First Aid for sunflowers - help!

[marthamoo]

Ds2 has grown 5 sunflowers from seed, four of which are not doing particularly well, but one was thriving. Noticed this morning that the thriving one was bent over about 6 inches from the top. On further investigation some %$£"& slug or snail has chomped through the stem and it is nearly severed. So...if I chop it off will it recover and still flower? Or can I kind of bandage it by binding the stem and if so what with? Ds2 was very upset when I said it might die.

I have managed to rescue one from this state - with good old elastoplast . It eventually grew to 7' tall.

Depends really just how far through the stem it has been chomped.

Also, put a little stake in the pot and tie the stem to it (not too tightly) as it won't be very strong at the moment. If it isn't very tall, a chopstick will suffice for now.

I'll have a go with a plaster, though I fear it may be too far chomped to save. It's about 3 feet tall already so already has a stake. Thanks SG.

Doh, sorry, didn't see the 'six inches from the top' bit - that should have sort of hinted that it was beyond the chopstick stage!

It might well still survive, it sounds like a well established plant. Make sure you put some sort of slug barrier around it to prevent future damage. Also keep it away from walls - slugs have a nasty habit of using walls as a way round the barriers and attack from the top.

I've splinted it with 3 little wooden sticks micropore taped to the stem but it still looks very poorly