Sunflower Pollination in North Dakota by Dennis vanEngelsdorp

North Dakota is among the top sunflower producing states in the United States. There are two types of annual sunflower, oilseed and nonoil. Oilseed sunflower is a source of high quality seed oil, which is used in cooking, salads, paints, and as an industrial lubricant. Seed from the nonoil type is used as bird feed or roasted and marketed as a confectionary product.

Honey bees are the primary pollinating agents of sunflowers almost wherever they are grown. A shortage in honey bees would mean small crop yields for farmers planting sunflowers. Although bumble bees and other wild bees do pollinate sunflowers, evidence has shown that honey bees are much more effective than wild insects. However, the combination of both groups of pollinators (honey bees native insects) has proven to provide a better crop set then if they had been pollinated by just one group. For more inofrmation on honey bees and sunflower pollination visit: gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/book/chap9/sun.html 
by Mike Andree
Research Technician
Penn State University