Ageratum, Amaranthus, Aquilegia, Aster, Bellis, Calendula, Callistephus, Catananche, Celosia, Centaurea, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Dahlia, Digitalis, Dimorphotheca, Dyssodia, Echinaceapurpurea, Felicia, Gaillardia, Helianthus, Helichysum, Heliopsis, Helipterum, Ipomoea, Limonium, Matthiola, Melampodium, Osteospermum, Petumia, Primula, Rudbeckia, Tagetes, Tropaeolum, Verbena, Viola, Xeranthemum, Zinnia.

Planting

Good seed-to-soil contact is critical for optimal germination. Seeding depth is vary depending on flower crops. To uniformly distribute seed by hand over an entire small plot, our farmers mix half the seed with slightly moistened sand or a similar inert material. The ratio of sand to seed (by volume) is about 9:1 or greater. Spread this half of the seed over the entire plot, and then repeat the entire process with the other half of the seed. This makes so called good soil-to-seed contact.

Plant seedlings in early summer so that they can develop a good root system and harden off before the first frost or freeze. Seedlings to be transplanted should have a well-developed root system but not be root bound. Seedlings will require frequent supplemental irrigation for the first 2 to 3 weeks after transplanting.

Fertilization

Based on our experience, fertilization increased yield of flower seeds by increasing the number of flowers per plant, and excess nitrogen may promote vegetative growth over flower production, thus reduced the seeds yield. Decisions about fertilization should be based on a soil test, a fertilizer with a low N, low to no P, and high K ratio is always ok for flower seed production. Some Gailladia flower crops seems to prefer limey soils.

Weed Control

Weeds are usually the major pest problem in flower seed production. They can reduce seed yield by competing with the crop for water and nutrients. The other problem is the possibility of contamination of weed seed in flower seed. But that's impossible in Jiuquan since we usually harvest flower seed by hand.

Under good growing conditions, flower crops are usually aggressive and will choke out most weed growth, except for tall, mainly single-stemmed weeds that tend to emerge from small gaps in the flower canopy.

Harvesting and Drying

In Jiuquan, we harvest flower seed heads by hand. Hand harvesting, while labor intensive, will maximize yield. Moreover, since only ripe seed heads are being harvested, plants will continuously flower throughout the growing season, thereby maximizing seed production.

Harvested seed must be dried before they are cleaned, and just as important, dried relatively quickly. If the plant material remains moist too long, seed will start to decay. The seeds can be spread on a clean, hard surface and allowed to dry for a few days before cleaning.

Seed Cleaning

Cleaning flower seed has proven to be a challenge for our farmers. Because a lot of flower crop seeds are of fluffy nature, removing unwanted plant parts is difficult. It needs a lot of labor work to cleaning the fluffy flower seed.

Seed Testing

Purity and germination tests is done after seed cleaning. If you want, we can also make the viability test. If you want the seed be certified by some third-party certification agency, that's simply ok.