Sainfoin honey plant – Sainfoin as a honey plant for bees
Sainfoin honey plant - Sainfoin as a honey plant for bees. Sainfoin honey plant is a perennial leguminous plant, a fodder, soil-improving and green manure crop, and a medicinal plant. There are more than 130 species of sainfoin that have settled in Europe, Asia and North America. Many types of sainfoin are good honey plants, but the most significant types of sainfoin for beekeeping are sandy sainfoin, Siberian sainfoin, and Transcaucasian sainfoin, which are widely cultivated in a variety of climatic zones.
Content
- 1 Sainfoin description of the plant as a honey plant
- 1.1 Sainfoin description of different types
- 1.1.1 Sandy sainfoin
- 1.1.2 Siberian sainfoin
- 1.1.3 Transcaucasian sainfoin
- 1.1.4 Other types of sainfoin
- 1.2 Sainfoin for beekeeping
- 1.3 Sainfoin honey plant beneficial properties
- 2 Sainfoin as a honey plant, agricultural cultivation technology
- 3 Sainfoin flowering time, honey productivity, temperature
- 3.1 When sainfoin blooms
- 3.2 Sainfoin honey productivity
- 3.3 Sainfoin nectar release temperature
- 3.4 How long does sainfoin bloom?
- 3.5 Sainfoin as a pollen carrier
Sainfoin description of the plant as a honey plant
Sainfoin description
Sandy sainfoin
There are many types of sainfoin, but the most widely known is sandy sainfoin (also known as Dnieper sainfoin or Donskaya sainfoin). Sand sainfoin is significantly superior in green mass yield to common sainfoin, and common and Transcaucasian sainfoin are winter hardy. On sandy soils, sainfoin is superior to alfalfa in yield, and also produces more yield than other leguminous grasses on slopes with close chalk.
In crop rotations, sainfoin is often used as a fallow crop before sowing winter grains, but it is especially often used for crops as a forage crop and for grassing eroded slopes, sandy lands, and is sown into meadow communities to increase their feeding value.
Sainfoin is a sandy honey plant, blooms with red-pink flowers collected in thick long racemes. Violet veins are visible at the base of the flower's flag. The nectary of a flower is located at the bottom of the flower tube.
The regrowth of sainfoin begins immediately after the snow melts. In the conditions of cultivated crops, sandy sainfoin can grow for 6-7 years, in the wild it can grow for 30-40 years in one place. Blooms in the second year of life. When sowing, the maximum number of peduncles in sainfoin is formed in the third year of growth.
Siberian sainfoin
Siberian sainfoin is a tall perennial plant of the legume family, an excellent honey plant growing in steppe areas, fields, on southern slopes and as a weed near fields and roads in the steppes and forest-steppes of Western Siberia.
Siberian sainfoin was introduced into cultivation in the Altai Territory; in addition, Siberian sainfoin can be successfully cultivated in the Central Black Earth region. In the conditions of the Central Black Earth region, Siberian sainfoin bushes branch well. On one square meter with row sowing in the first and especially in the second year, about 300-340 stems are formed; in subsequent years of life, 48-92 stems produce an inflorescence; in the inflorescence of Siberian sainfoin, 38-70 flowers are formed.
Transcaucasian sainfoin
Transcaucasian sainfoin. Herbaceous perennial, common in the Caucasus, Crimea, common in cultivation in the European part of Russia, Siberia and Kazakhstan. Stems are 40-80 cm high, sainfoin leaves are oblong-linear.
Transcaucasian sainfoin grows on dry grassy slopes and in gravelly places, and can grow in bushes. In mountainous areas it is distributed up to an altitude of 1500-1800 m.
Interesting as a drought-resistant and productive forage plant.
Sainfoin of Transcaucasian honey plants. Sainfoin brushes are crested before flowering. The corolla is bright pink, with yellow stripes. Sainfoin blooms from June to July.
Other types of sainfoin
Many endemic species of sainfoin grow in many regions, about 130 species in total. For example, on the territory of Dagestan, 15 species of sainfoin have been recorded, all of which are good honey plants.
