflower.
If the environment is good, the seeds spend winter in the soil or between the soil, and they germinate naturally in spring.

It is the proper time when the sunflower would have more six leaves. It needs just three weeks after germination.

This often happens after transplanting or with a potted plant. The cause is a lack of water.

In case of a potted plant, compared with raising it at field, it is easier to lack water in body. So the leaves or the stem would be easy to hang down for it. You must not forget watering them everyday.
In case of transplanting, the lack of water in its body will continue during 2-3days after then. So you water it enough during that time. While the leaf is weak, it is easy to get disease. So take care not to water leaf directly.

This is why the sunflower has gotten little sunshine. If you can, you transplant it to a sunny place.

Keep the seeds in box, sack, or bag (everything O.K.). And put it in a dark and cool place, and you choose safekeeping where a rat would not come to eat. On the case, you write the specy, the date picked the seeds, and the like.

The sunflower is unfit for growing in the planter, so it is difficult to raise the sunflower big in that.
In the case, you need water it twice a day and fertilizer little more once two weeks.

The size of a flower planter is proportion to the size of sunflower. The bigger planter is, the bigger the sunflower grows.

However, the sunflower like this grows suitable size for a flower arrangement.

The birthplace of sunflower is North America. Especially in Kansas, you can often see the wild sunflower. However, it is actually a serious weed problem. These are the multiple headed plants.

By the way, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas and California. However, most states have some commercial acreage.

The sunflower oil contain high linoleic acid and taste neutral, and the sunflower oil is used for cooking oil. It is preferred especially Europe, Russia, Mexico, countries along the Mediterranean and several South American countries, and so on.

The small black seed contains a lot of oil.

Acre is English, and unit of surface measured in the yard pond system. 1acre=about4047‡u.
Hectare is French, and a unit of surface measured in the metric system. 1hectare=10,000‡u.

The sunflower is produced more in Russia than any other countries in all over the world. And then Argentina, the combined European Union, China, India, Turkey and South Africa are all significant producers of sunflower.

The others of sunflower in English,

tournesol in French, Sonnenblume in German, girasol in Spanish, girasole in Italian, girassol in Portuguese, himawari in Chinese and Japanese, (hebaragi ) in Korean, in Arabic, and so on.

Sunflower seeds are high in energy and provide many of the nutrients that most birds need and prefer. Studies indicate that most seed eating bird species prefer sunflower to other common types of seed.

Yes, you can see that the seed leaf is covered with the husk when the sunflower germinates. And the husk drops from it the moment the seed leaf opens. As the term of that is very short, you must observe the sunflower everyday to see this.

Watering every evening is better than to do every morning, because the water evaporates less at night than morning and the sunflower can absorb the water more at night. And the best is to do twice everyday.

In case of a potted plant, water's evaporation is much more than a land plant. So you have to be careful not to forget watering everyday. If you forget it, the sunflower is going to weaken soon.

I experienced this, too. In case of thinning out the sunflower, it tends to weaken by the lack of water. So I recommend that you may plant seeds one by one with enough an interval .

In case you thinning out the sunflower, pull it slowly out of the soil clasping the stem. At this time, you may be careful not to hurt the next sunflower. The sunflower picked out can be planted again. If you want to do so, plant it deeper than usual and then water it enough. The sunflower become weak sooner than you think, but you can get it be healthy within few days to do it properly.

The sunflower is pollinated by the wind, or by the insects walking around on the pollen. So you do not have to do that. I think that the sunflower should be let it be in natural as possible.

The mucus and the secretion are going out of the tip of the hair. Touching the stem, you would get your hand sticky. Also the insect gets it, so the harmful insect can not walk on the viscous stem freely. The sunflower's sticky stem may protect himself.

It needs too many seeds to extract sunflower's oil; still, many seeds can make only a little oil. So I think that it is impossible to make the sunflower's oil by yourself.
(You may use the seeds that has been improved to extract oil from the sunflower, and you separate the oil from the seeds with a compressor, after that you distill the only oil with a sampling process.)

The sunflower can be sorted out with two kinds. The one is only one flower with a stalk, the another is the some flowers with one stalk.

The sunflower that has a only one flower has often a thick stem and a big flower, and the sunflower that has several flowers has often a thin stem and a small flower.

ReferenceFThe left picture is Sunspot with a only one flower, and the right picture is Yae. It is putting out some buds now.

Grip the several seeds strongly with your fingers, and if the seeds are very solid, those have ripened enough and been good quality. And the round seeds are better.

Pick the seeds after the sunflower withered enough. You not doing that, the seeds may be immature. So you need check the consistency with your fingers before picking seeds.

It takes a week from planting to germination on the average. And it takes two months from germination to bloom. Refer to a table shows the procedure of cultivation.

division/week	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
The procedure of cultivation

planting - germination

growing

putting out buds

flowering

second flowering

picking seeds

The sunflower makes growth promote by the more sunlight it gets and makes bigger seeds. So it does photosynthesis effectively to head for the sun.

In the morning, in the evening
The sunflower faces east at morning, but it faces west at evening.
In other word, sunflower follows the Sun. This is a interesting feature of it!

The sunflower prepares making seeds as it dies. Therefore we need not think that it can not make seeds even though it died. The seeds having grown enough, the center of flower would be expanding and roundish gradually.
The sunflower becomes like this about two weeks later after withering.

The sunflower needs more nutrition to make bigger seeds. That's why it make them at the center of flower.