Lavender as a honey plant, honey production, cultivation features

Lavender is a honey plant that belongs to the mint family (Labiatae Juss). According to various estimates, the genus Lavender includes up to 39 species, and taking into account interspecific hybrids and subspecies, the total number of the lavender genus reaches 90. In the territory of the former USSR, narrow-leaved lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill) is mostly grown. Lavender is a honey plant that is cultivated as an essential oil crop to produce lavender oil, which is used in medicine and the perfumery and cosmetics industry. Lavender is also widely used for decorative gardening in all countries of the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins. In addition to narrow-leaved lavender, broad-leaved lavender and Stahad lavender are cultivated to a lesser extent in different countries. Lavandin is also often grown.

Content

• Description of lavender honey plant
• Lavender as a honey plant
• When does lavender bloom?
• Honey productivity of lavender - lavender honey production
• What else can lavender do for bees?
• Lavender honey
• Lavender as a honey plant
• How lavender honey plant is used in folk medicine
• Other Uses for Lavender

 

 

Description of lavender honey plant

Lavender angustifolia is a perennial, evergreen subshrub growing to a height of 60 cm in its historical range growing on dry southern slopes in the regions of Southern France, Eastern Spain and North Africa.
Lavender root is woody, densely fibrous, deeply penetrating into the soil, rather thick in the upper part.
Lavender leaves are opposite, sessile, the color of the leaves ranges from dark to light green, sometimes the leaves are gray-green, linear or lanceolate, pubescent, narrowed at both ends, with slightly curved down edges.
Lavender leaves on shoots persist throughout the year.
A lavender bush, as a rule, has a spherical shape, but there are also shield-shaped and cone-shaped or dome-shaped bushes, it has about 400-500 lignified branching shoots, while the number of lavender shoots can vary widely from 300 to 1000 pieces per 1 lavender bush. Depending on the conditions in which the lavender bush grows, after 5-6 years, according to other sources, after 8-12 years, the old shoots dry out, and new replacement shoots form from the buds on the lower parts of the branch or from the root collar.
On average, one lavender bush lives 20-25 years.
Each main shoot of lavender ends with an inflorescence, which has a spike-shaped or cylindrical shape, the inflorescence consists of separate multi-flowered false whorls, which are two semi-whorls oppositely located on the flower axis in which there are several flowers.
The calyx of the lavender flower is cylindrical, ribbed, slightly expanding in the middle part, five-toothed. On the entire surface of the flower calyx, as a rule, between its ribs there are eight-celled glands, which contain essential oils. These glands are clearly visible after flowering, these glands are a good indicator of the essential oil content of the plant.
The corolla of the lavender flower is falling, two-lipped, with fused petals, has four stamens, one pistil. The nectaries of a lavender flower are located at the base of the flower tube and are therefore protected from rain by a ring of hairs. Ovary upper four nested.
Lavender fruit is dry, consisting of four dark, smooth and shiny nuts.
In general, narrow-leaved lavender has an extremely wide variety of morphological features - both in the shape of the bush and its height, and in the size of the leaves, in the color and degree of pubescence of the leaves, in the structure of the inflorescence, in the color of the flowers, and so on.
Lavender angustifolia can have two types of inflorescence - a spike-shaped form, while the number of flowers in whorls decreases towards the top, and also a cylindrical shape, while the number of flowers in whorls along the entire length of the inflorescence is the same.

Lavender angustifolia has a wide variety of colors of flower cups and corollas. The color of the calyx and corolla usually coincides and can be dark purple, pink or white, and between these groups there can be a large range of transitional colors, when one color changes into another, but as a rule, dark purple color prevails.

The flowering period of honey plant lavender depends on the variety, because varieties that bloom early have been created, and late-ripening varieties have also been created. Lavender is a typical entomophilous plant that is pollinated by bees, both honey bees and bees of other genera. Bees are strongly attracted to the fragrant nectar found in lavender flowers. In seed propagation of lavender, the characters of the original form of lavender are strongly split over a wide range of characters.
Lavender pollen ripening and anther opening occurs when the buds are still closed. The stigma of the pistil is already ready for fertilization during this period. Lavender pollen is sticky, small, 37-42 microns in size, not loose. When the full flowering phase begins, the stigma emerges from the pistil tube. and during this period, self-pollination of lavender is possible. Experiments carried out on lavender have shown that self-pollination under the insulator can reach 3-13%.
Lavender is propagated not only by seeds, but also by vegetative means. Lavender is easily propagated by stems and roots. Even in production, they try to propagate lavender by stem cuttings, which most fully preserve the biological and economic characteristics of the original variety during reproduction. Although even in this case there are rare cases of kidney mutations, which leads to the production of new forms that are different from the parent.
In production, they are trying to develop new self-pollinating lines in order to obtain hybrids in the future.
Modern lavender breeding is aimed at obtaining varieties that would be distinguished by a large number of flowers, an extended flowering period, and drought resistance.