Sainfoin for beekeeping
Sainfoin for beekeepingSainfoin for beekeeping is interesting in sowing for seeds, sown in different meadow communities, sown to consolidate sands and slopes, sowing sainfoin in apiable areas, as well as planting for livestock feed that are mowed during the end of flowering.
Sainfoin cannot reproduce by self-pollination; pollinators are needed to obtain seeds, given that there are fewer and fewer wild pollinators in nature; the main pollinators of sainfoin are honey bees. It is necessary to place an apiary for honey collection from sainfoin within the optimal summer range of bees 200-500 m.
Sainfoin flowers are capable of releasing nectar even in windy, cloudy and rainy weather. A valuable property of sainfoin for bees is the release of nectar in dry years. In dry years in Eastern Kazakhstan, sainfoin produces much more nectar than phacelia, and even in dry years in the dry steppe zone it is possible to produce 100 - 120 kg of honey per hectare of sainfoin. Therefore, expanding sainfoin crops can be considered as one of the ways to provide bees with nectar in drought conditions. This is all the more important because in recent decades the climate has changed greatly - droughts affect many regions from the Altai to the Perm Territories inclusive.
Sainfoin is important for bees because the flowering of sainfoin occurs during the period of growth of bee colonies, during the period when the flowering of gardens ends and there is a break in honey collection. Therefore, at this time, honey from sainfoin is mainly used for the development of colonies and allows bee colonies to be prepared for future honey collection from linden, sweet clover, sunflower or buckwheat. Therefore, sainfoin for beekeeping purposes can be grown in apiary plots, but it should be sown every 2-3 years.
Sainfoin for fodder purposes is most often cut down during budding or flowering, which often kills a large number of pollinators, including honey bees. This stems from farmers' ignorance of the biology of sainfoin. Experiments carried out by scientists have shown that the chemical composition of sainfoin in terms of content in dry matter, ash, protein, fat, fiber, and non-ferrous substances in the flowering phase and the phase of the beginning of fruit formation is practically the same.
Therefore, by mowing sainfoin for fodder purposes in the last phase of flowering, when 75-85% of the flowers have already bloomed and bees rarely visit sainfoin, the farmer loses nothing, but the beekeeper gets the opportunity to get a large amount of sainfoin honey. Farmers also don't know, but experiments have shown that honey bees can significantly change the chemical composition of the sainfoin plant. With good pollination of sainfoin, the accumulation of heavy metals in plant stems is reduced compared to plants that have not been visited by bees, which is important for farmers to obtain good quality products.
Therefore, with a certain education of farmers, not only seed plots can be used for beekeeping, but also sainfoin crops for livestock feed.
Honey plant sainfoin beneficial properties
Sainfoin seeds are an excellent honey plant. Sainfoin is a honey plant and pollen plant, but sainfoin is also a fodder, green manure and soil-improving, medicinal crop that can play a certain role in the biologization of agriculture.
Sainfoin can be used for green mass, grass meal and haylage, which are eaten by all types of animals. In terms of feed value, sainfoin is not inferior to alfalfa and clover. When fed, sainfoin does not cause tympanitis in animals, which allows it to be fed in any weather and during dew. Sainfoin can be used for surface and fundamental improvement of meadows.
When growing sainfoin, in the second year of life, 5 tons of organic matter remain in the soil on one hectare. The roots of sainfoin carry a large amount of phosphorus and calcium from the lower layers of the soil to the upper layers, which is favorable for the subsequent sowing of grain and other crops. Therefore, sainfoin is recommended for cultivation in the Non-Chernozem zone as a fodder and soil-improving plant.
Previously, in the conditions of Kazakhstan, it was recommended to use alternating strips of grain crops with strips of sainfoin and other perennial leguminous grasses, which reduced soil erosion and increased its fertility.
There is an opinion that it is necessary to create sainfoin areas in agrocenoses, followed by harvesting for seeds. In such crops, entomophages actively reproduce and destroy many pests, such as pea or alfalfa aphids and many others. This contributes to the biologization of agriculture as a whole. Many wild pollinators nest in sainfoin crops. There is an opinion that the presence of a large number of pollinators on sainfoin crops removes a large amount of nectar and pollen and inhibits various types of pests. This is due to the fact that the feeding of insect pests is significantly limited by carbohydrate food. As a result, sainfoin productivity increases and the number of pests decreases.
