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Create and maintain pollen and nectar plots
The guidance on this page is for SFI pilot participants only. Please visit GOV.UK for the official Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme guidance.
Find out how land managers can increase numbers of pollinating insects and boost the chance of crop pollination by creating flowered areas.
If you’re completing this action as part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, how you do it is up to you.
The advice on this page can help you get better environmental and business benefits, but you do not have to follow it to get paid.
About pollen and nectar plots
A pollen and nectar plot is an area of flowers where insects can get the food they need to survive.
Aim to create a plot with a variety of flower species, so that you provide food for different types of pollinating insects. Manage your plot to make sure it provides pollen and nectar for longer.
Benefits of creating a pollen and nectar plot
By creating a plot you will:
- support insects like bees, butterflies and hoverflies
- increase pollination of food crops like fruit and field beans
- provide food and shelter for farmland birds and their chicks
- help protect neighbouring crops by providing habitat for insects that feed on pests like aphids
Choose your location
You can sow your plot as a:
- block within a field
- margin at least 6 metres wide along the edge of a field
The best locations are:
- sunny
- low in soil fertility, as grasses and weeds can dominate fertile areas
Space your plots as evenly as you can across your land. Pollinators will use them as stepping stones to reach other plots or nectar sources. For example, 5 evenly spaced plots that are at least 0.5 hectares (ha) each will allow pollinators to travel across 100ha of farmland.
Avoid sites that:
- have persistent weed problems, as weeds will compete with the flowers
- have rare arable wildflowers, as they need cultivation to thrive
- are remote or difficult for you to access and manage
- are shady, as this can lead to poor establishment of flowering plants
How to sow pollen and nectar plots
When to sow
You can sow your seeds at any time of the year, if the conditions are right for germination.
If you plan to sow in autumn:
- sow as early as possible into a warm, moist seedbed before frosts or prolonged wet weather set in
- take advice from your seed supplier on frost-hardy annuals for your mix
What to sow
Sow a minimum of 10 flowering species, at least 4 of which should not be legumes.
Do not include grasses in your mix, as they will compete with your germinating flowers.
This general-purpose seed mix is suitable for most soil types.
| Flower species | Inclusion rate (%) |
|---|---|
| Alsike clover | 7 |
| Bird’s-foot trefoil | 10 |
| Black medick | 5 |
| Common vetch | 20 |
| Sainfoin | 40 |
| Red clover | 7 |
| Lucerne | 5 |
| Sweet clover | 5 |
| Common knapweed | 1.5 |
| Musk mallow | 1 |
| Oxeye daisy | 1 |
| Red campion | 1 |
| White campion | 1 |
| Wild carrot | 1 |
| Yarrow | 0.5 |
Sow it at:
- 15kg/ha for light or medium soils
- 20kg/ha for heavy soils
You can adapt this mix to best suit your land and local conditions.
Talk to your seed supplier if you have strongly acidic or alkaline soils. They can also advise you on an overall sowing rate for the mix you choose.
You must use organic seed if you farm organically or are converting to organic farming. You’ll need approval from your organic certification body to use non-organic seed.
On historic features, do not grow plants whose roots could damage the features. These include deep rooted legumes like sainfoin and lucerne.
Sow your seed
Control perennial weeds before you sow your seed.
Shallow drill or broadcast (scatter) seeds onto the surface of the seedbed.
If your equipment is not suited to sowing low quantities of seed, mix your seed with an inert carrier like barley meal or poultry chick crumb. This will help with seed flow and achieve a more even distribution.
Mix the seed well before sowing each plot.
If the soil is dry enough, roll immediately after broadcasting to:
- improve the seed-to-soil contact
- keep in moisture
- reduce the risk of slug damage
How to manage pollen and nectar plots
During establishment
Check your plot regularly in the first few months after sowing. If establishment is poor, you might need to re-sow part or all of your plot.
Broadcasting or shallow drilling into the existing plot may be enough for small areas. You might need to cultivate lightly first to create some bare ground. If your plot has failed on a larger scale, you might need to start again.
If you need to control slugs, use ferric phosphate pellets if possible. These reduce the risk of water pollution and are less toxic to other wildlife. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Speak to your seed supplier or agronomist if you’re unsure what to do.
Cut your plants
Birds, nests and eggs are protected by law. You must check the plot before cutting. If you see signs of nesting birds, delay cutting until birds fledge.
Cut at least twice during the first year to control weeds and help your plants to establish. Make your first cut when weeds are just above the sown species and starting to shade them out.
Cut at a height which:
- removes the top growth of any weeds
- avoids dislodging the roots of your seedlings
- prevents harm to wildlife like young hares
If your mix includes early flowering annuals like black medick, common vetch, crimson clover or phacelia, cut either:
- early, when the plants are less than 30cm high and do not have flower buds
- late, after they’ve finished flowering
Make sure your cutting path does not force wildlife into a central area where they cannot escape the final pass of your machinery.
Where possible you should remove the cuttings. This helps to:
- reduce the risk of smothering your plants
- limit weeds like nettles and wild grasses
If you cannot remove the cuttings, make them as fine as possible by using a heavy-duty flail during dry conditions.
Your plot after the first year
After the first year, your plot should be fully established.
Cut half of the plot each year to extend the flowering season. Check your plot regularly in the spring and cut as soon as you see the first flower buds starting to form. Late May to mid-June is usually the best time for this.
The cut plants will take time to recover and will produce flowers later than the uncut half. This means that nectar will be available to pollinators later in the summer.
Alternate which half you cut each year. Cut the whole area once your plot has finished flowering.
Over time, the number of plants flowering in your plot will reduce and the value to pollinating insects will fall. When there are fewer than 5 species flowering each year, re-establish your plot. This is likely to be around 5 years after establishment.
Graze with livestock
You can use livestock grazing instead of the early cut on half of your plot from year 2 onwards.
Make sure stock is removed before the sward is grazed below 10cm to:
- stop any damage to your plants
- give the plants time to recover and flower later in the season
You can graze the whole area:
- after, or instead of, your end-of-season cut
- in early spring, before the flowers have started to grow, to help stop grass weeds from growing
Make sure grazing does not churn up or compact the soil.
Broad-leaved weeds
Do not apply herbicide that kills broad-leaved weeds across the whole of your plot. This would also kill or damage your pollen and nectar species.
If you have broad-leaved weeds like common ragwort, docks, nettles or thistles that are hard to control, you can:
- spot treat with herbicide using a knapsack sprayer, hand-lance or weed wiper
- cut the affected area
- remove them by hand
Control grass weeds
Wild grasses can suppress your flowering plants and reduce the supply of pollen and nectar.
If you have a problem with grasses on your plot, you can use a selective herbicide that will kill grass weeds but not your sown flower species.
Pesticide sprays
Be careful when you apply insecticide or herbicide to neighbouring crops as these could kill your flowering plants or pollinators. A chemical-free buffer zone like harvested or unharvested low input cereal, or a grass margin alongside or around your plot, will protect it from spray drift.
What successful pollen and nectar plots look like
You’ll see:
- plants starting to flower in spring, providing food for early emerging insects like bumblebee queens
- a variety of pollinating insects like bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and wasps
- flowering plants in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes throughout the summer
- plants like common knapweed and musk mallow continuing to flower into late summer or early autumn
