Sweet clover as a honey plant - honey productivity and cultivation agrotechnics

 

Sweet clover as a honey plant is very important for bees. Bees collect a lot of honey and pollen from sweet clover. Beekeepers distinguish several types of sweet clover important for bees - white sweet clover, yellow sweet clover, toothed sweet clover and others. Sweet clover is not only a honey plant, but also an important fodder plant, sweet clover is a phytomeliorant that restores the fertility of saline soils, sweet clover is used as a green manure plant, sweet clover is a medicinal plant, and sweet clover also finds many other areas of application. In agriculture, one-year-old sweet clover and two-year-old sweet clover are used, which can be included in almost any crop rotation, as a green manure and phytomeliorative crop. The sweet clover honey plant has so many positive qualities that it is necessary to tell about it in more detail in the article. Read to the end - it will be interesting!

Content

• • Sweet clover yellow honey plant
• • Sweet clover yellow honey plant description
• • Sweet clover yellow like a honey plant
• • Honey sweet clover yellow
• • Which sweet clover is the best honey plant white or yellow
• • Sweet clover yellow honey plant agricultural technology
• • Yellow sweet clover as a honey plant when to sow
• • White sweet clover
• • White sweet clover description
• • Honey productivity of white sweet clover
• • Melilot white honey plant cultivation agrotechnics
• • Melilot officinalis application
• • Toothed sweet clover
• • Sweet clover annual honey plant
• • Video honey plant sweet clover annual for beekeeping
• • Sweet clover Crimean honey plant
• • Hairy sweet clover
• • Sweet clover fragrant honey plant
• • Sweet clover honey

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Sweet clover yellow honey plant

 

Sweet clover yellow honey plant description 

Sweet clover yellow honey plant description of its following is a biennial herbaceous plant of the legume family (Fabaceae) with a height of more than 1 meter, often thickets of yellow sweet clover reach 1.5 - 2 m in height, with a branched woody dense stem.

The leaves are alternate trifoliate, leaflets ovate or lanceolate, of which the middle one is on a longer petiole, the lateral ones are sessile, the stipules are lanceolate. Yellow sweet clover flowers are yellow in color and are collected in long and narrow racemes, each raceme can have from 30 to 70 flowers. The flowers are fragrant, with a pleasant smell that attracts bees. The fruit is an oval, wrinkled, single-seeded, yellow bean. Yellow sweet clover can often be found along roads on various kinds of wastelands, hillsides and ravines, on saline lands. Sweet clover grows well on stony, loamy, sandy soils, tolerates soil salinity well.

Sweet clover yellow is an excellent fodder plant, which is also a phytomeliorant. Beekeepers can successfully use it for sowing on the slopes of gullies, to strengthen the walls of ravines, on saline lands, where yellow sweet clover helps to reduce soil salinity and lead them into crop rotation in the future. Beekeepers can sow yellow sweet clover along the forest edges, in forest belts, in inconveniences. Sweet clover can be perfectly integrated into grain crop rotations when sown under the cover of other crops, such as barley, oats, phacelia, rapeseed and other crops. Sweet clover is an almost obligatory element in crop rotations in rice check fields. Sweet clover yellow can be used for reclamation and cultivation of various types of meadows. In addition, the yellow sweet clover has good medicinal qualities, so the yellow sweet clover plots can also be used to collect medicinal raw materials.

 

Sweet clover yellow like a honey plant

As a honey plant, yellow sweet clover is valued for its early flowering period. To the question of yellow sweet clover when it releases nectar, you can answer that sweet clover blooms 7-20 days earlier than white sweet clover, how much earlier depends on the region. Flowering of yellow sweet clover begins in the first half of June in the conditions of the Rostov region or in the 3rd decade of June in the conditions of the Leningrad region and lasts 35-41 days.

In Bulgaria, yellow sweet clover blooms in the first half of June.

