The effect of the limitation of insect pollination period on the fruit set and yield of quince cultivars (Cydonia oblonga Mill.)

The effect of the partial and/or complete limitation of the insect (bee) pollination period was studied in three consecutive years at 6 quince cultivars. Quince is greatly sensitive to the limitation. Complete limitation of insect pollination resulted in no yield and also a partial limitation of the insect pollination period (exclusion of the bees at the first or at the second half of the blooming) depressed the final set and the yield by 60-70% at least or more, sometimes down to no yield. No real correlation was found between the mean mass of fruits and the fruit set. The mass of fruit seems to be rather a character of the cultivars. A loose but significant correlation was established between the intensity of honeybee visitation and the consequent yield of quince. As much as some 4-5 and 8-10 honeybee visits are needed a day on one flower to achieve the required optimal fruit set that has been declared to be 20-25% for quince in the literature. These are extremely high bee visitation figures, accordingly, no doubt the commercial quince plantations require much higher number of honeybee colonies than other temperate zone fruit tree species to supplementary pollination

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The effect of the limitation of insect pollination period on the fruit set and yield of temperate-zone fruit tree species

International Journal of Horticultural Science ◽

10.31421/ijhs/6/1/76 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Author(s):

P. Benedek ◽

J. Nyéki ◽

M. Soltész ◽

Z. Erdős ◽

I. Skola ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tree Species ◽

Fruit Set ◽

Fruit Trees ◽

Fruit Tree ◽

Temperate Zone ◽

Bee Pollination ◽

Fruit Species ◽

The Individual ◽

Compatible Pollen ◽

Bee Colonies

The duration of effective bee pollination period was limited by caging flowering branches for shorter or longer time in blooming fruit trees in a number of experiments during the past decades. In the case of self-sterile fruit species and cultivars (apples, pears, quinces, some plums, some sour cherries) even partial limitation of the effective duration of bee pollination period significantly reduced the fruit set and the yield. In the case of self-fertile apricots the effect of the total and also the influence of partial limitation of bee pollination period was the same as in the case of the mentioned self-sterile fruits. On the other hand, in the case of another self-fertile fruits (some plums, some sour cherries), the effect of partial limitation of bee pollination period was usually small, but complete (or incomplete but strong) limitation of be pollination usually resulted in a strong reduction of yield. This means that not only self-sterile but also self-fertile fruits clearly depend on insect (bee) pollination. This is because pollen dehiscence of anthers and the receptive period of stigmas do not overlap in time within the individual flowers. Stigmas in self-fertile trees, therefore, need pollen carried by bees from another flowers of the same tree (or compatible pollen from another trees). Accordingly, additional bee pollination (moving bee colonies to the orchards in flower) is needed to all kinds of temperate-zone fruit tree species when bee visitation of plantations is not abundant enough for some reasons.

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Nectar production of quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) cultivars

International Journal of Horticultural Science ◽

10.31421/ijhs/6/3/108 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

Author(s):

P. Benedek ◽

T. Szabó ◽

J. Nyéki

Keyword(s):

Tree Species ◽

Extreme Values ◽

Significant Negative Correlation ◽

Fruit Tree ◽

Temperate Zone ◽

Sugar Concentration ◽

Cydonia Oblonga ◽

Nectar Production ◽

High Sugar Concentration ◽

Definite Difference

Nectar production of six quince cultivars were measured during three consecutive years. The nectar production of quince can be regarded to be small compared to other temperate zone fruit tree species since quince flowers contained 1.07 ± 0.06 mg of nectar in average. The extreme values, however, ranged between 0.1 and 7.3 mg/flower and this indicated that the nectar production was highly variable. The distribution of the nectar production was definitely skew because low values were definitely much more frequent than the highest ones. Our findings do not corroborate the earlier statements on the high sugar concentration of quince nectar. We found some 21-27% sugar in average, only. The normal distribution of the sugar concentration also indicates that the typical sugar concentration may be between 20-30%. Accordingly, the sugar concentration of quince nectar is rather low compared to other temperate zone fruit tree species (except pear). There was a significant negative correlation between the amount of nectar and its sugar concentration in quince flowers in all of the three years of the study (r= -0.51, n=37, p<0.02 in 1996, r= -0.57, n=28, p<0.1 in 1997, r= -0.35, n=9 I, p<0.001 in 1998). No definite difference was established between the nectar production of quince cultivars. Nevertheless, one cultivar tended to produce less and two other ones produced somewhat more nectar in average than the rest of the 6 cvs investigated but the extreme values of nectar production of cultivars overlapped in most cages.

