New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts

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Afternoon decline in kiwifruit pollen collection

R. M. GOODWIN

Apicultural Research Team
The Horticulture and Food Research
Institute of New Zealand
Ruakura Research Centre
Private Bag 3123
Hamilton, New Zealand

Abstract  The afternoon decline in the collection of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) C.F. Liang et A.R. Ferguson var. deliciosa) pollen by honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) was investigated. Most staminate and pistillate flowers open before the time of anther dehiscence. Flowers of both sexes partially close again in the late afternoon of the day that they first open and make more pollen available after anther dehiscence. Staminate flowers make most of their pollen available in the morning and early afternoon. Most of the bees that stopped collecting kiwifruit pollen in the early afternoon remained in the hive without being recruited to other food sources. Pollen availability from staminate flowers in an orchard with normal numbers of foraging bees reached a peak between 1000 and 1100 h, and then dropped sharply until 1300 h after which time it remained constant. The availability of pollen from staminate flowers in an orchard with few foraging bees continued to increase from the time of anther dehiscence until the late afternoon. This suggests that the decline in pollen collection is the result of the pollen supply becoming depleted and not because it becomes dry and difficult to collect.

Keywords  honey bees; Apis mellifera; kiwifruit; Actinidia deliciosa; pollen depletion

New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 1995, Vol. 23: 163-171

0114-0671/95/2302--0163 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1995

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (635K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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