 

Yellow sweet clover honey productivity

The honey productivity of yellow sweet clover is 140-230 kg per 1 hectare of continuous thickets. The yellow sweet clover releases a particularly large amount of nectar in the second year of growth. The honey productivity of yellow sweet clover fluctuates during the flowering period, so the first flowers in the brush can release 3.1 mg of nectar (per 100 flowers), and the last flowers in the brush release 1.6 mg of nectar, the average nectar production of 100 flowers is 2.4 mg. Considering that there are more than 1 million flowers per 1 square meter, sweet clover yellow as a honey plant is a wonderful plant.

The most important factors affecting the honey productivity of yellow sweet clover are air temperature and air humidity. Yellow sweet clover flowers begin to release nectar at temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius, the largest amount of nectar is released by yellow sweet clover flowers in clear calm weather at 25 degrees Celsius and relative humidity of 60%.

If during the honey harvest the temperature drops below 20 degrees Celsius, then the yellow sweet clover stops producing nectar. Yellow sweet clover nectar is highly sugary, transparent, with a strong smell of hay, easily accessible to bees in flowers.

The sugar content in nectar has the influence of humidity and air temperature, with an increase in air humidity and a decrease in temperature, the amount of sugar in the nectar increases. With a decrease in humidity and an increase in temperature, the amount of sugar in the nectar in yellow sweet clover flowers decreases. The largest amount of nectar in the flowers is observed in the period from the opening of the anthers to the maturation of the stigma. Nevertheless, yellow sweet clover as a honey plant is valuable because negative weather events affect it to a lesser extent than other honey plants, therefore, in arid steppe regions, especially with saline soils, sweet clover can become the basis of honey collection.

Yellow sweet clover blooms for a long time and can last up to 41 days, during this period bees can collect up to 40 kilograms of honey from one hive, cases have been repeatedly noted when, on average, from 73 to 103 kg of sweet clover honey was collected per bee colony. The yield of nectar is average, the control hive often shows gains of 2-2.5 kg, can increase its weight up to 4 kg in 1 day, although there are references to 9 kg of nectar yield per day.

In Bulgaria, you can get 145-190 kg of honey per hectare from yellow sweet clover.

The yellow sweet clover is a good pollen-bearer; bees also collect a large amount of pale yellow pollen from the yellow sweet clover.

Yellow sweet clover flowers are well visited by bees, in addition to the presence of a large amount of nectar and pollen readily available to bees, this can also be explained by the fact that yellow sweet clover flowers emit a pleasant smell of coumarin, which attract bees.

If the yellow sweet clover is cut down at a height of 15 centimeters from the ground, then the growing sweet clover will begin to bloom and will be reduced until late autumn, thus, a supporting honey collection can be created for the bees during the period of preparing families for wintering.

By sowing yellow sweet clover at different times and tinting, you can create a continuous honey flow from sweet clover throughout the beekeeping season. The farm that can do this will make a profit both through the sale of sweet clover for livestock feed, the sale of seeds, as well as the sale of monofloral sweet clover honey and sweet clover pollen. Pure sweet clover honey is considered a good varietal honey and has every chance of being sold at higher prices, with a competent marketing policy.

When pollinating yellow sweet clover by bees, it must be taken into account that the productive years of bees in the field should not exceed 500 m. As shown by numerous experiments at a distance of 700 m from the hives, the number of bees on flowers is two times less than the number of bees on flowers 150 meters from the hives .

Honey from sweet clover is yellow, light amber or white in color, honey tastes good, has a strong aroma. See more Donnikova honey.

 

Which sweet clover is the best honey plant white or yellow

Many beekeepers often ask which sweet clover is the best honey plant, white or yellow?

When asked which sweet clover is the best honey plant, white or yellow, the answer will be quite simple, all sweet clover are excellent honey plants. Moreover, in addition to white and yellow sweet clover, there are others - toothed sweet clover, fragrant sweet clover, Crimean sweet clover, Caspian sweet clover, Volga sweet clover and other honey sweet clover. Each sweet clover as a honey plant has its own characteristics.

