Impact of number of bee visits on cauliflower pollination

摘要

Insect pollinators, particularly honeybees, are known to increase yield in Brassica crops that are more or less self-incompatible. Sakharov (1958) reported that the weight of 1000 cabbage seeds produced in the absence of bee visits was only 1.1 g, with a few visits 2.2 g, and with ample visitsundertaken to quantify the increase in yield with increases in the number of bee visits in order to ascertain how many bee visits are needed for maximum yields (Landridge and Goodman, 1982). In Himachal Pradesh, both Apis cerana and A. mellifera are domesticated. Hence a comparison was also made on the effect of number of visits of each bee species on siliqua set and number of seeds per siliqua of cauliflower.