Sainfoin is used in folk medicine in the form of a decoction or tincture of herbs and roots. A water infusion, as well as a decoction of herbs and sainfoin roots, is used to stop uterine bleeding, and also as a means of enhancing sexual activity in men.
Sainfoin as a honey plant, agricultural cultivation technology
Sowing sainfoin as a honey plant has its own characteristics. The best soils for sowing sainfoin are chernozem soils rich in lime.
It grows well on chestnut, clay and sandy soils, as well as on heavily washed-out slopes. The sowing rate for sandy sainfoin seeds is 50 - 85 kg, with a wide-row method of 30, 45 or 60 cm. But the sowing rate for sainfoin per hectare greatly depends on the region, soil, seed germination, and sowing method.
When sowing sandy sainfoin for hay in the conditions in the Voronezh region, sainfoin is sown in early spring, without cover in a wide row with a distance between rows of 70 cm, to a depth of 5-6 cm, with a seeding rate of 30-40 kg ha.
Caring for crops comes down to spring harrowing in the Far East Herbicides are used for trail and inter-row cultivation, and in heavily weeded areas. For seed purposes, sainfoin herbage is used for 2 years. To pollinate sainfoin, it is recommended to place 3-4 bee colonies per hectare.
The best way to sow Siberian sainfoin honey plant for seeds is the row method with a row spacing of 45 cm. With this sowing method, flowering occurs very smoothly, better than with other sowing methods. Siberian sainfoin sown at the end of May - the first half of June (although the optimal time for sowing Siberian sainfoin for seeds in the Central Black Earth region is June 15, 30 and July 15) at the end of August or September reaches a height of 85-95 cm and blooms. But the main flowering occurs in the second year.
Harvesting for sainfoin seeds is carried out when 50-60% of the pods have turned brown; delays in harvesting lead to a large loss of harvest.
In the agricultural technology of sainfoin as a honey plant, it should be taken into account that wide-row sowing of sainfoin also contributes to a higher release of nectar by sainfoin flowers; bees also prefer to visit sparse sainfoin crops and are less willing to visit dense plantings, which should be taken into account when sowing sainfoin as a honey plant.
In the agricultural technology of sainfoin as a honey plant, it should be taken into account that sainfoin grows mainly in the southern regions of Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Moldova. It is believed that in the Non-Black Earth Zone, due to frost, sainfoin can freeze. However, new varieties of sainfoin are frost-resistant no worse than clover and alfalfa. It should be taken into account that the winter hardiness of sainfoin depends on the growing conditions in summer; if it grows well in summer, then, as a rule, it can withstand winter. In addition to new frost-resistant varieties, it is also recommended to plant sainfoin on southern slopes, illuminated areas, and in areas adjacent to forests and shelterbelts.
You can sow sainfoin as a cover crop, such as barley or oats. For this purpose, the agricultural technology of sainfoin as a honey plant is as follows: plowing is carried out to a depth of 25 cm, the field is well leveled in the spring, sowing is done with grain-grass seeders simultaneously with sowing the cover crop. Seed placement depth is no more than 2.5 cm, seeding rate is 120 - 140 kg per hectare. When harvesting a cover crop, it is necessary to leave higher stubble to ensure sufficient snow accumulation in the winter. In the spring of next year after sowing, sainfoin is harrowed with medium and heavy-tooth harrows in two tracks. In this case, in the conditions of the Tula region, sainfoin blooms in mid-June and blooms for about a month, thereby filling the empty period between the end of the flowering of spring honey plants and the beginning of the flowering of summer honey plants. When sown continuously under the cover of barley or oats, the nectar productivity of sainfoin ranges from 99 to 131 kg per hectare, respectively. Moreover, it is preferable to sow sainfoin under the cover of oats, since barley inhibits sainfoin more. Application of superphosphate fertilizers in an amount of 20-45 kg per hectare for oats increases the number of flowers by 2 times. The same planting method needs to be tested in the Perm region, where droughts have been increasingly observed in recent decades. So far, experiments are being carried out with the cultivation of sandy sainfoin in the Perm region only as a fodder crop, but it is quite possible to grow sainfoin as a honey plant.
