After making the observation that native pollinator numbers were greatly reduced, I made an immediate assumption that it was tied to the adverse growing season last year - an early start (pollinators were plentiful and at normal levels during bloom last March, full bloom is going to be at least 35 days later this year than last) followed by two hard freezes - I have to think 23*F would just outright kill a lot of insects (at least the good ones) - followed by lack of nectar because of the devastated tree flowers and other blooming vegetation - followed by a drought that left us pretty brown for much of the summer - lots of wildlife starved to death last year -
I agree with Mo that insect (and wildlife) populations are cyclic, but in this case there have to be at least 20 species of pollinators affected - I am a little surprised at the widespread nature of the observation - David On May 2, 2013, at 8:00 PM, Jon Clements wrote: > 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 <[email protected]> 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 > [email protected] > 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 > _______________________________________________ > apple-crop mailing list > [email protected] > http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
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