# Sunflower patch



## my2cents (Jul 9, 2015)

My neighbor planted Black Oil sunflower seed, about 2 acres worth. The flowers have bloomed. I walked down to look and I do not see a lot of honeybees on the flowers. But, I do see the bees returning with a lot of pollen.
I am planting my own sunflower patch this week. But I do not want to plant the Black Oil sunflowers.


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## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

A lot of time when I'm checking pollen and nectar sources, I'll check over several days, at different times since not all plants give nectar and/or pollen all day long. Right now the bees are bringing in yellow pollen, primarily from bahia grass, before 1000 AM. They are bringing in orange pollen from crepe myrtle before noon. My guess is those sources stop at those times and they either gather from other sources or only nectar in the afternoon. It might be the same with the sunflowers, nectar and/or pollen stop after it gets a certain temperature.
Just a few thoughts on why you might not see honey bees on the sunflowers. They might be a pollen-less variety also, so the bees would not visit.


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## gezellig (Jun 11, 2014)

Be sure you get an organic seed non GMO. LEMON QUEen variety the bees like.


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

gezellig said:


> Be sure you get an organic seed non GMO. LEMON QUEen variety the bees like.


why does one need to be sure it's organic non GMO seed?


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Yes, it makes sense not to try the oil sunflower when you have plenty already.
Why not try the Russian, mammoth, teddy or the skyscraper. The teddy and
skyscraper they like too. With that many sunflowers I don't think there are enough
bees to cover them all that is why you don't see them on the flowers.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

GMO plants are modified to have several traits. 
1) roundup ready
2) pest resistance (bug killer plants)
3) fungus resistance
4) disease resistance 
There's more too

#2 is what we worry about.


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## Bkwoodsbees (Feb 8, 2014)

Pest resistance would be a problem to any pest trying to eat the plant.


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## nlk3233 (May 19, 2014)

Yes, pest resistance in regards to any bug eating the plant, but also any bug eating part of the plant(pollen, nectar)
The pesticide created by the plant is systemic, made in every cell of the plant.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

gezellig said:


> Be sure you get an organic seed non GMO. LEMON QUEen variety the bees like.


How would one even obtain GMO sunflower seeds unless he got his hands on a test plot.? As of right now there are only 8 commercially available GMO crops. Corn, Soybeans, Cotton, alfalfa, sugar beets, canola, paypa, squash.


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## my2cents (Jul 9, 2015)

I would think there would be a lot of bees on the flowers considering I have 8 strong hives.


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## gezellig (Jun 11, 2014)

There is a section of non GMO seeds at Home Depot for one example, I'm sure there are others but I personally know about these.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

gezellig said:


> There is a section of non GMO seeds at Home Depot for one example, I'm sure there are others but I personally know about these.


are there sunflower seeds outside of the non-gmo section? If they are labeling sunflower seeds non gmo it's a marketing ploy as ALL sunflower seeds should be non gmo unless you have inside contacts/ doing test plots. ( to my knowledge they aren't doing any testing on sunflowers. Their biggest predator is birds and if they start modifying seeds to kill birds they will have huge problems lol


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## my2cents (Jul 9, 2015)

I just planted several 150 foot rows of Sunflower seeds, the type that have stipes and are usually editable. They should sprout on or about the 7th of the month.


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## Bkwoodsbees (Feb 8, 2014)

Nlk..I have done a lot of gardening and small scale farming for 40 years or more. The gmo ..Monsanto hype has really got a lot of people super paronoid. Some accounts rite fully so. Hybrid plants and gmo are 2 different types. In my vegetable plants from seed or sunflowers for instance , when I select plants to save seeds from (non hybrid) I look for fast germination, quality producer, and disease and pest resistance . Some plants of the same variety planted at the same time do better than others. I save seeds from those plants . The next planting same steps followed. Over a few seasons and few years. The plants I have selected seed from and plant yearly are not harmful in any way to honey bees or other local pollenators. So the term pest resistance does not indicate that a plant produces a toxin that some how gets in nectar and pollen. Plants produce nectar and pollen to attract pollenators. I know some ornamental plants do produce toxins but as for non gmo or hybrid or op garden and sunflowers I don't believe this is the case.


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## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

Many sunflower varieties have been bred not to produce pollen (selection, not GMO) - this is primarily for people interested in the flowers who don't want pollen getting everywhere. When you buy, be sure you are getting a variety that produces pollen.


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## jfmcree (Mar 10, 2014)

Regarding #2, I think you may be mixing GMO with neonic. GMO can accomplish #1, #3 and #4. To my knowledge, GMO is not yet killing pests; however, adding a neonicinoid (sp?) coating to the seed does accomplish #2. The neonic coating is separate from GMO, but often sold in combination.

My bees are on a farm growing sunflowers and other plants. The farmer expressed some concern that every day he picked 100+ dead bees out of his sunflowers. They seemed stuck in the nectar and unable to escape. The problem seemed to clear up about a month ago. He now sees very few stuck bees.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Harley Craig said:


> How would one even obtain GMO sunflower seeds unless he got his hands on a test plot.? As of right now there are only 8 commercially available GMO crops. Corn, Soybeans, Cotton, alfalfa, sugar beets, canola, paypa, squash.


You forgot rice.


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