 

Sweet clover yellow honey plant agricultural technology

Seeds of sweet clover are hard-stoned, so crumbled seeds can lie in the ground for a long time without sprouting in the first year and will gradually sprout over several years. Therefore, yellow sweet clover seeds must be scarified before sowing, and soaking sweet clover seeds in water at room temperature for 5-6 hours also gives good results.

If sweet clover seeds are treated in this way, then seedlings appear 5-7 days after sowing.

Yellow sweet clover as a honey plant when to sow

The question of sweet clover as a honey plant when to sow can be answered as follows, it is necessary to proceed from the climatic conditions of the area around the apiary.

The yellow sweet clover is not afraid of low temperatures, therefore, in the conditions of the Rostov region, the sowing of the yellow sweet clover is completed no later than the third decade of April. If it is not possible to complete the sowing in the spring, then sweet clover as a honey plant when sown can also be sown in the summer after heavy rains.

In the spring, before sowing, the plot is leveled, additional soil cultivation is carried out, before sowing the soil is rolled with an annular roller, and after sowing, rolling is repeated. This will provide more friendly seedlings of sweet clover. The yellow sweet clover blooms profusely in the second year, in the first half of June, if you cut the sweet clover during the budding period, to a height of 12 - 15 cm, then after the regrowth, the sweet clover will bloom and bloom until late autumn.

 

Sweet clover white honey plant

Sweet clover - Melilotus albus Medik.

  Sweet clover white honey plant description

 

White sweet clover is an annual or biennial melliferous herbaceous plant from the legume family (Fabaceae), 30-150 cm high with a tall stem. The leaves of sweet clover are compound, trifoliate, with oblong-lanceolate leaflets and subulate stipules. Donica flowers are small, white, moth-like, collected in long axillary racemes. Sweet clover grass has a fragrant smell and a salty-bitter taste. The sweet clover is widespread everywhere. Sweet clover winter hardy and drought tolerant plant. Sweet clover is suitable for cultivation on solonetsous soils, while it contributes to the removal of salts from the arable soil layer.

 

Honey productivity of white sweet clover

 

Sweet clover flowers are white, have a pleasant smell, emit a lot of pollen and nectar. White sweet clover blooms in the second decade of June in the conditions of the Ryazan region. White sweet clover blooms for 45-50 days in June and August, however, if there is heat and drought, the flowering period may be shorter. Each sweet clover flower lives for one or two days until it is pollinated, after pollination of the flower it dries up and blossoms in the next one in the brush. Features of the white sweet clover as a honey plant is that in the first 2 weeks of flowering, it fades from 2/3 to 3/4 of all flowers. Therefore, it is important for the beekeeper not to miss this period, as well as for farmers who mow sweet clover for livestock feed during the budding period. If sweet clover is cut two to two and a half weeks after the start of mass flowering, then the stems will not yet have time to harden, and beekeepers will already have time to get a good honey flow.

The honey productivity of white sweet clover is very high, from 1 hectare of wild thickets of white sweet clover bees collect up to 200 kg of honey. From one hectare of cultivated sweet clover, bees are able to collect up to 600 kg of sweet clover honey. The honey productivity of the white sweet clover strongly depends on agricultural technology, as well as the region and climatic conditions.

In Bulgaria, you can get 140-270 kg of honey per hectare from white sweet clover.

For the purposes of beekeeping in the conditions of the Ryazan region, wide-row sowing with a seeding rate of 4-5 million seeds per hectare is the most optimal, which ensures nectar productivity at the level of 465-488 kilograms of sugar per hectare.

White sweet clover, when mowing, is able to grow and subsequently bloom until late autumn. Honey collections from white sweet clover can be called average, on the day the weight gain of the control hive can reach 2 - 4 kg from ordinary crops and 1.5 kg from crops of sweet clover aftermath. 

Honey collected from sweet clover flowers belongs to light varieties of honey and has a pleasant taste. See the article sweet clover honey for more details

An infusion of sweet clover herb is used for fevers, malaria, colds, as a diuretic for dropsy, to increase milk secretion in lactating women. Ointments from flowers and leaves of sweet clover have wound healing properties.