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Flower characters and self-fertilization capacity in relation to the bee pollination at sour cherry cultivars

International Journal of Horticultural Science ◽

10.31421/ijhs/12/2/644 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

Author(s):

P. Benedek ◽

Z. Szabó ◽

T. Szabó ◽

J. Nyéki

Keyword(s):

Tree Species ◽

Fruit Set ◽

Sour Cherry ◽

Fruit Tree ◽

Seasonal Effects ◽

Bee Pollination ◽

Nectar Production ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Self Fertilization ◽

Fertilization Capacity

Detailed studies and comparisons were carried out on those flower characters of sour cherry cultivars that may affect bee pollination of flowers. Flower characters of sour cherry are fairly similar to other temperate zone fruit tree species. Their relatively small flowers distinguish the Cigánymeggy-types of cultivars from the flowers of tart cherries cultivars that are conspicuously larger, almost as large as the sweet cherry flowers. The relative position of flower organs was much more variable according to the season than according to the cultivars. So the differences were rather the consequences of seasonal effects than of variety features of sour cherry cultivars. As far as individual cultivars are concerned differences in the nectar production and the sugar concentration are revealed rather between groups of cultivars than between individual cultivars. The pollen production of flowers was extremely changeable in consecutive years. Most honeybees collected nectar at sour cherry flowers; pure pollen gatherers and mixed behaviour bees were half as frequent but differences among the behaviour of honeybees according to cultivars cannot be stated. The fidelity of honeybees to sour cherry is less expressed than to some other fruit tree species. Accordingly, it is very strongly suggested to take the competitive effect other plant species (weeds) flowering in and around the orchard carefully into account when organizing additional bee pollination in sour cherry plantations. Several sour cherry cultivars possess more or less self-fertilization capacity but this is greatly changeable according to the season. It has been proved that self-sterile sour cherry cultivars are sensitive even on the partial restriction of the effective time of bee pollination and it is to be stressed too that even in the case of partly self-fruitful cultivars bee pollination is also vital in yield formation because medium or strong restriction of the effective bee pollination period is of a definite negative effect on their fruit set and yield. In years with unfavourable weather the yield can dramatically be reduced sometimes down to nil. However, very high fruit set is also unfavourable because a negative correlation was detected between the final set and the mean mass of fruits.

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Insect pollinator dependence of shea (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn.) in the Guinea Savanna zone of Ghana

Ecological Processes ◽

10.1186/s13717-019-0202-8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Latif Iddrisu Nasare ◽

Peter K. Kwapong ◽

Dzigbodi Adzo Doke

Keyword(s):

Tree Species ◽

Fruit Set ◽

Shea Butter ◽

Vitellaria Paradoxa ◽

Insect Pollination ◽

Monetary Value ◽

Guinea Savanna ◽

Insect Pollinator ◽

Insect Pollinators ◽

Savanna Zone

AbstractShea (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn.) is a multipurpose tree species indigenous to the Sudano Sahelian zone of Africa and occurs as the most abundant economic tree species in northern Ghana. The edible oil (shea butter) extracted from shea kernel is ranked as the most economic product of the species. Although fruit set and yield of shea are known to be influenced by insect pollination, the actual contribution of insect pollinators to its reproductive success has rarely been studied. This study estimated the percentage insect pollinator dependence and monetary value of insect pollination per bag of shea kernel (85 kg) in the Guinea savanna zone. Open pollination and insect exclusion treatments were applied to the flowers of 18 randomly selected matured shea trees and observed from the onset of flowering to fruit maturity. Proportion of total production value attributed to insect pollination approach was used in estimating the monetary value of pollination per bag of shea kernel with the average market price as proxy. The study revealed an insect pollinator dependence of 77% and 73% for fruit set and dry kernel yield, respectively. Mean number of fruit set per inflorescence varied significantly between insect-excluded and open-pollinated inflorescences (p < 0.05). The monetary value of insect pollination was estimated at GH₵ 73.21 (US$ 18.67) per bag of kernel as of August 2016. Shea is a high insect pollinator–dependent species and the conservation of insect pollinators would be critical to the sustainability of yield.

