Phacelia: The Queen of Pollinator Plants
Watch Keith and Dale break down phacelia in our 2019 test plots. You'll learn why phacelia attracts beneficial insects better than almost any other plant, how its unique root system improves water infiltration, and what planting timing you need to get it to bloom reliably.
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0:00 [Music]
0:13 Well we've talked about a lot of pollinator plants here in this plot too. Or would this is for sale, you and I would call this the queen of all.
0:21 Pollinator plants—there's nothing better at attracting insects, the beneficial pollinators, the parasitoid type insects. It's highly, highly attractive and one of the reasons.
0:35 Is this color typically the blue and the purple flowers attract more insects than white yellow dude and so it's one of the few things that we have that have really bright vibrant colors but it's.
0:47 Also just extremely fragrant. It's one of the best plants for attracting beneficial insects. So again, this strip is in a monoculture. We would want to see this in a mix, and we'll see that as we
1:01 Look at some of the mixes we have here. But we would want to see a pound or two of this and a max may be a little bit more if it's strictly a pollinator type mix facility. It's I've seen cattle.
1:12 Grazing it's probably not the greatest crazy plant and it's pretty expensive so I would necessarily use it as a forage plant the cattle will eat it and it's got a very fine root system.
1:33 Looks almost like cobwebs. I've actually seen it growing off of the soil surface, especially in heavy clay, and it really changes the water infiltration rate because the first, the first layer that
2:07 Has some a reputed ability to make some kind of what buckwheat does for phosphorus vasilia does for potassium.
2:19 Now one thing about basilia we have it leased up here in Nebraska we haven't.
2:24 Had a lot of luck getting this to bloom when we plant it in July or August. I don't know if we just run out of days or if it's day lengths sensitive, possibly as you move south it might do more but.
2:36 If you want to get this to bloom like what you're seeing here, you really need to be planting this in April, give or take. Probably a main plant he could still work but you start getting.
2:46 Into the summertime it is a cool season plant so it's not going to like to keep the summer nearly as well, and something about the day length of the late summer and early fall we just don't see it flower very much of the ball this and buckwheat. Coarse buckwheat likes the work a bit more warmer temperatures than this. Those are the two biggest nectar and pollen producers all of our cover crop.