For the development of beekeeping, honey-bearing lands are needed. Bees are needed to pollinate buckwheat and sunflower crops in order to get a good harvest of seeds. Honey collections can be crops of forage crops, such as alfalfa and one of the cultivated wild subspecies of sainfoin - sandy. Apiaries are taken to the fields during mass flowering to collect honey, before mowing the green mass. Bees are also needed to obtain honey plant seed material.
Cultural history
The botanical name of the plant “sainfoin” has synonyms that explain its distribution area, method of growth, and characteristic features:
- Siberian;
- Don;
- Dnieper;
- Tanaitic;
- sandy pennyweed;
- hare peas;
- red gorse;
- white cornflowers.
It is assumed that sainfoin began to be cultivated as a cultivated plant in the southern pastures of France in the 15th century. Shepherds noticed that animals who ate this plant never suffered from bloating. According to some sources, Transcaucasian sainfoin was known for its qualities as a fodder crop in the 10th century.
Description and characteristics of sainfoin
There are over 150 wild species in the Sainfoin family.
Of these, three species are cultivated:
- vicofolia/seed;
- Transcaucasian;
- sandy.
Vicofolia is an annual plant grown primarily as a fodder crop. The Transcaucasian species is superior to the sowing variety in terms of green mass yield, as it produces two cuttings per summer. During flowering, there may be honey collection before the first cutting.
Sandy under favorable conditions retains the ability to grow for up to 8 years. It differs from the sowing and Transcaucasian varieties in its more powerful root system, tallness and adaptability to frost and drought. It is grown in the Volga region, Western Siberia, and the North Caucasus as a fodder and honey crop.
Cultivated sandy sainfoin is a herbaceous plant reaching a height of up to 0.8 meters. The powerful, rod-shaped root system can reach a depth of up to 3 meters in loose soils. The main array of roots is concentrated at a distance of 20 centimeters from the soil surface. The peculiarity of the root structure gives the plant the ability to absorb poorly soluble phosphorus and calcium compounds from the soil.
The stems are straight, thick, not branched, and become coarser at the base with age.The leaves are compound, petiolate, from 6-10 pairs of oblong small (up to 3 cm) leaflets, formed from nodes on the petiole and the upper leaflet.
The flowers are large, pink or white, resembling a butterfly, collected in a large (15 to 20 cm) spike-shaped raceme. The brown-brown fruit has the shape of a bean, up to 7 mm in size, inside which there is one seed. The flowering period is from May to July. Pollination by insects, including bees. In nature, sandy sainfoin grows on all types of soils, except swampy, flooded or with groundwater close to the surface.
Thanks to its well-developed root system, the plant is drought- and frost-resistant.
Sandy sainfoin is able to overwinter in conditions of little snow in the winter at sub-zero temperatures below 40 degrees. Sainfoin leaves do not die after the temperature drops to -12 degrees.
Types of honey plant
The seeded sainfoin has one varietal hybrid.
Transcaucasian sainfoin has 7 hybrids:
- Akhalkakaksky;
- Pink 89;
- Flugistion;
- Altair;
- Krasnodarsky 90;
- Kirovogradsky;
- North Caucasian.
- North Caucasian.
Sandy has 2 hybrids: Sandy 1251, Sandy improved.
Where does it grow?
Subsequently, its habitat spread to Central Europe (France, Italy), through the forest-steppe zone of the European part of Russia to Transbaikalia and Yakutia, as well as in Kazakhstan and the east of Central Asia.
The wild species is divided into three subspecies depending on the region of growth:
- European;
- Siberian;
- Fergana
The European range ends with the Cis-Ural zone. Siberian is distributed from the Urals to Transbaikalia and North-Eastern Kazakhstan.
In the state register of plants of the Russian Federation, wild sainfoin is listed as an endemic:
- Central;
- Volgo-Vyatsky;
- Central Black Earth;
- North Caucasian;
- Srednevolzhsky;
- Nizhnevolzhsky;
- Ural;
- West Siberian;
- East Siberian region.
The Fergana subspecies grows in Southeast Kazakhstan and eastern Central Asia. Varietal hybrids of sandy sainfoin are zoned in Ukraine, Moldova (Sandy 1251), Northern Kazakhstan (Sandy improved). In the first case, the variety is mid-season and has good frost and drought resistance. The northern and northeastern regions of Kazakhstan have more severe climatic conditions, so a late-ripening second hybrid variant, tolerant of temperature changes and lack of moisture, is bred here.
How to grow honey plants correctly
Sainfoin is cultivated in forage, field and soil-protective (grass-covering slopes) crop rotations. To increase the mass of the above-ground part of the plant, superphosphate is added to the soil during sowing. The soil is pre-treated with cultivators to destroy the roots of weeds.
Seeds undergo pre-sowing preparation:
- are cleared of impurities of other seeds;
- in 2-15 days they are treated from gray and white rot, fusarium, anthracnose;
- on the day of sowing, they are treated with nitragine and molybdenum fertilizers.
The sowing depth depends on the type of soil: 3-4 cm for heavy soil, 4-7 cm for light soil. Seeds begin to germinate at a soil temperature of 1-2 degrees, the optimal temperature is 18-25 degrees. For active development, plants require loose, high calcium content, loamy and sandy soils; the best option is calcareous chernozems. On highly saline, acidic, waterlogged soils, sandy sainfoin produces weak shoots.
Flowering time and honey productivity
Sandy sainfoin has a spring type of development. Seeds are sown under the cover of other crops (2-3 days before sowing) or without cover. Under the cover, the honey plant grows more slowly, the flowering phase begins the next year, at the end of July. With no cover, flowering time occurs in May-July. By this time, apiaries are taken to fields or grassed slopes for pollination and honey collection. Productivity can reach up to 100 kilograms of honey per hectare.
Healing properties
Sandy sainfoin has long been used by folk healers; traditional medicine uses plant materials to obtain auxiliary medicines. Beneficial substances are contained in all above-ground parts, including seeds, and roots of the plant.
Leaves, stems and flowers are harvested during the flowering period. Seeds and roots - in autumn.
The medicinal value of the plant lies in the presence in it:
- flavonoids;
- glucose;
- sucrose;
- raffinose;
- amino acids;
- carotene;
- ascorbic acid;
- fatty oils with solid fatty acids;
For medicinal purposes, infusions and decoctions are prepared from plant raw materials, which are prescribed in combination with other medications to regulate blood sugar and cholesterol in case of disruption of the gastrointestinal tract. The high content of ascorbic acid gives tonic and restorative effects. Amino acids help restore the body after a serious illness and prolonged strenuous physical effort.
Sandy sainfoin is included in herbal preparations prescribed by traditional healers for insomnia, depression, and neurotic conditions. The roots of the plant are used in homeopathy and traditional medicine to treat prostate problems and impotence.Preparations made from sainfoin are contraindicated for children, pregnant and lactating women, as well as persons who cannot tolerate any plant component.