 

Melilot white honey plant cultivation agrotechnics

 

The optimal incorporation when sowing sweet clover seeds into the soil is 0.5-2.5 cm (less on heavy soils, deeper on light soils), the presence of moisture in the soil is very important. The seeds of the white sweet clover are covered with a hard shell, so the seeds need scarification. Scarification at home is carried out with sandpaper manually, or in a concrete mixer with sandpaper glued to the walls. You can soak the seeds for 5-6 hours. Seed germination reaches up to 90% after treatment. Sweet clover can be introduced into any crop rotation. White sweet clover is sown under the cover of winter rye, spring wheat. It is not advisable to sow sweet clover to oats and barley, which can oppress it. However, good results are obtained by sowing sweet clover in row-spacings 30 cm wide to oats. A good result is obtained by sowing sweet clover to millet. Sweet clover gives very friendly seedlings in the case of late autumn sowing. But we must not allow seedlings of sweet clover to germinate before winter. In spring, sweet clover should be sown early. Seeding rates of sweet clover are 14-20 kg per hectare for row sowing and 6-8 kg/ha for wide-row sowing. Mowing sweet clover is carried out at a height of 20-22 cm, these are optimal conditions for the subsequent development of the plant.

 

Melilot officinalis use

 

  Infusion and decoction of sweet clover have expectorant, emollient, carminative, as well as analgesic, wound healing and soothing properties. Sweet clover, due to the content of coumarin, depresses the central nervous system and has an anticonvulsant effect. In folk medicine, an infusion of herbs is used for chronic bronchitis, insomnia, migraines, ailments caused by high blood pressure and heavy menstrual bleeding. Outwardly, an infusion of herbs in the form of washings, baths and compresses is used for abscesses, abscesses, boils, inflammation of the mammary glands and rheumatism of the joints. Crushed and boiled with fat or oil, the flowers increase the ripening of abscesses. Crushed leaves are applied to tumors to soften them and to wounds to draw out pus.

 

Sweet clover toothed honey plant

  Sweet clover is a biennial leguminous herbaceous plant. The root of the sweet clover is strongly thickened, with a large number of thick lateral roots of the first and second order. The stems of sweet clover are often relatively short, about 30-90 cm high, less often up to 140 cm high, the stems are erect or ascending, often on the stems there are numerous lateral very long branches, hollow and more herbaceous than in other types of sweet clover. The leaves of the serrated sweet clover are large.

The lower and middle leaves are more often oblong-elliptical, broadly oval or oblong-obovate, less often the leaves are almost rhombic, 3.0-4.5 cm long, 2.0-2.5 cm wide. The leaves of the upper tiers are linear-oval in shape, less often shortenede, oval, with thin veins that stand out strongly, the leaves are strongly serrated from the base to the top of the leaflet, the denticles are needle-shaped, on each side of the leaflet there are 15-25 cloves. The tip of the leaf of the sweet clover is cut off and ends with a tooth. Flower racemes are short (4-10 cm), dense, many-flowered (30-70 flowers), flowers on a short 2-3 mm peduncle. Sweet clover corolla toothed pale yellow or dark yellow, sweet clover flowers drooping, relatively small, flower sail 3-6 mm long, somewhat longer than flower wings, calyx with 5 almost equal teeth, slightly pubescent. Toothed sweet clover pods are round or ovoid, 3-5 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, with a short sharp nose, beans are compressed, bare, reticulate-wrinkled, pods are often 2-seeded, unlike other types of sweet clover, toothed sweet clover with clearly defined keel. Seeds of the sweet clover are small, rounded, 1.2-1.6 mm long and 1.2-1.5 mm wide, greenish-yellow or brown. Sweet clover is a cross-pollinated plant readily visited by bees. The sweet clover blooms for a long time from June to September, the beans ripen in July-October.

Toothed sweet clover is a good honey plant. Bees collect a lot of nectar and pollen from sweet clover flowers.

The toothed sweet clover is common in the European part of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, Eastern and Western Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia.

