Interesting, I was just observing full bloom sweet cherry yesterday afternoon and made a mental note that native bee/pollinator activity seemed to be light. There are no honeybees brought into the orchard yet, we wait for apples. Normally, they (the native pollinators) are really swarming the sweet cherries because they are the only thing in bloom at the time. Today activity seemed lacking again. It's been very dry here, is there any possibility there is a lack of nectar? That might not explain David's observation in Indiana though? Seems to be a theme here, but maybe Mo is right -- just plain natural (i.e. chaotic) population swings?
Anyway, who needs bees? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsl7sILSGoU On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 11:01 AM, David Doud <david_d...@me.com> wrote: > Another casualty of last year's freak weather is the population of native > pollinators - my asian pears entered full bloom over the last 48 hours - > other years they are surrounded by a cloud of several species of solitary > pollinators, this year that activity is roughly 10% of what I am accustomed > to observing - > > The first apple bloom opened yesterday - 72 hours ago at tight cluster I > considered the amount of bloom as 'full' but not particularly remarkable, > now bloom has seemingly spontaneously generated to an amount that I cannot > remember observing in the past - it's going to be spectacular, but has > upped my anxiety about the potential 'big crop of little green apples' - > hope thinners are effective.... > > > > > David Doud > grower IN > _______________________________________________ > apple-crop mailing list > apple-crop@virtualorchard.net > http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop > > -- Jon Clements aka 'Mr Honeycrisp' UMass Cold Spring Orchard 393 Sabin St. Belchertown, MA 01007 413-478-7219 umassfruit.com
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