Jon:
Thank you for that background. The blower is clearly faster than
dabbing individual flowers. My dabbing trials, apple, were made primarily to
produce uniform fruit
set. Bees were excluded, physically, as I was not aware of any effective
repellents; still am not.
David
On May 3, 2013, at 8:36 AM, Jon Clements wrote:
> I have used the blower and pollen on cherries and apples every year for many
> years now. I have never done, however, a specific replicated trial. (Too much
> work and variability.) I operate on the assumption it can't hurt, and have
> never noticed a problem with uniformity. But I am no expert on the subject
> either. I think for small applications (a few acres) and on cherries it is
> worthwhile crop set insurance. Then, of course, out come the thinners…
>
> :-)
>
>
> On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 8:49 PM, David Kollas <kol...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
> Jon:
> Is there more to say of the leaf-blower alternative? Is this a
> first-time trial? Problems?
>
> It looks appears to have advantages over the stilts and dabbing
> trials I ran some years ago, though uniformity of set is likely not so good.
>
> David Kollas
> Kollas Orchard, Tolland, CT
>
>
> 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 <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
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jon Clements
>> aka 'Mr Honeycrisp'
>> UMass Cold Spring Orchard
>> 393 Sabin St.
>> Belchertown, MA 01007
>> 413-478-7219
>> umassfruit.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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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