Lavender as a honey plant

Many beekeepers have a question - is lavender a honey plant or not, is lavender a honey plant? To which one can unequivocally say lavender is a honey plant, but lavender is a honey plant, and a very good one at that. It’s even strange why the question arises of lavender honey plant or not?

 

When does lavender bloom?

As a rule, lavender blooms in June-July, its flowering period is up to 40 days, but it is mowed earlier. The timing of flowering of lavender depends on the variety, as well as on the area of \u200b\u200bgrowth, the height above sea level also plays a significant role.
Lavender provides bees with pollen and nectar. Lavender flowers as a honey plant produce a large amount of nectar, so lavender flowers are willingly visited by bees.

Honey productivity of lavender - lavender honey production

The honey productivity of lavender is very high, bees collect up to 150 kg of honey from 1 hectare. Some sources indicate that lavender honey yield ranges from 100 to 200 kg. The honey production of lavender will also be strongly influenced by the weather and the mowing period.
For honey collection from lavender, it is recommended to put 4-6 hives per 1 hectare. But if there is a field of lavender, there will be bees on it much more than the norm. Lavender as a honey plant is a very good plant, in the Crimea, in one day a bee colony can collect 4-6 kg of lavender honey. In France, for honey collection from lavender, one bee colony can collect 40 kg of lavender honey.

What else can lavender do for bees?

Lavender gives pollen for bees, bees collect a lot of yellow-orange lavender pollen. Lavender pollen is also considered very valuable due to its medicinal qualities. So the lavender honey plant is also a pollen plant.
Lavender for bees is not only pollen and honey. Recently, one of the main enemies of bees is the varroa mite. Mites can also be controlled with lavender, as lavender flowers have a strong scent. Cut branches with lavender flowers can be laid out on top of the canvas so that the tick crumbles. In this case, either a mesh bottom is necessary to remove the tick from the hive, or paper lubricated with vegetable oil is spread on the bottom of the hive.
The smell of lavender cannot be tolerated by wax moths, so cut lavender sprigs can be used to store sushi.
Moreover, as some experienced beekeepers say, the smell of lavender is so strong that even wasps do not like to climb into lavender-scented hives in autumn. Therefore, sprigs of lavender placed on top of the canvas will not only help in the fight against ticks, but will also prevent wasps and hornets from attacking bees in hives. So lavender is a honey plant that will help keep the bees healthy.
But lavender as a honey plant has its own characteristics.
Features of lavender as a honey plant is that the main raw material in industrial plantings of lavender is an inflorescence with pedicels about 10 cm long. The best time to harvest lavender is the full flowering phase, when 75% of lavender flowers bloom. For this reason, industrial plantings are only partially suitable for beekeeping, because harvesters kill many bees when harvesting flowering plants. At the same time, not every farmer will put a bee repeller on his harvester, although the bee repeller itself is a simple thing, it is a metal arc that is installed in front of the disks or knives of the combine, when moving, this arc shakes the bees from the inflorescences and they fly away without falling under the knives harvester.
Due to the value of flowers, wild lavender plants are often cut off by tourists and locals to the roots, leaving no flowers for the bees.
In fact, with lavender as a honey plant, the same trouble as with sweet clover, sainfoin and other honey plants that are mowed during the flowering period. The recipe for lavender as a honey plant is the same - you need to negotiate with farmers and before mowing lavender, take the bees out of the field or use a bee repeller.

Lavender honey

Lavender honeyLavender honey in Russia is a very rare variety of honey, in Russia, in the early 1990s, the area under lavender was 600 hectares and then greatly reduced. Lavender honey in the Crimea was collected in small quantities. Traditionally, lavender honey is obtained in several regions of Spain and France, where lavender honey plants are grown on large areas. Therefore, in Europe, under the guise of lavender honey, it is widely a fake is given - a syrup infused with lavender flowers.
Natural lavender honey has a pleasant taste and aroma and has healing properties, it belongs to the first-class honeys.
As of 2015, the price of 1 kg of lavender honey fluctuated between 70-80 US dollars, depending on the country of origin, and since then prices have not decreased. Lavender honey from Provence was sold at 72 US dollars per 1 kg and was completely redeemed by local restaurants. According to the beekeepers, the demand for lavender honey was 100 times greater than the supply.
Read more about lavender honey.

