Shall I put honey on my blooming mammoth sunflower to encourage bees to pollinate it?

Question

Where would I spread the honey on the flower to draw more bees to plollinate the flower. Will if draw ants and other insect that would potentially destroy it? Please advise.

Answer 1

I think the bees and other insects will pollinate it without any added enticement. I'd leave it alone and let nature take its course.

Answer 2

Spreading honey on the sunflower is a bad idea for all of the above reasons. Manually pollinating the flowers with a soft brush mentioned above will work. Watch the plant for a while to see if there are any insects visiting it. If you see honey bees on other plants, they will find the sunflower. There is also a commercial product that helps attract honey bees, see the link below under Sources for more information.

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Answer 3

If you are worried about the level of pollination, why not do it yourself? Use a soft brush to brush the pollen over the stamen, thus insuring a higher pollination rate.
The problem with applying honey is three fold - firstly it may gum up the pollen, perventing it from being spread, and the bees may also get stuck in the drying honey, again failing to pollinate. Plus you may attract undesirable bugs, and maybe encourage mould, which may rot the seeds before they can be harvested.
Either leave it to nature, or do it yourself.

Answer 4

Bees are all over my sunflowers without any added honey. I wouldn't worry about it and am sure bees will take care of the pollination, not to mention other flying insects such as wasps, hornets and flies to name a few!

Answer 5

i really don`t think that is necessary. blooming flowers should be enough to attract bees and others.if you live in area where there are not bee hives ask around to see if a beekeeper is willing to put some nearby. i have about half an acre of sunflowers and see all kinds of flying insects working them.bees arn`t the only ones that help.

Answer 6

The honey bee extinctions are an extremely authentic and extreme venture. There look 2 factors that are at play. One is poisons and different insecticides. As bees assemble pollen from flora they're choosing up poisons and bringing them living house the place it contaminates their meals grant. the 2nd and extra pervasive venture is that the so stated as killer bees, which do no longer produce honey, are infiltrating honey bee colonies, and spoiling the gene pool. some experts are pointing to different issues in bee ecosystems, yet evidence of those different claims is sparse at appropriate.

Answer 7

I wouldn't do it, the application of the honey would "jam up" the flowers sex organs (I hate it when that happens). The bees will find it without any enticement. RScott