I've heard that sunflowers prevent germination and stunt the growth of seedlings around them, but aren't harmful to mature plants. Would this affect tubers or bulbs? If not, could I use wild sunflower to exclude weeds from a bed of say sunchokes and walking onions?When interplanting with sunflowers for living trellis, should I transplant them after the companions are established, or transplant mature conpanions around them?

I think they are commenting on the effects of a bird feeder with lots and lots of sunflower seed hulls being dumped on a small area. In my experience, its not just the seed hulls but also the concentration of bird poop and scratching that causes the plants around that area to be stunted.

I have grown sunflowers in my veggie garden without any trouble. I would grow them in the back of corn rows so the deer would nibble on the sunflowers instead of the corn. Even with deer eating them, the sunflowers would still grow big and strong once started. No negative effects with other plants that I know of.

Either way, the sunflowers will not keep weeds from growing in your planting bed. Sorry to say, it won't help.

good luck

The allelopathic trait typically slows the growth of unfavorable plants surrounding the offender. Let's just say my neighbor and I don't get along, I grow sunflower along my back wall to slow his bean development way down, they still grow but slow and with it not being abundant if pests/diseases roll in he's done for the year.

Plants are electrically charged by the medium and work like walky-talkies. It's really cool, it's so cool scientists are pushing it more and more and wiring plants up like the internet to talk back and forth to eachother in a loop. You might be able to find the videos and write-ups online for it.

I was just looking up this very subject this afternoon. I have a lot of volunteer sunflowers this year thanks to the birds. I know from the one that volunteered last year that bees like them. So, I was inclined to let all of these new ones stay for the season.

But some of those seeds were dropped into some of my containers, and I don't want those plants to be affected. So, this afternoon, I pulled them out of the containers just to be safe.

@cosmosist That information is quite interesting! While we are on the subject of sunflowers, I also recently read that they can be useful in cleaning up chemicals in soil. Since I've only been here a short time and don't know what chemicals may have been used on the lawn and in flower beds in the past, that information is intriguing.

cosmosist said:The allelopathic trait typically slows the growth of unfavorable plants surrounding the offender. Let's just say my neighbor and I don't get along, I grow sunflower along my back wall to slow his bean development way down, they still grow but slow and with it not being abundant if pests/diseases roll in he's done for the year.

Plants are electrically charged by the medium and work like walky-talkies. It's really cool, it's so cool scientists are pushing it more and more and wiring plants up like the internet to talk back and forth to eachother in a loop. You might be able to find the videos and write-ups online for it.

Ahhh!
Glad my neighbors don't know much about garden warfare! I'd be in a heck of a bind!