Honeybees and apple harvest in an orchard.

摘要

Honeybee pollination of apple cultivar Renet Simirenko was studied in 2001-2003 in Dagestan, Russia. Mountain Grey Caucasian honeybees(Apis mellifera caucasica) were used in the experiment. The treatments studied were free pollination (control), self-pollination, self-pollination using honey bees, cross-pollination using 1 and 2 pollenizers. Data on productivity (harvest per tree, average weight of a fruit and sugar content) are tabulated. Use of honey bees for pollination in a young orchard (set up in 1993) with trees having a limited number of flowers (average of 3100 flowers/tree) resulted in a 3.7- and a 4.4-fold increase in apple productivity with one and two pollenizer cultivars, respectively, while average fruit weight slightly increased. Use of honey bee pollination for mature trees (orchard set up in 1966) with an average of 32500 flowers/tree, while increasing total productivity by 40 and 56%, led to a decrease in average fruit weight down to 57 and 61.8% for one and two pollenizer cultivars, respectively.