Melon as a honey plant

The melon melon, Latin name Cucumis melo L. Melons are grown for their delicious fruits, but melons are important as a honey plant and pollen plant. Responds well to pollination by bees.

Content

• Description of the honey plant melon
• Melon as a honey plant
• Is melon a honey plant?
• Melon honey plant flowering period
• Benefits of melon for bees
• Melon honey productivity
• melon fruit

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Description of the honey plant melon

Melon honey plant is an annual monoecious plant from the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) with a height, or rather a length of 1-3 meters.

The stem of the melon is creeping, with tendrils that take root.

Melon leaves are large, heart-shaped, whole or five-finger-lobed.

Melon flowers are pale yellow, unisexual, with a deeply five-parted corolla. The corolla of the melon flower is light yellow.

Melon fruits are large, fragrant, with white, greenish or orange tasty pulp. Many varieties of melons have been created, which differ greatly in size, taste, aroma and chemical composition of the fruit, as well as ripening time.

Fruits contain sugars, extractive and nitrogenous substances, fiber, ash substances, fats, volatile aromatic substances and vitamins - folic and nicotinic acids, vitamin C (up to 10-40 mg%).

Melon as a honey plant

Is melon a honey plant?

Is melon a honey plant? Yes, a melon is a honey plant, of course, one cannot call a melon a good honey plant, but everything is known in comparison. As a rule, bees willingly visit melon flowers.

Melon honey plant flowering period

When does a melon bloom like a honey plant? Melon begins to bloom like a honey plant 40-45 days after sowing. Melon blooms in June - July.

What is the flowering period of melon honey plant? The flowering period of melon lasts 1.5-2 months. The male flower functions for one day, the female flowers live for two, maximum three days.

Benefits of melon for bees

What are the benefits of melon for bees? Melon as a honey plant gives bees the opportunity to carry out a supporting honey collection, bees collecting nectar and pollen from a melon are less swarming and it is possible to save colonies for honey collection from sunflower or other late honey plant. As a rule, melons are massively grown in the southern regions, and melon flowering occurs at a time when the heat destroys other honey plants. So melon as a honey plant brings a lot of benefits to bees.

It is important to note that melon is a cross-pollinating plant and bees are excellent pollinators of melon flowers. It is only important to properly organize the pollination of melon crops by bees.

How to properly organize pollination of melon crops by bees.

Melon honey productivity

How much honey can bees collect from a melon. One melon flower releases 2.4 mg of sugar in the nectar. The nominal honey productivity of melon is small and is in the range of 20-30 kg per 1 hectare, which gives the bees a supporting honey collection.

melon fruit

Melon fruits quench thirst well and have a calming effect on the nervous system. Melon melon is used for rheumatism, gout and as a diuretic, as well as a mild laxative for constipation and hemorrhoids. An aqueous infusion of melon seeds has a diuretic property and is used for kidney diseases. Melon in the past was given for scurvy, for a melancholy state (mentally ill). A decoction of the fruit is also used as a good external cosmetic for various skin defects: spots, freckles, acne.