Students at seven Brisbane high schools will soon discover if sunflower plants they have lovingly nurtured for two months are heavyweight championship contenders.
Teams from Ferny Grove, Beenleigh, Cleveland, Pine Rivers and Dakabin High Schools, along with St Peters Lutheran College, Indooroopilly, and the Anglican Church Grammar School, are taking part in the third University of Queensland School of Land and Food Sciences Sunflower Growing Competition.
They will stack their super-sized sunflowers against teams from three Toowoomba high schools and the Roma Middle School at a weigh in at Mayne Hall at The University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus on May 24.
Queensland Minister for Primary Industries and Rural Communities, Henry Palaszczuk, will present the $275 prize money to the team growing the heaviest specimen.
It is the first year a high school division has been included in the competition, previously open to only UQ undergraduate or postgraduate students.
Sunflower seeds were distributed to competitors on March 15, after which teams had to lodge the height and weight data of their plants with the University every fortnight.
The sunflowers had to be grown in a container no larger than 11 litres in capacity and had to be made available for random inspection.
Dr Mal Hunter, a specialist in Agricultural and Horticultural Research (ANOVA solutions Pty Ltd) and Honorary Research Fellow of the School of Land and Food Sciences and sunflower agronomist, Associate Professor Pax Blamey, started the competition in 1999.
The inaugural winner Peter Kopittke, whose 150cm high plant weighed 3010 grams, still holds the record.
The Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Pacific Seeds of Toowoomba and Seed Technology Australia Pty Ltd sponsor the competition.
School contacts: Cleveland SHS – Morris Oates, phone 07 3286 5604; Pine Rivers SHS – Tamara MacDonald or Marnie Lamb, phone 07 3881 4700; Beenleigh SHS – Peter Lynes, phone 07 3287 2888; Ferny Grove SHS – Volker Jahnke, phone 07 3351 4347; Dakabin SHS – Greame East, phone 07 3204 5188; St Peters Lutheran College, Indooroopilly – Bronwyn Jameison, phone 07 3377 6549; Anglican Church Grammar – Charles Fisher, phone 07 3896 2248.
Media: for further information contact Andrea Adkins (telephone 07 3365 1175), Dr Mal Hunter (telephone 07 3378 7525) or Brad Turner at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2659).
