Unlike many other rosaceous fruit crops, commercial raspberry cultivars are largely self-fertile and mostly selfpollinate autogamously. However, their floral morphology does not allow for complete autopollination, which often yields unmarketable small or crumbly fruits. Insect visitation is therefore essential to maximize raspberry production. Honey bees are typically used to pollinate commercial raspberries, but escalating prices for hive rentals coupled with increasing acreage encourages evaluation of other manageable pollinators. Four other manageable bee taxa—various Bombus spp., Osmia lignaria Say, Osmia aglaia Sandhouse, and Osmia bruneri Cockerell—are all promising raspberry pollinators. Because honey bees remain the least expensive option on a per forager basis, adoption of an alternative pollinator should entail some other advantage, such as superior pollination efficacy. In this study, we compared honey bees with these other bee species for their pollination efficacies at red raspberries, measured as the number of drupelets resulting from a single visit to a virgin flower. Each species' single-visit pollination efficacy was also compared with drupelet set from both unvisited and hand-pollinated flowers, and their pollination effectiveness scores were calculated. All five bee species were equally effective raspberry pollinators; therefore, honey bees remain the most cost effective option for open field pollination of raspberry. Mason bees and bumble bees may have greater utility during cool weather or for protected cultivation systems, contexts unfavorable to honey bee foraging.
How to translate text using browser tools
17 August 2018
Comparative Pollination Efficacies of Five Bee Species on Raspberry
Corey J. Andrikopoulos,
James H. Cane
ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE
It is not available for individual sale.
This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
It is not available for individual sale.
Apis mellifera
Bombus
Osmia aglaia
Osmia bruneri
Osmia lignaria