It would be helpful if you had indicated which sunflower varieties you are growing because we would be able to give you a more definite answer to your question. So, we guess. ProCut? Sunbright? Sunbright Supreme? Sunny? Sunrich Series?

When you plant seed for market, you really want to plant 50 percent more to allow for loss due to poor germination, insect damage, deformed flower heads, weak necks, and exactly what you are finding -- timing. Seed is cheap. Not having flowers for market is expensive.

The time to harvest sunflowers is when the petals are just starting to lift off the center disk. We usually find the ProCut Series has a 7-10 day vase life. The Sun Series, Sunbright has a 10-14 day vase life.

We have a Wednesday market and two Saturday markets starting in June. In July, we do a small European type market on Mondays. So, 3 days is probably the most we would allow for holding sunflowers in the cooler. If you cut them fully open in the field, your customers are going to have a much shorter vase life. Anything less than a week on sunflowers; and, the customer is not going to be happy. And, by all means, we want a happy customer. Always. We've also taught our customers what they should be looking for when purchasing sunflowers.

If they are hydrated properly, you'll receive the maximum vase life on sunflowers. For this, you'll want to hydrate the sunflowers at 70 degrees for an hour before placing them in the cooler. The cooler should be set at 42 degrees. You'll find petal drop at temperatures of 37-39 degrees.

Trish

Trish do you store all your flowers at 42 degrees?
Kim - BFFF