Sainfoin crops are located in many regions with arid climates. High air temperatures negatively affect the performance of bees, but the effect of heat can be reduced by using certain agricultural techniques for sainfoin as a honey plant, for example, placing crops near forest belts, which will create wind-shade protection. This will increase the performance of the bees. Even in dry years in Altai, when placing 4-6 bee colonies per 1 hectare of sainfoin, a bee colony can collect 30-35 kg of honey and 400 g of pollen from such a protected area.
Sainfoin flowering time, honey productivity, temperature
When sainfoin blooms
Sainfoin honey productivity Most species of sainfoin bloom in the second and subsequent years of life. The regrowth of sainfoin begins as soon as the snow melts. Therefore, the time when sainfoin begins to bloom depends on the region and type of sainfoin. In Siberian sainfoin, the period of time from spring regrowth to the beginning of flowering is 45-60 days.
In the Central Black Earth region, sainfoin crops bloom at the end of May - in the first ten days of June, and bloom one to two weeks earlier than yellow and blue-hybrid alfalfa.
In the conditions of Transbaikalia, sainfoin flower buds appear in early June, mass budding occurs after 7 days, flowering begins at the end of June. Mass flowering of sainfoin is observed from July 5-10 to July 20-25.
Endemic species of sainfoin in Dagestan bloom in the foothill zone in the period at the end of May - early June, after the end of flowering of gardens, in mountainous and highland areas at the end of June - early July.
Sainfoin honey productivity
Flowers of all types of sainfoin are readily visited by bees to collect nectar and pollen. During the period of intense summer, bees can work on 1 square meter of sainfoin 30-40 bees at a time.
The flowering of the sainfoin brush begins from the bottom up, the lower flowers bloom first, then the middle part of the brush, then the upper part of the brush. At the same time, the nectar productivity of sainfoin flowers decreases from the bottom of the raceme to the top, so flowers in the lower part of the raceme secrete 0.245 mg of nectar per flower, and in the upper part of the raceme 0.208 mg per flower.
A strong bee colony can collect up to 7, and sometimes up to 12 kg of honey from sainfoin per day, but 1-3 kg per day is considered the usual gain. The nectar productivity of sandy sainfoin depends on the region, agricultural technology, climatic conditions and age of plantings, and ranges from 100 to 400 kg per hectare.
In the conditions of Dagestan, the honey productivity of sainfoin is, according to various sources, 63 - 282 kg.
Under the conditions of Dagestan, the amount of nectar in a sainfoin flower increases with increasing altitude above sea level, but at the same time, the sugar content of the nectar decreases. Apparently this is due to an increase in air and soil humidity. The nectar productivity of sainfoin is much higher if it grows in bushes and forest areas.
The greatest concentration of bees on sainfoin flowers is observed from 12 noon to 4 pm, apparently, this is due to pollination of flowers and their subsequent wilting.
In the conditions of Transbaikalia, the nectar productivity of sandy sainfoin ranges from 60 kg in the second year of life to 300 kg in the third and fourth years of life per hectare, provided that it grows continuously.
In the dry steppe part of Eastern Kazakhstan, sainfoin flowers, with insufficient relative air humidity, bloom in the morning and fade by the end of the day. On rainy, cloudy days they wilt on the second day. The release of nectar begins at 9 - 10 o'clock and stops by 19 o'clock; the percentage of flowers that do not secrete nectar can be up to 30%. The amount of nectar that sainfoin produces depends on weather conditions and ranges from 60 to 150 kg of honey. During the flowering period in seed plots, a bee colony can collect up to 40 kg of sainfoin honey.
One hectare of Siberian sainfoin grass can produce 80 kg in a good year, more than 100 kg of honey. In the conditions of the Novosibirsk region, the weight gain of the control hive was up to 5 kg per day. Siberian sainfoin blooms early, the flowers are moth-shaped and dark pink.
