Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => GARDENING AROUND THE HOUSE => Topic started by: Carriage House Farm on October 18, 2007, 11:15:48 pm
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I have about four weeks left of weather suitable enough to plant in. That might even be pushing it. I need to find a source that is selling Dandelion seeds in quantities larger than 1/2 and 1lb. Maybe more along the lines of a 50lb bag.
I am looking to cover about 100 acres. :-D
I know it sounds crazy but...yeah...if anyone knows of a place, please let me know, I am continuing my search. I've found a couple possibilities but you never know what other people might know.
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Richard, yup, you are nuts!!! If you would have had a request several months ago, I could have been your supplier, but......long gone the dandelion and any quest to collect the seed. These are noxious weeds in my mind at my place. They are everywhere in the summer (I have even made some dandelion wine that I think I should get around to finishing off, it is probably more than ready for racking, I forgot about it until just now). I have never seen a bee on them. I think that there are far too many other nectar sources during that time for my bees to bother with them, but they are pretty, until.............the seed sets to the wind. Good luck. I am sure you will have someone responding on where to get these seeds from. Have a wonderful and beautiful day, best of our life. Cindi
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Well, its either that or clover and clover is priced high right now. THanks though.
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http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/search.aspx?scommand=search&search=dandelion
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Randy, that looks like a really cool company, I've bookmarked that page. Have an awesome and beautiful day. Cindi
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Hmmm...couldn't you just plant two? In a year all 100 acres would be covered :roll:
From what I've read and heard, dandelion honey isn't very good. Unless you need to build up lots of hives.
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noxious--injurious to health or morals.
all parts of the dandelion are edible. the greens are high in vitamin a contain thiamin, riboflavin, abscorbic acid, calcium, sodium, potassium and protein. roots can be sliced and boiled in salted water or roasted and ground for a tea or coffee substitute. early settlers prized it for it's tonic effect. saved many a person from starvation too. it is food for all manner of wildlife from the smallest songbirds to moose and grizzlies. oh, and the afore mentioned wine. noxious --NOT side note; emerald dandelion in seed catalogues is actually chickory a relative but not dandelion.
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I used to buy dandelion seeds from Gurney's, but recent catalogs have not listed them. I collect them from peoples yards. Especially those good people who don't mow their lawns.
The only time to eat the greens is when they first grow. They quickly get bitter when the leaves turn darker green. The roots can be roasted and ground for "coffee".
>These are noxious weeds in my mind at my place.
They are not only beautiful and edible, but a Godsend for the bees. Early late and middle honey flows every time it rains. My guess is they have saved more bee lives than any other flower.
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I have used Johnny's Seeds for stuff I cannot find locally. I just ordered some stuff for larger scale gardening.
I like Dandelions myself. They are nice to look at and when they go to seed and you get an breeze its like cottonwood.
I have 320 acres of farm land. Most of it is woods or bottomlands (fields that flood). I will be keeping bees next year but have not started.
My initial reason for getting them was to help out my gardens, another business I am developing and my existing fruit trees and clover fields.
Planting small quantities of certain types of flowering plants is not beneficial other than aesthetics (which is a fine reason...I enjoy seeing everyone's bee and flower pics), but I would think if done on a certain scale would beneficial. I have no idea what that scale is. I am completely new to bee keeping with ZERO experience, just a lot of reading and discussions and a whole lot of ideas.
I bale, in a year, roughly 300 acres of alf-alfa and clover. I cannot imagine if in addition to this there were 120 acres of millions and maybe Billions of dandelions.
Plus, would that not be a sight to behold?
Wow.
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Dandelion seeds are only $340 a pound! Maybe I should raise those instead of bees...
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A pound is a whole LOT of dandelion seed....a WHOLE lot. I was thinking it would have been more like alf-alfa. Wow.
Well, a 1/4 pound will probably do the trick, especially since its a perennial, it would probably end up cover 2 to 4 times the broadcast area the first year alone. :)
350.00 is steep.
Clover, or any trefoil for that matter, is far less expensive.
