Helianthus annuus
Origin: Western Montana
Improvement status: Breeding population
Seeds per packet: ~30
Germination tested 10/2024: 65%
Life cycle: Annual
This sunflower has its own gravity. It comes to us from Michael Billington, of Nourishing Roots Farm in Western Montana.
Here is Michael's description:
Given the high oil content of black-seeded sunflowers (highly valued by Buffalo Bird Woman and the Hidatsa People), 'Black Hole Sun' is an ideal way to produce fat from your (Sound) garden 😆. Our largest one on record measured 9’ 10” tall and had a seed disk 17” wide. Seven years of breeding have focused on black oily seeds, broad dome-shaped heads, and very thick tall stocks. The dome shaped heads make it easier to harvest the seeds from the flowerhead; as the back of the head dries it shrinks which opens gaps up between the seeds. The challenge with many sunflowers is that the seed husk is large but a large amount of the husk’s cavity is filled with pith and therefore the kernel is small. 'Black Hole Sun'-Flower breeding selections have prioritized dense oily kernels that fill out the husk with minimal pith. This has also resulted in a more brittle shell that is easy to crack for extracting the kernel.
This sunflower has been bred in Zone 6 in Western Montana. The source material includes: seeds brought to America and given to Michael by Sepp Holzer, 'Black Hopi Dye', 'Mammoth Grey Stripe', a semi-feral oil seed sunflower that naturalized from a bird seed mix, and an unnamed variety from Rod McIver’s genebank from his homestead. As a result there is quite a bit of phenotypic variation that can occur from this seed. However, the aforementioned desiredable breeding traits are the most dominant. The second most dominant phenotype are very large flat disked grey striped sunflowers that tend to have thicker stalks, smaller kernels but wider heads. Expect 50 to 80% of the seeds you plant to become giant black seeded dome-shaped sunflowers.
Michael's GROWING TIPS: Plant the seeds at 1’ intervals in well prepared fertile soil. Once the plants have reached knee high then thin plants to 2’ spacing and mulch heavily. Make sure to eat the sunflower thinnings by peeling the skin and enjoying the crunchy juicy immature pith. Harvest the flowerheads before frost using a serrated sickle. Place flowerheads on a mesh rack in direct sun with the cut stem facing upwards and seeds facing down. Make sure to cover from rodents and birds. You can harvest the seeds from the heads once the heads dried and shrunk enough that the seeds wiggle like loose teeth. To extract the seed you can either 1) place numerous heads on a tarp and flail them (I duct tape 12 inch sections of old extension cords to a tool handle to get a strong effective flail that doesn’t crack seeds) or 2) use your thumbs to push the seeds towards the edge of flowerdisk.