 

Lavender as a honey plant

Flowering Lavender Honey Plant BorderLavender can be grown in the backyard, as well as small plots in vegetable gardens for personal consumption.
Lavender honey plant, as well as lavandin (a sterile hybrid from crossing two types of lavender) are very decorative plants, they are readily used to form a border, because they are durable and very beautiful. Planting lavender in the garden has a number of advantages - firstly, it will scare away various garden pests, while lavender is a honey plant, and therefore attracts bees to the garden. In Europe, plant lavender honey plants on balconies, together with other good honey plants (thyme and others) to create a honey base for bees in cities.
It should be noted that recently many varieties of lavender with increased frost resistance have been created. Therefore, there are varieties of lavender that do not withstand -5, and there are varieties of lavender that calmly hold -20.
Therefore, it is quite possible to grow lavender somewhere at the latitude of Summa - Kursk, there are reports of growing lavender in the gardens of central Russia. It is not necessary to lay a large field of lavender for essential oil purposes, but it is quite realistic and useful to create lavender thickets in the yard, arrange a beautiful border or flower bed, sow lavender on several square meters in the garden in order to always use dried lavender flowers. When the shoots freeze, the yield of lavender decreases and the plant may die completely.
Therefore, you will have to work hard in order to select varieties of lavender that would not only be frost-resistant for this region, but also have sufficient disease resistance and be decorative in order to have many beautiful lavender flowers and bees on it.
Given that lavender honey plant grows in one place for a very long time up to 20 years or more, you must immediately decide on the place of planting lavender.
For lavender, weed-free, loamy, black earth, sandy and gravelly soils with a sufficient amount of humus, which have good breathability, are suitable. Clay heavy soil with a close standing groundwater for growing lavender is unsuitable, as well as acidified soil. Lavender tolerates drought well, but it needs a lot of moisture to form a large number of flower stalks. For lavender, watering during the laying of growth buds is critical, this is in June-September, during the growing season, when peduncles are formed, this is March-April, and also with intensive growth and the formation of peduncles and flowers on them, this is May-June. But you can not strongly moisturize the lavender, its roots may disappear.
You can not overdo it with organic matter and nitrogen fertilizers, otherwise the lavender will have a large green mass, but few flowers, which is undesirable for lavender as a honey plant, it is better to feed it with potassium-nitrogen fertilizers.
Lavender is responsive to spraying in the autumn with a 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid and foliar dressing in the fall with a 0.1% solution of potassium permanganate + 0.1% solution of boric acid. At a flow rate of the working fluid of 500 l/ha.
Lavender responds positively to the rejuvenation of the bush. For decorative purposes, lavender is sheared twice a year, the first time after flowering, when the faded shoots are cut, and the second time in the fall to adjust the bushes. If lavender is planted in the northern regions for ornamental purposes, then pruning lavender is best done in the spring, because in winter the lavender can freeze a little and a spring haircut will adjust the strength of the bush. Once every 5-7 years, rejuvenating pruning is carried out, when almost the entire above-ground part of the bush is cut off, leaving only 5 centimeters above the ground.
It is quite troublesome to propagate the lavender honey plant with seeds, it begins to bloom only in the second or third year, plus it has all the disadvantages that are described above. Therefore, it is better to propagate lavender by vegetative methods, especially since it is then easily propagated from one bush by cuttings.
To do this, in the spring and summer, the best bush is selected from which green cuttings are cut. Until the end of the season, the cuttings are rooted, and then in the spring the lavender cuttings are planted in a permanent place. If the cuttings sit in a permanent place in the fall, then they must be covered for the winter.
Also, lavender honey plant reproduces well by layering.

 

How lavender honey plant is used in folk medicine

In folk medicine, lavender flowers and oil have been used to treat cuts, burns, and pus. wounds.
The main component of lavender oil is linalyl acetate and its various compounds with acids, coumarins, linalool, ursolic acid tannins. Due to its composition, lavender oil has many properties and is used in medicine, perfumery, shampoos, creams, soaps, etc.
Lavender oil is used as a sedative, it is an excellent antiseptic with antispasmodic properties.
Lavender is used for nervous conditions, insomnia, general depression and depression. In addition, lavender increases the efficiency of the secretions of the stomach and intestines, improves appetite. It is used as an anthelmintic and choleretic agent, antirheumatic agent - lavender oil is used for rubbing.

Recently, more and more attention has been paid to aromatherapy and the role of lavender in it. Dry lavender flowers can be widely used for the manufacture of herbal pillows, aromatic baths, for aromatization of living quarters, linen. The smell of lavender helps to get rid of tearfulness, depression, hysteria, helps to cheer up, helps relaxation.
For asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, laryngitis and pharyngitis, doctors recommend inhaling with lavender.

Other Uses for Lavender

Thus, lavender is a honey plant that has found wide application in perfumery and medicine.
Lavender is also widely used in cooking, where it is used in a host of dishes, including teas, herbal drinks, and others, as well as spices in some dishes.
Lavender is used to store woolen and fur products, carpets.
So plant lavender honey plant and just a beautiful and useful plant.