In my pear growing days in NC Washington we used a helicopter for a pollen blower. The copter blades would turn so slow you thought it would fall out of the sky while flying at tree top level. The pilot's assistant would toss teaspoons of pollen out the door as the copter flew the rows. It still took bees to carry the pollen to the flowers but defiantly increased our fruit set.
Bill Fleming Montana State University Western Ag Research Center Corvallis, MT 59828 From: apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net [mailto:apple-crop-boun...@virtualorchard.net] On Behalf Of David Kollas Sent: Friday, May 03, 2013 7:41 AM To: jon.cleme...@umass.edu Cc: Apple-crop discussion list Subject: Re: [apple-crop] native pollinators 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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<tel:413-478-7219> umassfruit.com<http://umassfruit.com/> _______________________________________________ apple-crop mailing list apple-crop@virtualorchard.net<mailto: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<http://umassfruit.com/>
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