There were lots of native pollinators working the plum trees when they were in bloom.
Art Kelly Kelly Orchards Acton, ME On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 12:03 AM, David Kollas <kol...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > > Jon: > I have been asking myself question like those you have mentioned. > > Snowball and nearly synchronous bloom is what I have on most varieties > here also; and with uncommonly warm temperatures I expected to see a lot of > eager honeybees in the trees these past several days. They were not > there. Nor in the dandelions that are more abundant than normal around the > orchard. Activity at the hives seemed decent, so I wondered whether a > solid field of dandelions somewhere else might be attracting them. My > beekeeper opened several hives and pointed out the light-colored pollen > that had been packed into frame cells…as well as some orange-colored > pollen in other cells. He said the lighter yellow indicates apple pollen, > and the orange pollen is from dandelions. I didn’t think to ask if the > yellow pollen might have been put there several days ago, before the hives > were moved to my orchard, but he said he could see bees returning to the > hives with yellow pollen on their legs. > Today the maximum temperature was only 63F, briefly, and few bees were out > of the hives. While setting > up some trickle irrigation in my nursery I noticed honeybees buzzing among > oak leaves on the ground, under which a surface water-line ran. Bees had > found a small leak in the line and seemed to be very happy about it, as > dozens of honeybees soon appeared there. So I put water into a pail, with > a short length of wood, and floated a terrycloth towel on it. After about > ten minutes there dozens of bees spending time on that wet towel. I > conclude that apple nectar could not satisfy their thirst…if that is what > they wanted water for. > > David Kollas > Kollas Orchard > Tolland, Connecticut > > On May 13, 2015, at 8:58 PM, Jon Clements <jon.cleme...@umass.edu> wrote: > > Mostly heavy, snowball bloom here in Massachusetts after modest crop last > year. Not sure I have ever seen such a heavy bloom across the board. Temps. > in mid to upper 80's preceding and during bloom really moved things along, > bee activity was modest to good. There was so much bloom all at once bee > activity might have been diluted? Very dry -- does that affect the > attractiveness of bloom to bees? Less nectar production? Cold front moved > through and now windy and much cooler, scattered frost possible in cold > pockets. We're expecting good set and the need to thin aggressively. Heat > raised the fire blight danger level, however, little wetting during bloom > except for some showers here and there and dew. Will see how that plays > out, lots of strep applied after last year. Only one apple scab infection > period since April 21 (green tip), clean orchards could have delayed any > fungicide application since then until the next rain, but that one will be > a doozy probably. Somebody send us a little rain. Every year is so > different... > > Jon > > On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 12:41 PM, Arthur Kelly <kellyorcha...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> I don't know about the rest of you but if we get any kind of pollination >> weather the crop will be very heavy and difficult to thin. The potential >> bloom at this point is scary. We are at pink except for cracking some king >> flowers on Zestar, Paulared, Gingergold etc. >> >> -- >> Art Kelly >> Kelly Orchards >> Acton, ME >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 > _______________________________________________ > apple-crop mailing list > apple-crop@virtualorchard.net > http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop > > > > _______________________________________________ > apple-crop mailing list > apple-crop@virtualorchard.net > http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop > > -- Art Kelly Kelly Orchards Acton, ME
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