Saturday, August 20, 2016

1871 - Russian Mammoth Seeds; 2016 - Russian Mammoth Odds and Ends



 Who can resist the allure of a flower two stories high?!! 


I started looking around for Mammoth Russian odds and ends, and this page is where I put them.   

This is how I live the sitting down part of my life,  following tangents around the internet.  It's nice folks like me have outlets like blogs to share what we find! 












         MAMMOTH SUNFLOWER.

The heads of this enormous variety grow to the size of 20 inches in diameter under ordinary cultivation; produces an immense amount of valuable green fodder, and about 50 bushels seed per acre. Seed white, the size of Dent corn grains—valuable for feeding poultry and horses or for oil. A seed head of mine, shown at the Mass. Hort. Society. attracted great attention on account of its large size. A field of this variety makes the best bee pasture known. A few stalks planted in dooryards will prevent fever by absorbing malaria. Extensively cultivated in Russia. Have selected a quantity of the largest heads for seed. A large package of extra seed,  sufficient to plant 15 square rods, sent post-paid, with directions, for 25 cts.



E. BATCHELLER.
Box 900, Boston. Mass
1871 - The Cultivator & Country Gentleman, Volume 36





This link to Kuriositas is worth the visit for the info and the remarkable photographs!!!


Multiple sites say Mammoth Russian seeds were sold until the 1970s.  They are sold all over now so I wonder what happened back then.






Lastly, you can find almost anything on YouTube!

This video shows you how to grow them.


This second video follows a patch over their growth and tries to convince you to grow them!




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