The vetch honey plant is distributed in temperate climatic zones on three continents at once – Eurasia, South America and northern Africa. This is a large herbaceous plant belonging to the legume family, we call it a pea.
The content of the article
- 1 Significance for agriculture and apiaries
- 2 Description
- 2.1 Sowing
- 2.2 Shaggy
- 3 Use in a mixture with other crops
- 4 Honey productivity
- 5 Useful Properties
Significance for agriculture and apiaries
For apiaries, only two types of wikis are of value:
- sowing (spring)
- and winter (furry).
They are sown in a mixture with other herbs, melliferous plants or forage crops – oats, phacelia.
In the wild, peas grow on steppe meadows, forest edges, river floodplains and moderately humid forests.
In agriculture, it is grown to obtain freshly cut green mass and silage. Grass significantly increases milk yield in small and cattle.
However, in a podoprevom form can provoke a miscarriage in pregnant cows, mares, sheep. Young growth is not fed with vetch hay either!
Dry plant grains are boiled in crushed form and used in a mixture with bran. Sheep and other livestock are reluctant to eat this feed because of the bitter taste. Straw is also fed with caution – due to its high nutritional value, it can lead to overeating and death of livestock.
In addition to being used in animal husbandry, vetch, being a good green manure, helps farmers and gardeners to increase soil fertility on agricultural lands.
For apiaries, the importance of melliferous plants is not great – it provides a modest collection of nectar and pollen, which is assessed as supporting bribes.
Description
Vetch is a perennial or annual herb with a flexible (climbing) stem. Her leaves are paired, grouped on long petioles, ending in tendrils in the upper part.
Flowers are small moth type, located in the axils of the foliage or collected in a brush. After flowering, beans are formed on a short stalk.
Sowing
This annual spring vetch variety is grown in the European part of our continent (mainly in the forest zone and forest-steppe), as well as in the Caucasus. The maximum height is 70-80 centimeters, the stem is thin, highly branched.
Bluish-purple flowers, placed in the axils, bloom in June for 25-30 days. The plant is poorly visited by honey bees, providing only a small supporting flow.
Shaggy
This species is also sown in the Caucasus, but most of the crops are concentrated in Ukraine (in its forest-steppe zone). The plant is winter, it is distinguished by pubescent stems and dense apical inflorescences.
The flowers of the honey plant have too long corollas – bees cannot get to the nectar in a natural way. Therefore, they prefer to use small bites left by bumblebees at the bottom of the corollas. Flowering lasts up to 30 days from June to July.
This variety brings very little honey (only a small supporting bribe is provided). But at the same time it is less demanding on the quality of the soil and is able to resist droughts well.
Use in a mixture with other crops
When sowing vetch seeds in a mixture with other melliferous plants and forage crops, the honey productivity becomes higher.
Here is the most popular mixture (per hectare of cultivated area) for the forest-steppe belt:
- 3 kilograms of phacelia;
- 60 kilograms of oats;
- from 80 to 100 kilograms of vetch seeds.
Another option is:
- 60-80 kilograms of wiki;
- 3 kilograms of phacelia.
The area prepared for sowing must be well loosened and weed-free. If the soil moisture is low, the seeds are specially rolled into the soil. Embedding depth – no more than 3 centimeters!
A mixture of crops allows you to extend the bribe period and increase the yield of green fodder mass.
Mixtures are usually sown at several times. For the first time at the same time as early sowing of grain crops. Further, with a 1,5-2 week break.
Honey productivity
In its pure form, vetch as a honey plant gives about 8-10 kilograms of nectar from each hectare. According to some reports, the spring variety brings up to 20 kg.
It is absolutely transparent honey with a delicate herbaceous aroma. Pollen is also collected by bees.
Mixing with oats and phacelia increases the productivity of crops up to 40-50 kilograms. Adding only phacelia provides nectar content up to 40 kilograms per hectare.
The use of phacelia allows you to provide supportive bribes at the very beginning of summer. When sown at several times, this honey plant blooms every 10-12 days after the flowering of the previous sowing.
Useful Properties
It is difficult to say something about the medicinal properties of honey collected from vetch crops – such honey is not sold as a commercial grade.
But at the same time, it can be noted that the plant is rich in vitamins and minerals. This is one of the most valuable forage crops, which is recommended in folk medicine:
- with nervous excitement;
- with constipation (as a laxative);
- as a diuretic.
Outwardly, an infusion of herbs is used to treat wounds, ulcers and abscesses.
It is obvious that getting some part of the wiki nectar into marketable honey only enriches it with healing properties. Such a product is used not only for the treatment of specific ailments, but also for general strengthening, healing of the whole organism.
