What question did this study set out to answer?

To evaluate the pollination efficacy of managed honey bees and bumblebees compared to artificial pollination on kiwifruit fruit set and quality.

March 20, 2023Journal of Economic Entomology

Artificial pollination of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis Planch. var. chinensis) (Ericales: Actinidiaceae) results in greater fruit set compared to flowers pollinated by managed bees (Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Bombus impatiens Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae))

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Authors

AAAnthony P. AbbateAuburn University JCJoshua W. CampbellNorthern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory GWGeoffrey R. WilliamsAuburn University

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Implication

Field experiment reveals artificial pollination yields higher fruit set than managed bees in kiwifruit, indicating growers should prioritize mechanical over insect pollination.

Key Points

To evaluate the pollination efficacy of managed honey bees and bumblebees compared to artificial pollination on kiwifruit fruit set and quality.
Quantified and compared the relative abundance of kiwifruit pollen carried in the corbiculae of foraging Apis mellifera and Bombus impatiens.
Conducted an insect exclusion field experiment assessing kiwifruit fruit set and fruit quality across artificial pollination, open insect pollination, wind pollination, and pollen exclusion treatments.
Bombus impatiens foragers carried on average 46% more kiwifruit pollen in their corbiculae than Apis mellifera foragers.
Artificial pollination resulted in significantly higher fruit set per flower at four weeks post-bloom and harvest compared to insect pollination, wind pollination, and pollen exclusion.
Artificially pollinated flowers produced fruit of greater weight, size, and seed count than insect-pollinated flowers, while wind pollination and pollen exclusion yielded few fruits.

Cite This Study

Abbate et al. (2023) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9eeac02ccf4465eebe339a https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toad044

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Implication

Field experiment reveals artificial pollination yields higher fruit set than managed bees in kiwifruit, indicating growers should prioritize mechanical over insect pollination.

Artificial pollination of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis Planch. var. chinensis) (Ericales: Actinidiaceae) results in greater fruit set compared to flowers pollinated by managed bees (Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Bombus impatiens Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae))

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Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Artificial pollination of kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis Planch. var. chinensis) (Ericales: Actinidiaceae) results in greater fruit set compared to flowers pollinated by managed bees (Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Bombus impatiens Cresson (Hymenoptera: Apidae))

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Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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