Western District Historical Society overturns sunflower field early
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Western District Historical Society has made the decision to work up their sunflower field early, and begin preparations for next year’s planting.
This was in response to poor germination and growth which was observed among the sunflowers, despite planting at the same time to previous years in the field.
“We planted at our normal time, the third week of May, and germination just did not happen at all this year. We are trying to identify what might have happened, whether it was the seed, or was it just general planting conditions because it was quite a cool spring,” said Darlene Domaschuk, sunflower field coordinator. “I am working with the seed supplier right now; we are doing seed testing to try to figure out why there was no germination.”
Due to the lack of germination, weeds throughout the field began to take over, which added to the decision to plow everything under early. Being so late into the season, there is no longer any time to replant the fields prior to the onset of autumn.
The running theory currently held by the Historical Society is the ground, despite having adequate moisture for the seeds, was too cold for germination to occur for many of the seeds.
This year marked the seventh that the Western District Historical Society has planted the sunflower field, with this result being the first failed crop to occur.
“It is nice to have a sunflower field out there when there are events going on put on by the Legacy Barn because there is the background of sunflowers, but the biggest impact is in August and September, we start inviting the community out to walk through the sunflowers,” said Domaschuk. “Then, we would have a sunflower harvest, and we also had pumpkins out there and we would have a pumpkin harvest, but because of that, it is disappointing because people can’t come out there and visit because there is nothing out there this year.”
Financially, it does represent a loss for the society, however, turning a profit from the field was never an original goal.
The Western District Historical Society also did not charge for entry to the sunflower fields. Instead, a donation box has historically been put out for people to have the option to contribute.
The greatest impacts outside of community visitors is the lack of locational availability for use cases such as for photography, weddings, or other events.
Domaschuck said the Historical Society will be attempting to replant the sunflower field next season following extensive seed and soil testing efforts.