Upland cotton
Field crop yielding nectar all summer from floral and extrafloral nectaries; gives pale, fast-setting cotton honey, but pesticide risk is high.
- Nectar
- Good
- Pollen
- Low
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Crystallisation
- Fast
- Height
- 1-1.5 m
- Life cycle
- Annual
🐝 Add to my apiary
Log in to add it to your apiary.Value for beekeeping
Besides the nectaries inside the flower, cotton also secretes nectar from extrafloral nectaries on the leaves and bracts; it therefore attracts bees even before flowering. Secretion is abundant in hot, humid weather and in irrigated fields. In Turkey the main areas are the Çukurova plain, the Aegean (Söke, Menemen) and the south-east (Harran Plain).
Flowering
It flowers in succession over a long period from July to September; each flower stays open for only one day.
Honey and pollen
Cotton honey ranges from pale yellow to whitish, is mildly sweet and crystallises very quickly. Because the pollen grains are large and spiny, bees collect little pollen.
Note for the beekeeper
The biggest risk is heavy spraying; cotton fields are among the places where bee poisonings are common. Do not place hives right at the field edge, and find out the spraying schedule from the farmer and the local agriculture directorate. Remove the hives from the area before the defoliant is applied ahead of harvest.