Chestnut and its benefits as a honey plant

The well-known melliferous chestnut belongs to the horse chestnut family. The tree is a rich source of pollen and nectar during the summer. Promotes the collection of commercial honey.

The content of the article

  • 1 Significance for agriculture
    • 1.1 Horse (ordinary)
    • 1.2 Sowing (real)
  • 2 Agrotechnics
  • 3 Honey productivity
  • 4 Useful Properties

Significance for agriculture

Chestnuts are cultivated in the Crimea and Transcaucasia as an ornamental plant. Also, their plantings can be found throughout the southern European part of our continent on city boulevards, in parks, squares, along highways and pedestrian roads.

The main species that have value as honey plants:

  • horse (ordinary);
  • real (sowing, noble).

Horse (ordinary)

This chestnut variety is the main source of pollen and honey. The tree grows well on loam, but does not tolerate sandy soils at all. His homeland is Transcaucasia and Crimea.

Reaches a height of 20-25 meters. Has a beautiful dense crown. The foliage is palmate, toothed, with elongated petioles. Inflorescences resemble erect large cones. Individual flowers are large enough, pale pink or completely white. The stamens protrude beyond the corolla.

After flowering, fruits are formed in the form of boxes covered with thorns. After they ripen, the boxes burst – brilliant brown chestnuts fall to the ground.

There are two subspecies of horse chestnut, each of which differs in the quality of the honey obtained:

  • one grows in the Crimea and Transcaucasia in the wild – low quality commercial honey is collected from it;
  • the second is widespread throughout southern Europe as a popular ornamental plant – this is the so-called bell-shaped form with white-pink inflorescences, from which honey is obtained of quite acceptable quality.

Sowing (real)

This species is taller than the horse – the tree reaches 35 meters or more. Belongs to the beech family. The trunk and branches are covered with gray bark. The crown is spreading and lush.

Differs in seed pods, abundantly covered with small thorns, each of which contains two fruits. Inflorescences are elongated, resembling spikelets. Their length reaches 30-35 centimeters with a diameter of a centimeter. Leaves are oblong, not collected together on one petiole.

In the south of the European part, it is found in wild chestnut forests, and also as an ornamental plant in settlements. Its fruits are eaten.

The main feature is flowering not every year. The tree throws out the first inflorescences at the age of 8-15 years. Blooms in late June and early July.

Flowering is not friendly – trees in the same planting or forest do not bloom at the same time. Therefore, the honey collection period takes from 20 to 25 days. Male inflorescences emit a lot of pollen, and bees collect up to 6 kilograms of honey from female flowers per day.

Agrotechnics

The tree is propagated by seeds. From the seedlings obtained, seedlings are obtained, which are planted in prepared pits at a distance of 8-10 meters.

You can use basal processes that have developed near the trunks of mature trees. This shortens the breeding time of the culture in the backyard or other territory.

Honey productivity

Chestnut as a honey plant is important only in the summer. The honey productivity of a tree is directly related to the density of plantings.

From mixed plantings, where chestnuts predominate, bees bring up to 250 kilograms of honey per hectare in summer.

The sugar content of nectar is high – 65-75 percent for every milligram. This variety should not be left to bees in the winter – it crystallizes very quickly, like the nectar collected from rapeseed.

The quality of the product obtained depends on which type of chestnuts the honey was collected from:

Crimean and Transcaucasian horse chestnuts give a faintly smelling honey of a dark brown hue with an unpleasant bitter taste.

A variety of horse chestnuts with bell-shaped flowersfound in cities in southern Europe, is a source of better quality honey. It is almost colorless, transparent and liquid. The crystallization process begins quickly. Sometimes this variety gives off a slight bitterness.

Sown (real) chestnuts give a dark brown honey with a rather pleasant taste and aroma. At first, it is liquid, and then crystallizes.

Note: Chestnut honey varieties belong to the category of low-grade honey because of their fairly rapid crystallization and bitter taste. But there are connoisseurs of this product on the market.

Useful Properties

Despite all the gustatory flaws, chestnut honey has antimicrobial properties valuable to humans.

In folk medicine, it is included in the recipes used for treatment:

  • kidney disease;
  • inflammatory processes of the intestines and stomach;
  • wounds and abscesses on the skin.

Can be used without restrictions in cosmetology for adding to masks, wrapping mixtures.

It is rarely found in its pure form, since other melliferous plants bloom profusely in summer. A product that is close to monofloral in composition can be obtained only when apiaries move – hives should be located near chestnut forests, parks, groves throughout the entire period of their flowering.

Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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