Bees collect up to 400 kg of honey per hectare from Transcaucasian sainfoin. Excellent honey yield is obtained when growing Transcaucasian sainfoin under irrigation.
Kursk sainfoin has a very high nectar productivity of 170 -186 kg per hectare.
Sainfoin nectar release temperature
Sainfoin as a honey plant is an excellent crop, but under what conditions does sainfoin produce the most nectar for bees?
Sainfoin flowers secrete colorless, slightly cloudy nectar immediately after the corolla opens; pollination of the flowers requires 2-3 visits by bees.
Sainfoin blooms profusely and for a long time in Transbaikalia in years with moderate rains and air temperatures of 22-26 degrees Celsius.
In the conditions of Transbaikalia, the sandy sainfoin flower begins to bloom from 8 o'clock at first the rate of flower opening is weak. When the temperature rises to 32 C and the air humidity decreases by 35%, by 16-18 hours the flowers open to their maximum, at the same time the flight of bees intensifies, 15-20 bees work on every square meter. In the evening, the pace of flower blooming and the activity of bees in summer weakens. Nectar secretion of the sandy sainfoin flower begins at ten o'clock at a temperature of 24 degrees Celsius and a humidity of 50%; the maximum accumulation of sugars in nectar per day completely coincides with the maximum blooming of flowers and is equal to 13 mg per 100 flowers. At the same time, the speed of flower blooming largely depends on the age of the plant; in the second and third years of life, on average, from 13 to 15 flowers open per day; by the fifth year of life, the rate of flower opening almost doubles.
The sainfoin flower is protected by a flag and, accordingly, the nectar is protected from evaporation, so there is a high degree of bee activity. On hot days, when the temperature rises above 40 degrees Celsius, the nectar secretion of sainfoin sharply decreases, the color of the corolla turns from pink to colorless and attracts little bees and pollinators.
In the Non-Black Earth Region, the greatest release of nectar occurs at a temperature of 20-22 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of at least 65%.
In the conditions of Kazakhstan, the sugar content in sainfoin nectar is 30-60% and depends on weather conditions; the greatest release of nectar occurs at a temperature of 22-25 degrees and a relative humidity of over 70%
How long does sainfoin bloom?
Flowering of sainfoin lasts 18-25 days, a month in favorable years. Sainfoin flowers bloom sequentially, starting from the base of the brush, 1-2 rows of flowers open every day, the total number of flowers varies depending on the age of the plant and can be from 30 - 70 on young plants, 50-80 on mature plants, 30-40 on old plants colors.
While the sainfoin brush is blooming, it lengthens from 6 to 30 cm, the lifespan of one flower is composition lasts 10-12 hours, inflorescences 9 days.
Mass flowering of sandy sainfoin lasts 2 weeks; in dry years, flowering is reduced by 7 days; flower buds do not have time to develop during drought and may, if natural conditions are favorable, wake up at the end of August. At this time, the secondary flowering of sainfoin occurs, but there are only three or four flowers in the shoot.
Sainfoin as a pollen carrier
Sainfoin as a pollen plantFlowers of all types of sainfoin honey plant are readily visited by bees not only to collect nectar, but also pollen. Sandy sainfoin is an excellent pollen carrier. One flower contains 0.075 mg of pollen, an inflorescence 5.2 mg, and one plant 262 mg. Pollen productivity of continuous crops ranges from 26.3 kg in the second year of life to 130.1 kg in the third and fourth years of life.
Sainfoin bees carry huge amounts of pollen into the hive. The flowering of sainfoin occurs during the period of growth of bee colonies, so at this time honey and pollen from sainfoin are mainly used for the development of colonies.
The color of pollen in the pollen depends on the region of pollen collection; in the conditions of Dagestan, the pollen from sainfoin is cream-colored and the pollen grain in the pollen is medium-sized.
In Transbaikalia, bees collect dark yellow pollen from sandy sainfoin flowers.
In Kazakhstan, bees collect brown-yellow pollen from sainfoin.
In the conditions of the Altai Territory, from one bee colony you can get from 400 to 1000 grams of pollen from sainfoin.
