Sunflowers

Join the UK's Only Sunflower Marketing Pool

We are now in our second year of offering the UK’s first-ever Sunflower Crop Marketing Pool, as interest in this sunshine crop continues to grow. Our goal is to provide growers with an additional low-input option for spring planting. Each year, the UK imports an average of 60,000 tonnes of sunflower seed for the bird food market, and with demand rising—by 25% last year alone—alongside shifting climates, we are proud to offer a new opportunity for growers across the UK.

Seed & Yield

Seed for the new marketing pool will either be ES Bella from Grainseed or LG50268 from Limagrain. ES Bella has a proven track record and is the top-selling Ultra Early variety in Europe. In UK trials Bella has performed consistently well, with good standing ability, disease resistance and high dry matter yield. LG50268 performed comparably well in our UK trials last year and offers a very good additional choice for growers this season. While there are reports of yield potential reaching 4t/ha for UK grown sunflowers, growers should typically expect yields of 1.6 – 3t/ha.

Download the ES Bella information sheet.

Support for Sunflowers

Neil Groom General Manager at Grainseed said: “It’s good to see United Oilseeds providing growers with additional break crop opportunities. We’ve been selling grain sunflower seed for many years and we’ve been watching the potential growing area in the UK increase year on year. Not only is the climate providing opportunities for growing sunflowers further North, but as farming practices evolve, this too supports the case.

United Oilseeds Managing Director James Warner commented: "We're one year into our sunflower marketing pool, and last season brought plenty of successes, along with some valuable lessons. We've gained invaluable insights throughout the process and from a grower's perspective, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We strongly encourage all growers to give sunflowers a try."

Quick Guide to Growing Sunflowers

• Historically sunflowers can be successfully produced south of a line from the Wash to the Bristol Channel but this area has now expanded. 
• Grown on any soil type. Optimum pH is 6.5 to 7.5.
• Drilled at a depth of 3 to 5cms from the 10th of April onwards depending on frost and wet conditions but with consistent 7° C soil temperature
• Sunflowers are sown at 110.000 seeds/hectare to achieve a population of 100,000 plants/ha on a 25 - 45cm row width.
• Sunflowers should not be grown on a closer than 1 in 4 years rotation to prevent disease (such as Sclerotinia) build up in the soil. Do not follow sunflowers with potatoes.
• Sunflowers are a low input crop. Being drilled in April allows weeds such as black-grass to be controlled by a stale seed bed with glyphosate.  A pre-emergent herbicide containing pendimethalin (stomp) is used for early weed control but later in the season if weeds germinate they then die as the crop closes in and prevents sunlight getting through.
• Average yields in the UK are between 1  and 2.5 t/ha. with best results usually in hot dry years. A variety such as Bella reaches a height of 150 cms tall and it has good standing power.
• The flower head should be around 10cms across, and the canopy should close over to shut out sunlight.
• Harvest occurs, from mid-September onwards using a normal cereal combine with some adjustments.
• Sunflower seeds dry out fast and can be dried on an air-drying floor down to 15% moisture, before drying with warm air down to 9% moisture.

If you've decided to grow sunflowers or you are thinking about giving it a go, why not download the full sunflower growing guide.

Download the Sunflower flyer for 2025 here.