Canadian goldenrod as a honey plant

In the European part of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, 5 types of goldenrod are most often found, such as ordinary goldenrod, Canadian, narrow-leaved, late and giant. All of them are good honey plants.

Content

• Canadian goldenrod honey plant
• goldenrod honey
• Common goldenrod as a honey plant
• Goldenrod honey plant description
• goldenrod honey plant
• Goldenrod honey plant honey productivity
• goldenrod pollen

 

 

 

Canadian goldenrod honey plant

Canadian goldenrod (Solidago canadensis L.), also called Virgin Mary Tree, is one of the most productive honey plants. Beekeepers sometimes seek to grow it in order to increase the honey supply of the apiary. Canadian goldenrod is also often grown in gardens and parks for its ornamental value.

Canadian goldenrod is native to North America, but it also does very well in the climatic conditions of Belarus and central Russia, where it has recently been found in the wild. It prefers to grow near water bodies and damp places. Under favorable conditions, it can reach up to two meters in height. A perennial plant with a long, stiff and hollow stem. It has characteristic leaves - long, lanceolate and pointed at the ends. They are on the stem. The inflorescence in the form of brushes is located at the top of the stem. Flowers are collected in baskets, have a dark yellow color.

Canadian goldenrod blooms from July to September, shifting depending on the region. Often the flowering period falls on the free period, which is valuable for beekeeping. Also valuable as an autumn honey plant. Its honey productivity on favorable soils and under favorable weather conditions can reach up to 900 kg of honey per hectare, this refers to the conditions of Poland, where this plant is well studied by beekeepers. In Poland, in some voivodeships, goldenrod has taken root so well in the fields that it has become an important honey plant in late summer, from which bees collect a lot of goldenrod honey.
The isolation of Canadian goldenrod pollen is also very high. In the conditions of Russia, honey production is determined at 100-150 kg per hectare, the bee colony is able to collect 15 kg of honey from the Canadian goldenrod in August-September. A good strong colony is able to harvest 2-3 stores of goldenrod honey. In the conditions of the Saratov region, Canadian goldenrod is not inferior to sunflower in terms of honey productivity.

Now for the sad

It should be borne in mind that Canadian goldenrod quickly runs wild and captures fields and meadows, while displacing other meadow vegetation, thereby reducing the number of meadow honey plants, according to some information, it can create joint thickets with hogweed. In China, in a number of provinces, it is a real disaster, displacing dozens of native plant species. An analogy arises with the distribution of Sosnovsky's hogweed, which is also considered a good honey plant. There are many negative reviews about Canadian goldenrod pollen, which can cause allegri, like poplar fluff or ragweed pollen. In some regions, Canadian goldenrod, as well as ragweed and Sosnowsky's hogweed, are banned and prohibited by law from distributing them.

An effective way to control goldenrod is to mow twice a year (in May and August) for several years in a row. Elimination is accelerated by sowing a mixture of cereals and honey-bearing forbs.

Therefore, weighing all the pros and cons, you should not engage in the distribution of Canadian goldenrod, since wanting to expand the honey base with its help, the beekeeper actually reduces it. After planting the Canadian goldenrod, the beekeeper can forget about spring and summer meadow honey plants forever. The best option would be to improve the honey base with the help of other autumn honey plants. Or cultivating the meadow with the help of clover, snakehead, Melilot, Salvia, Thyme after mowing grass for hay in summer, ottawa grows and blooms until frost, providing families with fresh nectar and pollen.

Goldenrod honey

Goldenrod honey is mostly golden yellow in the comb and becomes a light brown color when drained from the comb. The sharp aroma of such honey is somewhat unusual, but the taste is amazing. Goldenrod honey does not crystallize for a long time, but becomes thick.

The color of goldenrod honey (from ordinary, Canadian or late goldenrod), depending on the proportion of pollen from this plant, is light yellow, yellow and even orange. However, upon crystallization, it becomes creamy yellow. Goldenrod honey quickly crystallizes into a fine-grained form. The aftertaste is slightly sour, with a citrus aroma. Unfortunately, due to the late flowering period and the resulting difficulty in getting the honey fully ripe (the appropriate moisture content is no higher than 20%), goldenrod honey is often fermented.
Goldenrod flower honey is one of the last varieties of honey obtained during the beekeeping season, therefore it is especially appreciated and expected by consumers, especially due to the characteristic, sour aftertaste that stands out from other honeys. Also, because of the healing properties attributed to it, goldenrod honey is used in apitherapy as an antispasmodic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory agent. Goldenrod honey has found particular use in diseases of the urinary system and for the prevention of kidney stones due to its diuretic effect.

Goldenrod honey is recommended for hypertension, edema, urination and bile secretion disorders. Improves urination in hypertrophy and prostatitis. Goldenrod honey is also used in the treatment of respiratory catarrh. From a scientific point of view, this is justified by the content of triterpene saponins identified in goldenrod nectar and goldenrod honey.

