Fabulous Phacelia

Introduction

August arrived with a sudden change of high summer mood to a distinct feeling of an imminent end to it all. Swallows lined up on the telegraph wires twittering excited conversations like they were planning their long trip back down to Africa. I heard geese heading south too.

Wildfires

Nairnshire never did suffer the severe droughts of the south but wildfires raged across the moors again, this time devastating large tracts of the Cairngorms. The day our dry spell ended and we had soft rain, I opened the front door to the distinct odour of peat. It reminded me of a trip to Skye in the 1960’s when nearly everyone burned peat on their fires. I smelled the peaty air a few miles away in Croy when I went to pick up Leo so it wasn’t someone in Piperhill burning peat on their fire. A neighbour agreed with me that the we were smelling the wildfires that were many miles away to the south.

Varroa

My colonies are reducing their brood nest sizes and cleaning out brood cells. Lots of pale brown immature female mites and mature white male varroa mites are landing on the counting boards. I count with glee and note that the levels are still below treatment levels. That is, for all but one nucleus colony— I must treat it with Formic Pro this week. The varroa drop is too high for a small colony on four frames of brood so I will use a treatment in proportion to the colony size. I will use half a strip for a week to assess varroa drop and then add the other half. I will be happy if they supersede the queen as she was raised in 2024.

Trip to Phacelia Field

Leo and I had a bit of an adventure yesterday. We headed off on a road trip in his pushchair to see the pollinators in a field of phacelia down the road. On the way along a farm track below Piperhill and Blairmore, we saw a couple of men working over what turned out to be the septic tank for the hamlets. I asked what they were doing and we got an enthusiastic tutorial on checking the integrity of these waste storage tanks. I was quite taken with the passion that these young men had for their work. Peering through swirling brown soup on a screen to see the tank wall structure might not be everyone’s dream job but we had just come across an animated teacher and colleague learning how to use highly sophisticated modern equipment and technology with underwater drones to check the walls of the tanks. They were visiting all similar tanks in Scotland giving them the statutory checks. Instead of having to empty every tank and go down wearing special hazard safety gear, as in the past, they could get the job done in almost a jiffy. However, mastering the technology requires much skill and their job is an essential part of maintaining public health which probably contributes to work satisfaction and enthusiasm for it. They reassured me that this tank was in such good condition that another inspection was not needed for another five years.

We pushed our way on to the phacelia field and must have spent an hour watching honey bees, numerous different subspecies of bumble bees, hoverflies and ladybirds. Leo was fascinated by the ladybirds and wanted me to pick them up so he could examine them closely and watch them open their wing cases and fly off when they had had enough attention. It was a very beautiful and memorable experience with the constant background hum and vibration of bees and a glorious scent wafting in the warm humid air. Following wide tractor tracks, I pushed on up to the top of the field hoping to find a way back onto the main road at the top of Piperhill but a field of cows blocked our way and so we returned downhill with Leo walking ahead and squatting down every so often to check out an insect that he spotted.  I know better than go anywhere near cows and calves. Too many people have been severely injured or trampled to death by protective maternal cows.

Phacelia Honey

Have you tasted phacelia, Phacelia tanacetifolia, honey? I’m not sure that I have ever had a full super of pure phacelia honey before, but maybe this year I will. It is higher in glucose than fructose so it will granulate, but the time varies between a few weeks to a few months for unheated naturally granulating honey. It granulates with a fine smooth texture apparently and the colour ranges from light amber to light green.

Green Manure

I’ve known for some time that phacelia is a green manure but not about all its attributes. I found out some more to share with you today. Since phacelia is in the borage family, Boraginaceae, is not a legume and so does not fix nitrogen from the atmosphere like clover and vetches do. It works for the environment in several different ways and for the farmer it improves his soil. Phacelia has a shallow fibrous root system which helps hold soil together, a bit like how netting on new motorway banks does. It also flourishes and grows tall with luxuriant foliage which blocks out light from the weeds and suppresses their growth. Interestingly, when phacelia is grown in a wild flower mix, such as a Tübigen, it out competes the other flower species because it establishes itself more quickly and attracts more insects. The dense foliage actually protects the soil from rain and erosion.

For beekeepers, the big advantage is a potentially large honey crop because the flower is a copious secreter of nectar. The pollen looks a vivid dark blue in bee pollen baskets but when mixed with honey bee saliva and enzymes it looks a paler mauve colour as in the photo above. Rain-washed pollen on my varroa boards is pale purple/mauve too.

If the crop is grown as a green manure it is usually cut while still fairly young with soft juicy stalks, otherwise older tougher stalks take longer to break down in the soil. It can also be chopped up small and left on the soil surface as mulch where it replenishes soil by returning nutrients and organic matter.

Because phacelia is not closely related to most other vegetable crops it is an excellent plant to use in a crop rotation plan because it is not associated with the disease risk that comes about from growing the same plant family in the same field every year which allows plant pests to thrive.

We can grow phacelia in our gardens too for pollinators, soil structure improvement, weed control and just beauty and perfume. If we need a nitrogen fixer then we need to grow something like clover or vetch from the Fabaceae family.