Pollination

In the case of strawberry cultivation under artificial lights, most growers choose to introduce biological pest control, just as they do in an unlit crop. "Growers who extend the cultivation or harvest in winter can also rely on our package of beneficial mites like Phytoseiulus-System,…

Israel is known for its robust military technology sector, and particularly the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are specifically engineered for reconnaissance, border control, battlefield surveillance, transporting supplies, and other types of missions.

We propose a conceptual model for pollination and fertilization of tomato flowers in greenhouses crops by hoverflies, when the maximal number of adult pollinators maintained by the crops is less than what is needed for an economically successful pollination in greenhouses. The model consists of a two-stage process for additional feeding of hoverfly to maintain the pollinator density at the economically desired level. First, with a stochastic model, we calculate the density of flies necessary for the economically successful pollination, determined according to the economically expected yield. Second, using a deterministic optimal control model, we find a minimum cost supplementary feeding strategy. In summary, we theoretically demonstrate, at the present stage of the research without validations in case studies, that optimal supplementary feeding can maintain the economically desired hoverfly density.

Wild bumblebees are key pollinators of crops and wild plants that rely on the continuous availability of floral resources. A better understanding of the spatio-temporal availability and use of floral food resources may help to promote bumblebees and their pollination services in agricultural landscapes. We placed colonies of Bombus terrestris L. in 24 agricultural landscapes with various degrees of floral resource availability and assessed different parameters of colony growth and fitness. We estimated pollen availability during different periods of colony development based on detailed information of the bumblebee pollen diet and the spatial distribution of the visited plant species. Total pollen availability did not significantly explain colony growth or fitness. However, when using habitat maps, the weight gain of colonies, the number of queen cells, and colony survival decreased with increasing distance from the forest. The better explanation of bumblebee performance by forest proximity than by (plant-inferred) pollen availability indicates that other functions of forests than pollen provision were important. The conservation of forests next to agricultural land might help to sustain high populations of these important wild pollinators and enhance their crop pollination services. Combining different mapping approaches might help to further disentangle complex relationships between B. terrestris and their environment in agricultural landscapes.

Being involved in numerous Technology Implementation Projects in many companies, I realized that the individual pollen supply chains for a given crop are often fairly similar, and that the main challenges the production researchers are tackling are common too. With my posts I try to condense my…

Plant a bee-friendly garden with the #ProudToBee initiative! Learn about the importance of pollinators in your community at bit.ly/proudtobee

Proud to Bee a 4-H'er is made possible thanks to @syngentacanada pic.twitter.com/YLgQE73Lg5

Many Americans don’t understand that pollinators are responsible for one in three bites of food we eat and their populations are under significant pressure. One partnership aims to change that through education. Honeybear Brands®, a grower, packer, and shipper of top apple varieties, is partnering with…

Importing bees is a challenge Rod Scarlett knows well. When most international flights stopped in March, thousands of queen bees were stranded abroad, and Scarlett, the executive director of the Canadian Honey Council, had to figure out how to get them to Canada on time. “The early spring is when we…

New research seems to affirm that wild bees, like bumblebees, mason bees and squash bees, are more essential to many agricultural crops in Pennsylvania than previously thought. After surveying the impact of wild bees at 131 farms in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Michigan, Oregon and Washington, and…

We all know that proper pollination of a flower is the most critical process related to fruit set, yield, and quality, but are you clear on how hot climate conditions impact both the pollinator and the plant, and the interactions between them? Koppert’s whitepaper on plant-pollinator interactions in high…

A lack of wild bees and managed honeybees is limiting pollination and yields for certain crops on farms in British Columbia and across the United States, a collective of researchers has found.

GROPRO announces launching a new Bio-Stimulant - 'Awakening Pollination' - which stimulates the plants' natural processes to enhance flower development while increasing stamen hold and pollinator activity. This in turn increases total flower pollination ensuring overall plant yield increases. The primary…

eOrganic is making available eight introductory pollination guides for common vegetable crops, developed by Hannah Swegarden of Cornell University as part of the NOVIC project. These photographic guides are intended to provide a brief overview of how to make crosses using controlled pollination techniques. They are available in…

An Israeli company that has created an autonomous pollinating robot has started its first trials in Australia. Arugga AI Farming is hoping its technology can transform Australia's greenhouse farming sector, especially greenhouse tomatoes, which are currently pollinated by hand. Chief executive Iddo…