Watermelon
A summer crop with separate male and female flowers that relies on bees; seedless varieties in particular need intensive bee visits.
- Nectar
- Medium
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0,3-0,5 m
- Life cycle
- Annual
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The small, pale yellow flowers of watermelon give moderate amounts of nectar and pollen. A female flower needs a large number of pollen grains to set a full fruit; poorly visited flowers drop or produce misshapen fruit. Seedless varieties produce no pollen of their own and rely on bees carrying pollen from pollinizer rows planted between them.
Flowering
It flowers from June to August; the flowers open in the morning, wilt in the afternoon and last one day.
Honey and pollen
It is not known as a single-flower honey; large watermelon areas can contribute to summer honeys. No reliable record of the pollen load colour was found.
Note for the beekeeper
For pollination 1-3 colonies per hectare are recommended; in seedless production a figure near the upper limit is preferred. If there is no water source in the field, putting water at the hives helps keep the bees on the crop.