Toothed sweet clover prefers saline lands and grows in meadows, often grows in solonetsous, less common in tugai, on wet solonchaks, grows along the bottoms of beams, sometimes occurs as a weed plant in crops from forest-steppe to semi-desert zones, grows in mountains reaches medium belts along the banks of streams and rivers.

Toothed sweet clover is a valuable fodder plant, its ability to grow on saline soils and solonetzes is especially valuable. Sweet clover is readily eaten by animals. Toothed sweet clover is considered a non-coumarin "sweet" kind of sweet clover. Sweet clover is of great interest in breeding to create valuable coumarin-free varieties of sweet clover. Toothed sweet clover increases soil fertility.

 

Sweet clover annual honey plant

  Sweet clover is an annual relatively new plant in our area. Sweet clover annual was bred by breeders in the USA. Sweet clover annual is unique in that:

• Annual sweet clover blooms in the first year after sowing,

• Annual sweet clover in terms of honey productivity significantly exceeds biennial varieties of sweet clover, sweet clover honey, one of the best varieties of honey.

• Annual sweet clover is ideal for sowing various waste lands, salt marshes, fields, etc.,

In Bulgaria, from the annual white clover you can get 80-130 kg of honey per hectare.

The annual sweet clover is well combined in various crops with other crops (corn and others), enriching the feed mixture, and at the same time gives the bees a good honey flow.

• Annual sweet clover is used as animal feed,

• Annual sweet clover has the most valuable medicinal properties.

Sweet clover is an annual drought-resistant crop, the vegetation period of sweet clover is 120...140 days, the stems are straight, branched, green in color, with anthocyanin color in the lower part. The annual sweet clover plant reaches a height of 1.8–2.5 m. The flowers of the annual sweet clover are white, bisexual, irregularly shaped, drooping on short peduncles, the flowers are collected in inflorescences - a loose brush 15–26 cm long, the annual sweet clover fully blooms in 2– 2.5 months after sowing. Flowering of the annual sweet clover lasts for two months, long flowering occurs due to the uneven opening of flowers and a huge number of flowers. On one plant of the annual sweet clover, there can be up to 1500 pieces. flowers, and on one hectare of continuous herbage there are about 1.7 billion flowers. Sweet clover annual is able to produce nectar in any weather, throughout the day from morning to evening. The honey productivity of the annual sweet clover ranges from 300 to 800 kg/ha. Even in hot summer, honey productivity does not fall below 300 kg/ha. Sweet clover honey is one of the valuable light varieties of honey, as it has excellent taste qualities and it is believed that sweet clover honey has pronounced medicinal qualities. Sweet clover honey is ideal for wintering bees, as it does not crystallize for a long time.

The annual sweet clover propagates by seeds; the sweet clover does not lose seed germination for more than 10 years. Beans sweet clover annual round-ovoid shape, reticulate-wrinkled surface of pale yellow or brownish-gray. Seeds are yellow with a greenish tint. The size of the sweet clover seed is 1.7 ... 2.2 mm. The mass of 1000 seeds is 1.8 ... 2.12 g. Sowing of the annual sweet clover begins in early spring and continues until the end of May. Sowing of sweet clover can also be carried out before winter, if it is necessary for the flowering of sweet clover to begin in spring, in this case it is necessary to sow sweet clover around the middle or end of October so that the seeds of sweet clover do not sprout. With summer sowing of sweet clover, flowering will continue until frost. The seeding rate of annual sweet clover is 20-25 kg per hectare with use of sweet clover for fodder purposes and 15 kg per hectare for seed production. Seeding depth of sweet clover seeds is 2-3 cm. Before sowing, determine the germination and the presence of hard-stone seeds of sweet clover. If the content of solid seeds is more than 15%, a few days before sowing, sweet clover seeds must be scarified. To protect sweet clover seeds from soil pests, root rot, bacterial diseases and mold fungi, sweet clover seeds are treated with fentiuram 20 days before sowing - 3-4 kg / t. Immediately before sowing in a warehouse or under a canopy, the seeds are treated with rhizotorfin in a dry method with moisture. The annual sweet clover is unpretentious to soils, but grows better on soils rich in lime, and does not tolerate acidic soils. The annual sweet clover has the ability to dissolve saline soils, it enriches them with nitrogen. The annual sweet clover can grow even in the sand. The annual sweet clover is a very promising plant for developing the soils of the forest-steppe, steppe and semi-deserts. Like any legume, the annual melilot enriches the soil with natural nitrogen, restoring and increasing its fertility. About a month after sowing, when the sweet clover plant reaches 50 cm, it seems to stop growing, taking root to a depth of 2 meters. The root of the melilot is taproot, thickened in the upper part, well developed in the arable layer and deeply (up to 1.5–2.0 m) penetrates the soil. Thanks to the most powerful root system, sweet clover is able to develop a large green mass, break up the soil, and release a large amount of nectar. The very structure of sweet clover flowers prevents the evaporation of nectar in the heat and washing off after rain.

