Phacelia

Phacelia is an annual melliferous herb 50-80 cm high. It has alternate leaves, like tansy. The flowers are blue, collected in an inflorescence – a curl. Each plant has 6-15 curls, each of which has 40-70 flowers. Honey productivity: 200-300 kg / ha (in the central regions). Honey is white, greenish and of excellent quality. Flowering time: Tansy phacelia blooms on June 15-20, 40-45 days after sowing and blooms for 30-35 days. The bees collect nectar from the phacelia all day, and the bees also collect pollen. Phacelia can grow on any soils – chernozems, gray-forest, sod-podzolic, but better on cultivated, fertile, fertilized and moist soils. The rowan-leaved phacelia is very demanding on the presence of moisture in the soil. The dates of sowing phacelia can be very different – from early spring to the first half of July (or it is possible in three sowing periods). Winter seedlings appear 2 weeks earlier than spring ones and their honey productivity is higher. The sowing time is selected so as to provide a honey conveyor – the phacelia blooms 40-45 days after sowing. In early spring, you can sow even with frost – the seedlings will easily survive -4-5C. The seeding rate is 10-12 kg / ha, but when overseeding to a two-year sweet clover, the rate is reduced by 25-30%. The sowing depth should not exceed 1.5-2 cm. For more friendly seedlings, good contact of seeds with the soil is necessary, therefore, before sowing, the soil can be slightly compacted, and phacelia seeds can be sown on it. Seeds sprout in 10-15 days, and flowering begins 30-35 days after germination. For seeds, the rowan-leaved phacelia is harvested when 50-70% of the curls turn brown so that they do not have time to crumble, and when the upper curls continue to bloom. The phacelia is cut into rolls, dried for 4-5 days, and then harvested and threshed. The largest and most valuable seeds are from the lower part of the branch, so you should not be late with harvesting. The seeds are dried, stored with a thickness of 20-40 cm. If you need to collect your phacelia seeds, then it is better to sow it at the earliest possible date.
Seeding rates: 10-12 kg / ha, 0.1-0.12 kg / 100m2, 1-1.2 g / m2