Sunflower Heads The Last to be Harvested

This is probably the last summer plant that needs to be harvested if you plan on using the seeds for various reasons.  I like to bake some of them and eat them while the rest is going to be turned into compost for next season nutrients.

I was able to cut a few of them down that I had growing in the garden.  All of them were pollinated correctly by the bees that just love them.  Once they were pollinated and some of them were ready for picking birds and squirrels took many of the seeds.  Luckily this only happened to a couple of heads and the rest were still fine.

You can see some of the damage on this sunflower head here.

You can see on the left side that some of the seeds are missing.  That is where most of the damage occurred, but still plenty of seeds to use were left.

Here is a head that was supposed to be left on the stalk a little bit longer, but I didn't want them to be eaten by the birds.  I could have covered it, but they tend to collect insects and fungus when I do that.  Once they start being eaten then I know it is time for harvesting.