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http://go.netgrab.com/secure/kelleystore/asp/product.asp?product=260
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this is not the season for it but i think a shop vac with a long enough extension cord could easily gather many dandelion seeds. i'm not so sure about how one would go about planting them especially in large plantings.
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this is not the season for it but i think a shop vac with a long enough extension cord could easily gather many dandelion seeds. i'm not so sure about how one would go about planting them especially in large plantings.
You broadcast them. I have no idea what the coverage per pound is. It has to be huge, like 10s of thousands of square feet or more.
http://go.netgrab.com/secure/kelleystore/asp/product.asp?product=260
Thanks for the link Old Timer. I can still get clover at my local seed supplier with no problems...and cheaper. I do appreciate it though.
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<They are not only beautiful and edible, but a Godsend for the bees. Early late and middle honey flows every time it rains. My guess is they have saved more bee lives than any other flower.>
I honestly wish that I could entirely agree with this statement. I believe that in many areas this statement is 100% true and don't doubt it one little tiny bit. But for my area it is entirely false.
We have several species of dandelions that grow throughout the summer. And trust me, I look and look and look, trying to see if they hold any interest whatsover for the honeybees. I have never seen a bee on any that I have observed. Never. Not to say that they aren't foraging on the flowers when I am not loooking.
But "I spend most of my time in the gardens and only sleep in the house". I know that because someone (remember, my husband's name is "someone", gave me a plaque that said so :roll: ;) :) :) He is the "someone" that always gets blamed for doing something or other that annoys me :) :) :)
If I were to want to plant a plant that is great for the bees, that self-seeds like a demon from the very depths of that dark place, I would plant these annuals:
Borage
Phacelia Tanacetifolia
They are beautiful, spread like nothing on this earth and are covered from dawn to dusk with all types of beneficials, particularly the honeybees. They bloom all summer, the bloom is continued when the mother plants fail because of the seeds that have dropped, germinated and are blooming again in about 6 weeks time. They begin to grow and set flowers early in the year as well.
Those would be my choice for masses of acres of planting. Have a wonderful and beautiful day. Cindi
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I only see bees on dandelions if there is absolutely nothing else out there to work.
Thing is, early on in the season, there are no borage plants for them, no calendulas, no salvias (what they're working right now), but there's dandelions. Once everything else goes into full swing they abandon them. During our recent drought even the dandies stopped blooming, so they're no help during dryness.
I do love them, though, and let them go wild in the backyard (except in the veggie garden, I don't want them interfering with my food :lol:)
Edited to add: I have to say, however, I'd never ever pay for dandelion seeds!
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>I only see bees on dandelions if there is absolutely nothing else out there to work.
Yes, but when there is nothing else to work, there are almost always dandelions...
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Oh how I wish the bees would work the dandelions here, I have so many. Even in the apiary here are massive clumps that are probably 30 inches high, I never seen any on them, no matter how many times I look, these massive dandelions are also everywhere else on my property too, but paid no heed by the girls. Sad thing, I still let them bloom, and they set seed and live on, but I wish my girls would work them, I only see tiny little fly things, even those are few. Go figure this one eh? Have a wonderful and great day on our planet, Earth. Cindi
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Dandelions flower early and are pretty much ever bearing, still flowering until the frost kills the buds back.
It is a good source of pollen, chances are if you see a bee on a dandelion it is there for the pollen not the nectar.
Dandelions greens make good salads and boiled greens like chard or spinach.
1 person's flower is another person's weed and visa versa. My personal approach is: If it's edible it's not a weed.
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Brian, what do you think? I have still much borage and phacelia blooming like there was no tomorrow. Only problem is: no weather that the bees can fly (but maybe tomorrow). Is there any nectar or pollen for the bees to gather in these late bloomers, or does the nectar/pollen diminish to such an extent that there are flowers, but no nectar, because of the lack of the strength of the sun's rays. Any thoughts on this? I would be certainly more than curious, and you know, curiosity never got this cat :) :) :) Have a wonderful and great day. Cindi