I live in New Orleans (9b) and planted some sunflowers from seed. I have 10 plants in various parts of the yard that have all started to have leaves die off. Two of the sunflowers stems got weak, bent and I had to replace them. The other plants are doing okay and still growing but they are losing a lot of leaves. They die at the bottom first, but new leaves at the top are affected too! I tried to include some pictures to see if anyone recognizes what's happening.

Also, since I'm a newbie and don't know what information to include: the soil was a heavy clay. I worked hard to try and amend it before planting but it still has clay mixed in and is mostly clay starting at ~3 feet down, so I'm not sure of the drainage. I've been watering that part of the garden lightly each day to prevent the soil from getting too hard... i know sunflowers are drought tolerant and was wondering if i'm overwatering, if it's a disease (or both)... This is my first garden so I'm learning by trial and error. Thanks for any help!

This post was edited by brandon83 on Sat, May 31, 14 at 18:08