Milk Thistle (seeds / bee forage) - 0.5 kg
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Milk thistle, Latin name Silybum marianum, is a very attractive plant for bees. It is a medicinal plant that is very prickly and grows to a height of one to one and a half meters.
Milk Thistle – Seeds for Bees 0.5 kg
Milk thistle (Latin: Silybum marianum) is among the plants that bees seek out and has its place around the apiary. For beekeepers, it is valuable mainly because it provides nectar and pollen in late summer, when many common species have finished blooming and a forage gap may occur. Depending on local conditions, it typically blooms from July to September, helping colonies replenish their stores and maintain good condition before the winter period. Milk thistle is also known as a traditional medicinal plant; before full lignification of the stand, the plant can also be used as a fodder crop.
What Milk Thistle Looks Like
It is a distinctive thistle-like plant that grows to approximately 1 to 1.5 meters and is unmistakable in the stand. From the root system grows a strong, upright stem, more abundantly leafed in the lower part. The leaves are alternate, sessile, sharply toothed and bear prickly spines on the edges. Also typical is their light marbling. The flower heads are conspicuous, spiny and bear tubular flowers in light to dark red-violet shades, which reliably attract pollinators even from a greater distance.
The fruit is an achene with a pappus approximately 1.5–2 cm long, thanks to which the seeds easily spread to the surroundings. One flower head typically contains about a hundred achenes. The seeds can be left for further sowing or used in traditional herbal processing (often cited for liver support and body detoxification).
Cultivation and Sowing
Milk thistle is undemanding and suitable even for beginning beekeepers. Sowing: Sow seeds directly in the bed in rows with a spacing of approximately 50 cm, to a depth of 2–3 cm. The most suitable time is from the end of March to the end of April, as soon as the soil warms up to at least 5 °C. Germination typically takes about three weeks; you can speed it up by soaking the seeds in warm water for several hours before sowing. It blooms depending on the region from July to September.
Parameter Table
| Seed Type | Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) |
| Package Weight | 0.5 kg |
| Main Benefit | Late bee forage (pollen and nectar) |
| Blooming Period | July – September |
| Plant Height | 1 – 1.5 meters |
| Sowing Time | End of March – end of April |
| Row Spacing | 50 cm |
| Sowing Depth | 2 – 3 cm |
| Germination Time | Approx. 3 weeks (can be shortened by soaking) |
