# Targeting Nectar Producing Plants to Compensate for Summer Dirth



## centrarchid

Over the last couple I years I have been looking for plant species that attract lots of honey bee activity after clovers give out and before Spanish Needle, Golden Rods, and Asters come into bloom. The mint family will be promoted. Butterfly weed gets good bee action but does not seem easily grown in large enough amounts. Another is a plant I do not know but was indentified by another party as False Boneset. I am not certain it is correct ID.

This plant has been producing for almost two weeks before the first Golden Rod flowers opened and produces well before the Spanish Needle peaks.

It seems more tolerant of early season than Golden Rod in the same location.

Shown near Golden Rod just starting to bloom.










Plant up close.










Flowers forming what I thing in a pannicle. In some ways this plant resemble Iron Weed which has very little appeal to honey bees and diurnal pollinators in general.


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## burns375

There are a few vines (porcelain berry), white snakeroot, golden honey that the bees like before GR. Silver Lace vine just starting blooming here, bees are working it hard.


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## beepro

Nice white flowers. 
Too bad that the bees don't work them.
I have success with Borage and Nygers that will bloom all summer
long into the Fall. I grow them in succession though. Maybe the Nygers will
fit you better as the Borage will poke you with many tiny hairlike thorns.


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## centrarchid

The white flowers above do get bee activity and sometimes heavily at a time very few other plants support foraging activity. That is why I am trying to figure out what it is.


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## Walliebee

Your plant looks like Tall Boneset (Eupatorium altissimum ). It is related to Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum).

False Boneset is similar in appearance to Tall Boneset. However, it grows shorter and has cream colored flowers while Tall boneset is taller with white flowers.


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## Cyan

Where I live we have Japanese Knotweed. It's an invasive weed that seems to fill the gap from mid to late summer until about mid fall, depending on the weather of course. Some people prize the honey and actually sell it when they get enough of it coming in, but I have no experience with it except to say that the bees around here seem to work it all day long.


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## centrarchid

Walliebee said:


> Your plant looks like Tall Boneset (Eupatorium altissimum ). It is related to Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum).
> 
> False Boneset is similar in appearance to Tall Boneset. However, it grows shorter and has cream colored flowers while Tall boneset is taller with white flowers.


Thank you, Tall Boneset I think it is. Primary value to bees appears to be pollen. The do appear to get nectar as well but abdomens do not become distended.


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## beepro

Those plants look like they can stand the CA yearly summer drought.
And still be able to bloom for my bees. We have no summer blooming plants for
my bees here in the open field. I would like to have some seeds if
you can harvest some for me this Fall when the plants have some seeds.
Can you send me some seeds?


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## centrarchid

I do not think it will be legal with CA side of natural resource / agriculture management without proper permits. It will be inconsistent with MO's export rules on native wildlife. You will have to ferret out what has to be done first. Additionally this has been an exceptionally wet year here so tolerance to drought I do not know.


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## beepro

As long as the seeds are not consider obnoxious/invasive weeds then they are
legal to export to me. Since the goldenrod can grow along them then they are not consider one. I will take some seeds and grow them in my
own backyard to further evaluate them. Put them under an irrigated hose system. 
If they are the invasive type
then I will blow torch them away. Got rid of the gobos and the Borage already.
I have 2 heavy duty torch burners from Harbor that hook up to a propane tank
just for this purpose. The Nygers seeds which many considered to be obnoxious weeds in another state are not invasive here. They cannot thrive without water which in our summer drought will be dead for sure. Only 2 plants was growing in the Spring time from last year's dropped seeds. By mid-summer they were all dead because I did not water them. Anyways, not many seeds can grow here in our hot dry summer months so I would like to try some of those seeds if you can ship them here. I will pay for the postage and have some Nygers seeds to give in return. Let me know if you are interested. Thanks much.


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## FlowerPlanter

A target nectar plant should be focused when there is not much else in bloom. Crop seed is the cheapest and most readily available. 

Sweet clover; can take two years to bloom, heavy nectar producer, blooms mid summer. Reseeds itself. It's already found in most of the US. 
Alfalfa; blooms later during the summer into the dearth. 
Buckwheat; blooms 6 weeks after planting, can be replanted multiple times, require rain.
Chickory; blooms from summer to fall. Drought resistant.


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## tech.35058

In hopes of "doing better" next year, & planting something on my 3 available acres that I could actually sell, instead of watching the bees ignore my offerings.
( I finally got some "man-can" buckwheat, which I actually saw the bees working! 

I was speaking with a local (eccentric) cattle breeder who wants square bale hay. also targeting horse owners, if there is any left more than the cow guy ( my brother in law) wants.
suggestions are Alsyke clover ( I had some blooming the first year after I planted it , but there was something wrong with my plant growing, I did not get a good stand in other places)
supposedly better heat tolerance, supposedly a very heavy nectar producer.

Red clover ... ( _not_ Crimson clover, which actually looks red) allegedly good cattle fodder, but dies back in the heat. A truffle grower told me his orchard was heavy with bees " red clover".
( truffle growers are still in "research mode" so maybe he correctly identified the clover)

Components to make the end product desirable for hay included "green wheat" and forage oats.
also suggested was "winter peas" which would bloom "any time it got above freezing".
are winter peas a source of nectar?
I am in zone 7, I think.
thanks ... CE


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## centrarchid

My efforts have been concentrating on native species. Cultivated species already well vetted and not filling void I am trying to fill. The natives have potential for self sustaining populations if floral management tweaked a little. Seeds of some species are also commercially available.


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## beepro

Has anyone grow the Berseem clover before?
I have not experience with them. And do not know if they
will produce good honey or not. Are they easy to grow in the summer drought here?


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