PRELIMINARY DATA ON THE MELIFEROUS CAPACITY OF SOME FOREIGN SUNFLOWER HYBRIDS

Abstract

The soil and climate conditions in Romania are favorable for the sunflower crops. The sunflower is one of the main large culture crops in Romania and the most important oilseed plant, being on the third place as cultivated area, after corn and wheat. This makes the sunflower the most important melliferous crop plant, ensuring the last great production harvest before winter. This importance results both from the period and the duration of flowering, and from the large number of flowers per unit of area and the great nectar secretion. Yet, the melliferous capacity in sunflower is affected by the climate conditions [3], fact ascertained by beekeepers over great variations in time and space of honey productions. Likewise, the melliferous capacity in sunflower differs from one hybrid to another [1][2], the beekeepers being interested in the melliferous capacities specific to various sunflower hybrids cultivated in our country. The current work depicts the results of researches on the melliferous capacity on a variety of 4 sunflower hybrids cultivated over 5 periods, under the conditions of the southern part of Romania, (15 km North-East from Bucharest) and under the climate conditions of 2007. The studied sunflower hybrids were: Fleoret OR, Melodi, Sunko and Arena. By the cultivation over different periods it was intended that the flowering period to overlap periods with different climate conditions, so to determine the melliferous potential in the hybrids studied in different climate conditions and to note the way in which the vary according to the climate conditions.

Keywords

• sunflower hybrids
• melliferous characteristics