Phacelia as a honey plant: a description of the herb, when it blooms and sowing dates, benefits

The annual, flowering phacelia is most commonly used as a green manure crop for soil improvement, green animal feed, and horticultural crops. Also, the plant is an excellent honey plant, from which hardworking insects collect sweet nectar. Phacelia is very productive as a honey plant, which is planted annually near apiaries. How to properly grow and care for a plant, we will look into the details further.

Description of the plant

In its natural environment, phacelia is found only on the American continent. In Russia, neighboring countries and Europe, the plant is cultivated as a honey plant and green fertilizer.

In nature, there are more than 130 varieties of flowering crops, but tansy, bell-shaped and twisted varieties of phacelia are most often used as honey plants.

• The main stem is straight with multiple branches, depending on the variety grows up to a mark of 40 cm to 1 m.
• Sheet plates of an elongated contour, placed alternately on the conductor, bright emerald hue.
• During the flowering period, complex umbellate inflorescences appear on the plant, blooming in lilac or blue flowers.
• The fruits of the honey plant are presented in the form of elongated boxes in which the seeds are located.

Important! The plant is not demanding on growing conditions and care, it actively develops and blooms under any weather and climatic conditions.

How to sow phacelia like a honey plant

Herbaceous shrub grows and develops rapidly, enters the flowering period already 30-40 days after planting. In regions with warm winters and early spring, planting a honey plant at the end of October is allowed. In this case, the healing nectar is collected by bees already in mid-May.

If the plant is grown in temperate latitudes, planting activities begin in early spring and continue until mid-July.

• Honey plants are planted in well-lit areas, between fruit trees and shrubs, together with horticultural and horticultural crops.
• The soil is dug up, thoroughly loosened and mixed with organic matter and mineral elements.
• Seeds are planted in well-moistened soil, 1.5-3 cm from the soil surface.
• For each hectare of sown area, up to 12 kg of planting material will be required.
• The first sprouts appear 10-12 days after sowing.

To increase the number of honey plants, mature seeds are collected and planted for the next season.

Rules for collecting planting material will ensure high seed germination:

• The first mature seeds are considered the most productive;
• Crop mowing is carried out after staining the seed pods brown;
• cut bushes are dried for 5 days and threshed;
• seeds are sorted out, screening them from impurities and dust.

Important! The resulting planting material is immediately used for sowing or sent for storage in a dry, cool place.

Crop care

Phacelia is unpretentious in care, easily tolerates temperature extremes, frost, heat, drought and waterlogging of the soil. Before the shoots of the first shoots, the soil is thoroughly moistened. After the appearance of green plants, the amount of irrigation is reduced. Also, young plantings require breathable soil, therefore, work is carried out between the rows to loosen the soil.Adult bushes cope with loosening the earth and supplying it with useful and nutritious substances on their own. At the beginning of the growing season, young plants are fed with nitrogen-containing organic matter.

Important! Irrigation measures for an adult honey plant are carried out as needed, during a period of prolonged heat and drought.

Terms of flowering and honey productivity

Flowering grass phacelia is considered a very productive honey plant. Under favorable weather conditions, up to 1000 kg of valuable, healing nectar are obtained from each hectare of plantings per season. During the rainy period, the honey productivity of bees is significantly reduced - up to 150 kg of nectar per 1 ha.

Phacelia blooms for a long time and fragrant, so insects prefer this plant, even if other honey plants grow nearby.The flowering of the shrub directly depends on the timing of planting. If the plant sowing activities were carried out in late autumn, the flowering period falls on the second half of May. Phacelia planted in early spring blooms in June.

The inflorescence of the plant consists of many small flowers, not exceeding 2 cm in diameter.

They bloom one by one, the flowering period of each lasts no more than 2 days. The total flowering period of the honey plant takes from 30 to 50 days.

With the onset of August, daylight hours shorten and daily temperature fluctuations increase, the bees begin to prepare for the winter period at this time, and honey productivity decreases.

Advice! To ensure the constant flowering of phacelia, sowing is recommended until mid-July, with a frequency of 10-12 days.

Benefit

Early flowering of phacelia allows bee families to survive the spring period, when most honey plants have not yet activated their growth and development.

Honey obtained from plant nectar is characterized by excellent taste and healing properties:

• substances that make up the plant have anti-inflammatory and tonic effects, strengthen the immune system, protect the body from viral and bacterial lesions;
• flower nectar has a diuretic and cleansing effect, removes excess water, toxins and harmful accumulations from the body, effective in losing weight;
• beneficially affects the functioning of the cardiovascular system and digestive organs;
• has an antiseptic effect, promotes healing of wounds and ulcers of internal organs and skin;
• stimulates the brain, increases the body's resistance to physical and mental stress, positively affects the functioning of the nervous system.

It must be remembered that the composition of the bee product contains pollen and other substances that provoke allergic reactions.

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