The annual sweet clover is also valuable as a fodder plant. In terms of its fodder qualities, it is not inferior to such fodder grasses as alfalfa and clover. The annual sweet clover is used for hay, haylage, silage, grazing, for sederation and strengthening of soil slopes. Harvest of green mass 300 and more centners per hectare. In addition to all of the above, annual sweet clover is a wonderful medicinal plant.

Annual melilot when cultivated for seeds is very responsive to irrigation. Its critical period falls on the phase of mass flowering, when the average daily moisture consumption reaches 1.6-2 m per day. Carrying out two vegetative irrigations in the phase of mass flowering contributes to the formation of more flowers on plants, which increases honey collection and increases the yield of sweet clover seeds.

Ripe sweet clover seeds crumble easily, which can lead to large crop losses. Therefore, when the harvesting phase of seed ripeness is reached, separate harvesting is carried out. Direct combination of sweet clover due to uneven flowering and maturation of beans on the brushes is unacceptable. When harvesting, it is necessary to carefully seal the harvester in order to reduce the loss of small sweet clover seeds.

After cleaning, the seeds should be stored in dry warehouses at a moisture content of 12-13%.

Sweet clover Crimean honey plant

Crimean clover is a leguminous plant with a two-year development cycle. The stems of the Crimean sweet clover are light green or bluish in color, straight, branched, 30-80 cm high, slightly pubescent or glabrous. Stipules subulate. The leaves of the Crimean sweet clover are rhomboid, obovate or oblong-wedge-shaped, obtuse at the end. Inflorescence of the Crimean sweet clover raceme 5-10 cm long, loose, lengthening in the presence of fruits. Crimean sweet clover flowers 5-7 mm long, drooping. Calyx about 3 mm long, pubescent, notched to half. Calyx teeth linear-lanceolate, pointed. The corolla of the flower is white. The flag, wings and boat of the flower are the same length. The ovary of the flower is pedunculated, pubescent with short adpressed hairs, with two ovules. Young beans of the Crimean sweet clover are hairy, mature beans are naked, 4-7 mm in length. Legs of beans when ripe are light brown in color, folded-wrinkled. The seeds of the Crimean sweet clover are smooth, about 2.5 mm long, light brown in color, 1, occasionally 2 in each pod. Crimean sweet clover blooms from June to July, bears fruit in July-August. Crimean sweet clover is a good honey plant. The sugar productivity of 1 flower is 0.0158 mg, the sugar productivity of 1 ha of continuous thickets of the Crimean sweet clover is 70.4 kg.

The Crimean sweet clover is common in the Crimea, especially often along the southern coast. Single plants grow in the vicinity of Simferopol and Kerch. Grows on screes, on mountain slopes, on coastal rocks, in bushes, in vineyards, rarely along roadsides.