 

Common goldenrod as a honey plant

Goldenrod honey plant description

Common goldenrod is a perennial honey-bearing herbaceous plant of the Aster family (Compositae). It has a short woody rhizome and single straight, non-branched stems 50-90 sometimes up to 150 cm high.
Goldenrod flowers are golden yellow, small, collected in small numerous baskets at the top of the stem in a long, up to 40 cm narrow panicle.
Goldenrod inflorescences are baskets collected in long apical panicles of a cylindrical shape. Marginal flowers are false-reed, asexual; median flowers are tubular, bisexual, not numerous; both flowers are yellow. The flowers have 5 stamens with anthers fused into a tubule.
Goldenrod grows on the territory of Ukraine, Belarus, the European part of Russia, the Caucasus, Western Siberia and Central Asia (the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alay mountains), as well as in the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, northern Africa, and Asia Minor. Goldenrod grows in meadows of all types - forest, steppe, alpine and subalpine, in forest glades, as well as in sparse forests and shrubs, on the slopes of hills and ravines, along roads. In recent years, the goldenrod has been rapidly developing neglected fields. Goldenrod grows well on moist soils, forming continuous thickets in 2-3 years.
Goldenrod propagates by seed, but is best propagated by seedlings in spring or autumn.
Goldenrod is a good late summer honey plant and pollen plant

Goldenrod honey plant

Many beekeepers have a question whether goldenrod is a honey plant, to which we can answer that common goldenrod is a good plant as a honey plant. And the question of beekeepers whether the goldenrod is a honey plant arises because in some years the bees do not visit the goldenrod, if there is a stronger honey plant nearby or if the weather is dry without rain, and also because of the peculiarities of goldenrod flowering. Also, in the more northern regions, it is practically not visited by bees, only to collect pollen. In the southern regions of Russia, honey is produced every year. Depending on the region, goldenrod blooms from June - late July to September, sometimes blooms until frost. Goldenrod flowering lasts 34-42 sometimes up to 70 days, although full flowering lasts only 17-27 days. Tubular goldenrod flowers bloom from 7 to 18 hours, most intensively - 9-13 hours. On sunny warm days, bees start working on goldenrod flowers from 8 o'clock, and finish work after 18 o'clock.

 

 

Goldenrod honey plant honey productivity

The concentration of sugars in goldenrod nectar varies during the day from 22 to 33%. Under favorable weather conditions in Belarus, Poland, Northern Ukraine, 100 goldenrod flowers on average emit 5.9-6.5 mg of sugar, and also produce 1.1-1.3 mg of pollen. When growing goldenrod in culture, the sugar productivity of goldenrod per 1 ha is on average 251 kg, and pollen is produced - 48 kg, while in wild plantations the honey productivity of goldenrod is much less - 64 kg of sugar per 1 ha and 15 kg of pollen per 1 ha. The decrease in honey production is associated with the deterioration of soil fertility, which reduces the number of flowers. On average, during the period of mass flowering, bees from 1 ha of cultivated goldenrod bring 4-14 kg of sugar and 2-3 kg of pollen.
In Russia, the sugar productivity of one flower is 0.01 mg, one plant produces 140 mg of sugar, with continuous growth - 16.8 kg of sugar per 1 ha. On one flowering shoot, an average of 6366 flowers. Pollen productivity of 1 flower is 0.18 mg, and plants - 119.2 mg of pollen.
Filling the honey goiter, the honey bee will visit 6250 flowers in one flight and will spend 73% of the collected nectar in the hive, the bee will bring only 17 mg of nectar.

In the climatic conditions of Poland, the honey productivity of goldenrod is much higher.

• The honey productivity of the late (giant) goldenrod is determined at the level of up to 700 kg/ha under favorable soil and weather conditions, and the pollen yield is about 25-50 kg/ha.
• Honey yield of Canadian goldenrod under appropriate weather conditions is up to 800 kg per 1 ha, and pollen yield is 45-90 kg per 1 ha.
• The yield of common goldenrod honey is 500 kg/ha, pollen - 70 kg/ha, while due to the significantly lower number of goldenrods of this species, it is not easy for beekeepers to achieve this result.

Common goldenrod as a honey plant is good because it blooms in late summer and autumn, when there are few honey plants in nature and bees receive fresh nectar and pollen during the period when bee colonies build up in winter. In some areas, goldenrod is the last opportunity to get commercial honey.

 

Goldenrod pollen

Bees willingly collect pollen from goldenrod, during the flowering of goldenrod from about 20% and up to 80-90% of the pollen brought to the hive is goldenrod pollen. Pollen is emitted from 9 am to 3 pm, from 10 am to 12 pm, bees with brick-orange stripes on the entrances make up almost 40% of all arriving bees. Pollen grains of common goldenrod are three-furrow-pore, spherical, less often spherical-flattened, 34-37.4 microns in diameter (with spines). In outline from the pole and the equator are almost rounded. Furrows 6.8-10.2 µm wide with even, less often uneven edges, with unevenly blunted ends. The pores are rounded, with a diameter equal to the width of the furrows. The membrane of furrows and pores is fine-grained. The width of the mesocolpium is 20-25.5 µm, the diameter of the apocolpium is 10-15 µm. The thickness of the exine is 6-7 µm (with spines). The sculpture is prickly and complex. The spikes have a rod base. The height of the rods is 1.6-1.8 µm. The thickness of the rod layer between the spikes is 1 µm. The underlying and cover layers are thin. The spines are unevenly arranged, in the polar projection on the mesocolpia there are 4-6 spines 1.5-1.8 µm high, with a base diameter of 1-1.8 µm. The distance between the spikes is up to 5 µm; at the poles, the spikes are inclined in different directions. The color of the pollen is dark yellow. The bees bring a red-brick color goldenrod.