Variety?
Thu, 04/10/2008 - 04:04 — dfdaily
I just signed up. This is a great project. Several people have had problems getting seeds. I looked around some, but can't you just tell us what variety or type of sunflower is preferred? For a great project like this, I can afford to buy some seeds. But if there's a particular variety, that could speed up the process.
Learning the different types of bees visiting the plants will be loads of fun!
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You can order seeds from American Meadows
We are using a native Helianthus annuus. American Meadows will mail you some (though their smallest size is a 1/4 pound). The site is http://www.americanmeadows.com/WildflowerSeeds/Species/WildSunflowerseed.... I'm actually trained as a plant biologist originally and I've read a lot about the issues surrounding use of local versus non-local seed. My own take on the issue is that unless you are planting an endangered species where a lot of pollen from your garden might get into a small population of that species, there is not that much to be concerned about. There is a wonderful scientific study by Eric Nagy and Kevin Rice where they planted local seeds and a non-local seeds of a species of Gilia in the sites that each one came from - this is called a reciprocal transplant. They found that in each case, the "immigrant" plants did much worse and had virtually no effect on the local population. The citation for this work is:
Local Adaptation in Two Subspecies of an Annual Plant: Implications for Migration and Gene Flow
Eric S. Nagy and Kevin J. Rice
Evolution, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Aug., 1997), pp. 1079-1089
If you are doing a restoration project, however, it probably is useful to try to source local seed partly because those seeds are most likely to be appropriate for that place.
"sunflower" genes
Elaine,
See my somewhat related comment at
http://www.greatsunflower.org/en/forum/general-discussion/certified-orga...
Also, curiously, see this distribution map, which suggests no locality record of native H. annuus in Alameda County:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=California&statefips=06&sy...
PAR
Seeds locally sourced?
I just signed up and was encouraging a friend to join me. She had a concern about the source of the seeds. I live in Contra Costa County (California) and would need to get seeds from a local source.
Here is her comment
“I wonder whether there are any local ecotypes to be concerned about and what the source of seeds is? If the seeds are local and are distributed for garden use only with a notice not to broadcast them in the wild, it would protect against genetic contamination if that is a concern.“
.....elaine