 

Hairy sweet clover

 

Sweet clover is a leguminous plant with a two-year development cycle. The stem of the hairy sweet clover is straight, from 0.5 to 1 m and higher in height, the stem is covered with short adpressed hairs, especially strongly in the upper part of the plant. The stipules of the hairy sweet clover are narrow, subulate, entire. Petioles of the sweet clover leaf are short. The lower leaves are obovate or almost rounded. The upper leaves are oblong, narrower. Bottom part clover leaf is covered

short adpressed hairs, the upper part of the leaf is less hairy. The edge of the leaf is serrated, each leaf has 8-10 cloves on each side. Donica inflorescence raceme 3-4 cm long, covered with hairs, elongating during flowering. The flower of the hairy sweet clover is about 5 mm long, the calyx of the flower is half incised, covered with hairs. The corolla of the flower is pale yellow. The flag, boat and wings of the flower are the same length. The ovary is 2 times shorter than the style, with two ovules. Hairy sweet clover beans 1.5 mm thick, 6 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, 1.5 mm thick, drooping, with a pointed apex, obovate. Valves of sweet clover beans are reticulate-wrinkled, covered with stiff hairs. Parts of the corolla remain on the fruit after ripening. Sweet clover seeds are smooth, dark in color.

Hairy sweet clover blooms in June, bears fruit in July.

Hairy sweet clover, like other types of biennial sweet clover (white and yellow), an excellent honey plant, bees actively visit the sweet clover to collect nectar. Depending on the conditions of the year, honey yield from sweet clover is 100-250 kg/ha. The advantage of hairy sweet clover as a honey plant is abundant nectar secretion even in the dry period, although the duration of the flowering period in hairy sweet clover is less than that of yellow and white sweet clover, only 7-10 days.

Hairy sweet clover is common in the Caucasus. Hairy sweet clover grows on valley pebbles, on cliffs of seaside rocks.

At present, hairy sweet clover is actively introduced into culture as a fodder, green manure, phytomeliorative and melliferous plant.

 

Sweet clover fragrant honey plant

  Sweet clover is a fragrant biennial, rarely annual leguminous herbaceous plant. Sweet clover is common in Western and Eastern Siberia, the Far East, Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The root of fragrant sweet clover is relatively short, lateral branches are well developed. The stems of fragrant sweet clover are straight, rounded, thin 4-7 mm in diameter, low in height 90-110 cm, less often reaches a height of 120 cm, the stems are very tender - herbaceous, light green in color, slightly branched, there are a large number of stems in the bush 10- 18 pcs. Leaflets of the lower and middle tiers are round or round-obovate, with an average size of 2.2-2.5 cm in length, 2.0-2.3 cm in width, the upper tiers are broadly oval 0.9-1.7 cm, leaves thin, unequally and indistinctly finely serrated. Flower brush short 7-9 cm long, dense, 30-50 flowers in a brush. The fragrant sweet clover flowers are large, the sail of the flower is 5-8 mm long, 4-8 mm wide, equal to the wings and slightly longer than the boat, the corolla of the flower is pale yellow, the pedicel is short 1.5-2.0 mm, often red. Fragrant sweet clover beans are small, about 4 mm in length, reticulate-wrinkled, the beans end in a sharp straight beak, usually gray. The seeds of fragrant sweet clover are small, broadly oval, with a very short root, yellow-greenish in color, often without a pattern, sometimes with a pattern in the form of purple spots.

Fragrant sweet clover blooms from June to September, ripening beans from July to October.

Sweet clover grows on sandy loams and sands, grows on saline meadows and along river banks, more often in mountainous areas, in the foothill zone with a sharply continental climate with severe winters.

Sweet clover fragrant fodder plant. Deserves great attention for introduction into culture as a very highly nutritious and cold-resistant plant. The fodder from the fragrant sweet clover is of better quality than from the white sweet clover. Sweet clover fragrant good honey plant large flowers, abundantly visited by bees, form a large amount of pollen and nectar. The sugar productivity of one flower is 0.0145 mg of sugar, the sugar productivity of 1 hectare of continuous thickets is 147.7 kg.

Sweet clover increases soil fertility. High-coumarin forms of aromatic sweet clover are used in the tobacco and alcoholic beverage industries.

sweet clover honey

Sweet clover honey is one of the expensive light varieties of honey and is distinguished by high taste qualities, it is often referred to as a reference honey variety. Read more about sweet clover honey.