Phacelia as a honey plant

Phacelia is one of the most popular melliferous plants. It belongs to the siderates and lives only a year from the moment of disembarkation. But this time is enough for the bees to collect its nectar and prepare delicious and nutritious honey.

Phacelia is known as the highest quality melliferous herb. Its delicate blue flowers exude a rich honey scent, making the plants arouse the bees' interest. These characteristics of the crop promote productive pollination and stimulate fruit set. From one hectare of land sown with phacelia, you can collect 250-350 kg of honey, and in favorable growing conditions this figure can reach up to 600 kg.

Phacelia honey is distinguished by its exceptional taste. Moreover, it is characterized by slow crystallization. Therefore, the original taste and medicinal characteristics of honey are preserved for quite a long time. Other benefits of phacelia as a honey plant include:

• unpretentiousness - the grass grows and develops successfully on any type of soil and under any weather conditions;

• a significant amount of honey harvest - the amount of honey obtained from this plant is an order of magnitude higher than the amount collected from any other flower crops.

Phacelia honey is a real treasure of useful macro- and microelements. It is no coincidence that it is actively used as part of the complex therapy of pathologies of internal organs, this product is especially useful for diseases of the stomach and liver. It is recommended for inclusion in the diet for gastritis and heartburn, honey relieves the condition with high acidity, stomach and intestinal ulcers.

This healing effect of phacelia honey is explained by the high glucose content in the product, which increases the level of glycogen in the liver. Thus, the product provides adequate nutrition for cells, normalizes metabolism and improves the course of metabolic processes in organs and tissues. Glycogen determines the defatting function of the liver, thereby increasing the human immune resource and the body's ability to resist diseases.

Phacelia honey relieves the condition of people with cardiovascular diseases. It has been noticed that regular consumption of this product improves concentration and memory. In addition, it has been proven to be beneficial as a bacterial, analgesic, sedative and antipyretic agent.

To ensure the collection of a large amount of honey from the phacelia field, the grass must be planted early so that the flowering begins in early July. This period is optimal for the collection of nectar by hardworking bees. If you plant the plant later, then the flowering will begin later. In this case, the time of flowering will coincide in time with a reduction in daylight hours, when the air begins to cool. By their nature, during this period, bees begin to prepare for winter and pay much less attention to collecting nectar, so you should not count on high honey productivity in such conditions.

Phacelia flowers are small - up to 2 cm in diameter, they are distinguished by the correct shape and bluish color. It is noteworthy that the buds on one plant do not open at one moment, but gradually, with each blooming for 1.5-2 days. Usually, flowering begins 30-45 days after planting, for another couple of weeks, the opening of the peduncles is observed, and then the stage of mass flowering begins - it lasts from 45 to 50 days.

In most cases, the weather factor does not have a particular effect on the plants, since the phacelia can withstand temperatures down to -9 degrees. Although some patterns can still be identified. So, in hot weather, flowering accelerates, and during rain or during prolonged cloudy weather, on the contrary, it stops. However, this does not scare off bees at all, these workers will be eager to visit fragrant flowers throughout the day, you can notice insects on blue buds even after sunset.

Phacelia is one of the beekeepers' favorite plants. It is unpretentious, does not require special care, grows and develops successfully in any weather and does not depend on its neighbors in any way. In total, there are about 8 dozen varieties of phacelia. The most popular in our latitudes are the following types.

• Tansy - This plant grows up to 1 m. It is distinguished by blue oval flowers. The diameter of the petals reaches 2 cm. The leaves are oval, serrated.

• Bell-shaped - this group of plants includes several varieties of phacelia at once. All of them differ in their insignificant height and particular fragility of the stem. The flowers are original, they take the form of bells. They can have a deep blue or purple color.

• Twisted - a low plant, the length together with shoots does not exceed 50 cm. The leaves are small, serrated at the edges. The flowers are deep blue.

Phacelia is an unpretentious plant. It does not impose any requirements on the nutritional value, structure and composition of the soil. The melliferous herb grows equally well both on fertile lands and on hard rocky areas. It can be planted both on waterlogged and overdried substrates.

Determining the timing of sowing directly depends on the goals of growing phacelia. The calculation is simple: flowering occurs after 30-40 days, so if you want to achieve the beginning of flowering by mid-June, then you need to plant in the first decade of May. In order to completely cover the tipping-free period at the beginning of summer, planting can be done in October. At the same time, it is important to take into account weather factors in order to prevent premature shoots. The first flowers in this case will appear in the spring, in the second half of May.

The planting process itself is not difficult at all. The seedlings are buried by 1.5-2.5 cm, no preliminary preparation of the seed material and the site is required. Although, during spring planting, it is advisable to dig up the soil to the depth of a shovel bayonet in the fall and repeat the cultivation two to three weeks before planting.

If the soil is excessively dry, then a week before sowing it is necessary to irrigate at the rate of a bucket of water per square meter of the sown area. Immediately before planting phacelia seeds, the site is leveled with a rake and parallel grooves are formed on it at a distance of 15 cm from each other. Seeds are laid with a step of 5 cm. Thus, for planting on one hectare of land, you will need about 10-12 kg of seed. After sowing, cover the seeds with earth, otherwise they will not be able to germinate.

Phacelia is one of the most unpretentious green manure plants. She is not afraid of drought, she will actively grow even in the hottest and driest weather. Moreover, in such conditions, the melliferous grass blooms even more actively than with frequent rains. That is why the plantations are watered as needed. This plant is not afraid of the cold, however, some rules of agricultural cultivation still need to be adhered to.

Before the first shoots appear, it is important to organize high-quality watering for the earth, it is advisable to resort to a drip systemto keep the moisture content of the substrate within 60%. This approach significantly speeds up the emergence of sprouts.

As soon as young shoots appear, irrigation is reduced. The main emphasis at this moment is on loosening the soil in the aisles. It is produced until the phacelia grows by 13-15 cm, then this green manure will loosen the ground on its own.

Watering of adult bushes is carried out once a week at the rate of a bucket of water per square meter of planting. At the very beginning of the growing season, 5-7 days after the appearance of the first shoots, one-time feeding can be carried out. To do this, use a liquid mullein, diluted with plain water in a ratio of 1 to 5.

Alternatively, you can take wood ash, the nutrient solution is prepared at the rate of 400 g of ash per 10 liters of water. The resulting composition is put on fire, brought to a boil and left for a quarter of an hour, then filtered, cooled and watered at the site of planting. If the land on the site is not depleted, then you can refuse to feed at all.