What to do about a high rate of empty shells in sunflowers? Strengthening pollination management is key

Sunflower, also known as the sun-facing flower, carries the good meaning of actively facing the sun. The seeds of the sunflower are also called sunflower seeds, which can be roasted into snack seeds for sale on the market, and sales are high. Sunflower cultivation is also distributed across many regions and is extremely widespread. But when growing sunflowers, empty shells are encountered very frequently, which then greatly affects the yield of sunflower seeds. Next, let us help everyone understand how to prevent the phenomenon of empty shells in sunflowers.

Strengthen pollination management for sunflowers

During sunflower cultivation, pollination is a very important step. If there is no pollination by bees, insects and the like, then its empty shell rate will reach about 60 percent. But if there is pollination by bees, insects and the like, the empty shell rate of sunflowers will be greatly reduced, at only about 15 percent. So growers who plant sunflowers can raise bees while planting sunflowers, and then during the pollination period they can carry out artificial supplementary pollination to reduce the empty shell rate of sunflowers.

Improve water and fertilizer conditions for sunflowers

Sunflowers need much more nutrition than ordinary crops, so in terms of water and fertilizer this must definitely be increased. Sometimes because water and fertilizer conditions cannot keep up, the empty shell rate of sunflowers can sometimes reach as high as about 50 percent, which is a relatively serious cause. So in terms of water and fertilizer, one must definitely be willing to invest; with high-quality water and fertilizer conditions, the probability of empty shells in sunflowers will also be greatly reduced.

Fertilize differently according to the time period

The stage of sunflower growth is different, so the types of fertilizer used will also be different.

1. The initial base fertilizer is mainly organic fertilizer used in combination with chemical fertilizer.

2. In the mid-term seed fertilizer stage, in order to ensure that the flower disks can all grow smoothly, ammonium bicarbonate or a small amount of urea is used as seed fertilizer.

3. In the later stage, the development of the sunflower disk requires topdressing, because the sunflower is a crop that uses a relatively large amount of fertilizer, so nitrogen fertilizer is generally used as the main type, and then some ammonium bicarbonate and ammonium nitrate are supplemented to ensure the expansion rate of sunflower cultivation.

Carry out manual pruning of sunflower branches

Because most sunflowers during their growth and development process will produce many branches from the middle and upper parts of the stem. And these branches, under conditions of sufficient water and fertilizer, can also produce flower disks, but because multiple flower disks growing on a single stem will lead to insufficient nutrition and cause the flower disks to die off midway. So in order not to let the branches of the stem affect the normal growth of the sunflower, manual pruning is carried out. This ensures that the sunflower can grow robustly and reduces the empty shell rate.