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Studies on the insect pollination of fruit tree species and on closely related topics in Hungary: a bibliography of research publications

International Journal of Horticultural Science ◽

10.31421/ijhs/6/3/137 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

Author(s):

P. Benedek

Keyword(s):

Fruit Trees ◽

Fruit Production ◽

Fruit Tree ◽

Bee Pollination ◽

Insect Pollination ◽

Nectar Production ◽

The Past ◽

Research Publications ◽

Fruit Orchards ◽

New Research

In the past decades fruit production has become more and more intensive and so the interest towards the bee pollination of fruit trees has increased in Hungary. Thus insect pollination research has become more intensive in the eighties and in the nineties. Recently, high density fruit orchards are planted of dwarf trees at more and more farms in Hungary and these need highly controlled growing practices involving insect pollination, too. This is a new challenge of insect pollination research in Hungary. So it seems to be worth to compile a list on research publications having been appeared so far to create a basis to the ongoing new research. Besides papers strictly on the insect pollination of fruit trees publications on some closely related topics, first of all on the nectar production and on other flower characteristics of fruit tree cultivars that directly influence bee activity have also been included on the list.

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The effect of the fruit set on the mean mass of sour cherry fruits

International Journal of Horticultural Science ◽

10.31421/ijhs/7/1/241 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

P. Benedek ◽

T. Szabó ◽

J. Nyéki

Keyword(s):

Fruit Set ◽

Fruit Size ◽

Sour Cherry ◽

Moderate Level ◽

Bee Pollination ◽

The Mean ◽

Different Levels

Experiments were conducted with four sour cherry cultivars three of that were self-fertile and one was self-sterile. Different levels of fruit set were obtained by limiting, the bee pollination period. The limitation of the duration of the effective bee pollination period definitely affected the fruit set of all the four cvs. The mass of individual fruits seemed to be related to the final set but this relationship has not find to be definitely expressed statistically at that moderate level of maximum fruit sets (10-14 per cent at the maximum) we obtained in the experiments. For this reason, further research is needed to explore that level of fruit set that can notably reduce the fruit size (mass) to an undesirable extent.

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Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) visitation at the flowers of quince cultivars (Cydonia oblonga Mill.)

International Journal of Horticultural Science ◽

10.31421/ijhs/6/3/109 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

Author(s):

P. Benedek ◽

T. Szabó ◽

J. Nyéki

Keyword(s):

Foraging Behaviour ◽

Fruit Set ◽

Reliable Estimate ◽

Bee Pollination ◽

Cydonia Oblonga ◽

Nectar Production ◽

Variable Nature ◽

Flower Density ◽

High Set ◽

The Relationship

Studies were made on the bee visitation of 6 quince cultivars and on the foraging behaviour of honeybees at quince flowers for 3 consecutive years. The bee visitation was highly intense because both the plantation and its surrounding was overpopulated by honeybee colonies. Some 5.5 bee visits were counted in average at 50 opening quince flowers in 10 minutes and some 9.7 flowers were visited of the 50 ones observed meanwhile. This equals some 7 bee visits per flower per day per in good weather. Bee visitation, however, was variable and it was greatly different in the three consecutive years with fairly favourable weather. Some cultivars tended to be more and others less visited by honeybees than the others but these differences were not consequent at each occasion. No consequent relationship between the weather and the bee visitation of quince trees could be recognised. It was concluded that .other factors were responsible for the variable nature of the bee activity at quince. Most honeybees tended to collect pollen (51.6% in average for the 3 years) and usually much less gathered for nectar only (19.9%), and the rest of them were mixed behaviour foragers gathering for both (28.5%). There were some slight differences in the foraging behaviour of honeybees at some cultivars but these differences were not always consequent in consecutive years. Also the nectar production of flowers failed to affect the bee visitation and the foraging behaviour of honeybees definitely. For the variable nature of bee visitation and bee behaviour at quince flowers, supplementary pollination is needed to achieve as high set of fruits as high is required to a good crop at quince (at least 20-25% because the flower density is low of this fruit tree species). Since the intensity of bee visitation at the flowers is the only reliable estimate of the necessity of supplementary bee pollination further research is needed to explore the relationship between the number of honeybee visits and the consequent fruit set at quince.

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