Relationship Between Honeybee Workers and Plum Orchards II. Its Role as A pollinator in Fruit Set and Quality

Abd Al-Fattah, M. A.; Elshenawy, I. E. E; Tharwat, E. E.; El-Dereny, Sarah H.

doi:10.21608/eajb.2017.12107

Relationship Between Honeybee Workers and Plum Orchards II. Its Role as A pollinator in Fruit Set and Quality

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Economic Entomology & Pesticides, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.

² Department of Pomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

³ Department of Beekeeping, Plant Protection Research Institute, Agriculture

10.21608/eajb.2017.12107

Abstract

The present study was carried out on three plum cultivars; Golden Japanese, Hollywood and Santarosa during two successive seasons 2012 and 2013 to study the influence of different pollination treatments on fruit set and fruit characteristics of the studied cultivars.
Several sequential treatments were applied from 1 bee worker visit/ flower up to ten bee visits/ flower besides zero visit (self-pollination/ control) and open pollination treatments. The relationship between the foraging activity of honeybees in cross-pollinated flowers of plum cultivars and both fruit set and the main fruit characteristics were investigated. Bee foragers expressed significant benefit to plum cultivars on final fruit set as well as on fruit characteristics; fruit weight, fruit volume and Total Soluble Solids (T.S.S. %) improved fruit quality through decreasing fruit firmness.
Results of the present study showed direct improvements as a result of increased bee visits/ flower which were reflected on significant increase in fruit set when comparing self-pollination with open pollination. Results were 18.7%, 86.7%; 27.5%, 95.7%; 28.6%, 91.3% for season 2012 and 19.7%, 87.5; 26.9%, 96.0%; 26.1%, 94.7% for season 2013, for the three studied cvs., respectively.
Moreover, fruit characteristics showed positive effects of increasing bee visits/ flower were expressed as significant improving in fruit weight which increased by3.02, 2.26 and2.13 folds for Golden Japanese, Hollywood and Santarosa cultivars, respectively.
Consequently, significant improvements in final fruit set, fruit volume, T.S.S. % and firmness were recorded and presented. Thus, it can be recommended from results of the present study to maintain sufficient honey bee colonies in plum orchards that offer at least ten bee visits/ flower to increase fruit set and to achieve satisfactory improvement in yield and fruit characteristics.

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