Estimation of Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) impact in pollination of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) crops for yield enhancement and seed quality (original) (raw)
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Studies on the Role of Insect Pollination on Cucumber Yield
Foraging activities of insect visitors were studied during summer 2007 on inbred lines of cucumber hybrid KH-1. The insect visitors in decreasing order of abundance were Formica sp. > Apis mellifera > Bombus haemorrhoidalis >Halictus sp. > other insects > Apis cerana > syrphids. The activity of insects peaked between 09:00 and 10:00 followed by 12:00-13:00 and 15:00-16:00. The foraging behaviour of A. mellifera, B. haemorrhoidalis and Halictus sp. was studied. The foraging speed and foraging rate were maximum in B. haemorrhoidalis followed by A. mellifera and Halictus sp. The bees spent significantly more time per flower during morning hours (15.92 sec/flower) and foraged significantly fewer flowers (5.48 flowers/min) compared to evening hours. There were significantly more nectar foragers (5.71/m²/10 min) than pollen foragers (4.84/m²/10 min). Most pollen foragers were observed during morning hours (6.27/m²/10 min) whereas nectar foragers were most active during noon hours (6.31/m²/10 min). There was no significant difference in the number of bees shifting from one line to another or vice versa. The effect of honey bee pollination, open pollination and hand pollination on quantity and quality of cucumber was also studied. Significant increase in fruit set was observed; highest being in hand pollination (75.68%) followed by honey bee (74.96%) and open (62.09%) pollination. Percentage of misshapen fruits was maximum in open pollination (20.05) followed by hand (14.1%) and honey bee (8.05%) pollination. Honey bee pollination resulted in significantly highest percentage of healthy fruits (92.22%) as compared to hand (85.85%) and open pollination (79.64%). Similarly weight of fruits (1184.5 g), number of seeds per fruit (472.8), fruit size (28.8 cm) and weight of 1000-seeds (29.14 g) was highest in honey bee pollination as compared to other modes of pollination.
Foraging activities of insect visitors were studied during summer 2007 on inbred lines of cucumber hybrid KH-1. The insect visitors in decreasing order of abundance were Formica sp. > Apis mellifera > Bombus haemorrhoidalis >Halictus sp. > other insects > Apis cerana > syrphids. The activity of insects peaked between 09:00 and 10:00 followed by 12:00-13:00 and 15:00-16:00. The foraging behaviour of A. mellifera, B. haemorrhoidalis and Halictus sp. was studied. The foraging speed and foraging rate were maximum in B. haemorrhoidalis followed by A. mellifera and Halictus sp. The bees spent significantly more time per flower during morning hours (15.92 sec/flower) and foraged significantly fewer flowers (5.48 flowers/min) compared to evening hours. There were significantly more nectar foragers (5.71/m²/10 min) than pollen foragers (4.84/m²/10 min). Most pollen foragers were observed during morning hours (6.27/m²/10 min) whereas nectar foragers were most active during noon hours (6.31/m²/10 min). There was no significant difference in the number of bees shifting from one line to another or vice versa. The effect of honey bee pollination, open pollination and hand pollination on quantity and quality of cucumber was also studied. Significant increase in fruit set was observed; highest being in hand pollination (75.68%) followed by honey bee (74.96%) and open (62.09%) pollination. Percentage of misshapen fruits was maximum in open pollination (20.05) followed by hand (14.1%) and honey bee (8.05%) pollination. Honey bee pollination resulted in significantly highest percentage of healthy fruits (92.22%) as compared to hand (85.85%) and open pollination (79.64%). Similarly weight of fruits (1184.5 g), number of seeds per fruit (472.8), fruit size (28.8 cm) and weight of 1000-seeds (29.14 g) was highest in honey bee pollination as compared to other modes of pollination.
Comparative Performance of Hive Bee on Yield of Cucumber (<i>Cucumis sativus</i> L.)
Indian journal of entomology, 2023
The studies on comparative performance of hive bee on yield of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) were carried out with five treatments like pollination with Apis cerana, A. mellifera, Tetragonula laeviceps, pollination without bees and open pollination at college farm, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari during summer 2018. In the present study, it was found that pollination by different bee species in cage condition as well as different pollinators in open pollination have the positive influence on different yield parameters of cucumber viz., number of fruits in each plant, fruit set (%), fruit length, fruit diameter and fruit weight. The present findings clearly indicates the role of honey bees i.e. A. cerana and A. mellifera which can be further exploited in planned bee pollination to achieve desired production potentials of cucumber crop.
Assiut Journal of Agricultural Sciences
The present investigation was carried out in Assiut region during blooming period (August, 2005) to evaluate the role of insect pollinators on sunflower. The effects of nearness of the fields to honey bee colonies and the weather conditions on pollinators, activity during blooming period as well as the impacts of these factors on seed setting and yield of sunflower crop were also studied. The results showed that the highest activity of insect pollinators especially honey bee was noticed at 10:00 a.m. Honey bee comprised about 96% of all pollinators of sunflower. There was a significant difference in the average numbers of honey bee individuals between the two distances, 500 and 1000 m away from the bee colonies. The bee numbers decreased to one-half with increasing the distance by two-folds. Positive correlations were found between honey bee activity and each of maximum, minimum and average daily temperature. Negative correlations were found between the bee activity and each of maximum, minimum and average relative humidity, and wind velocity. The coefficient of determination was 0.79, indicating that the daily temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity accounted for 79% of bees activity changes. Bee pollination increased seed number by 81% and 71% for near and faraway field, respectively. The setting of seeds was significantly higher (96.9%) in the near field than in the faraway field (86.8%). The increment in seed weight of unbagged heads was about 365% and 340% for near and faraway fields, respectively as compared to bagged heads.
Journal of Apicultural Research, 2017
Brassica campestris var. toria (mustard) is an insect attractive crop with ample pollen and nectar, so is predominantly insect pollinated. Rate of pollinator visitation, delivery of pollen to stigmas and seed-set are various factors to assess the importance of a pollinator. The Asian honey bee, Apis cerana was found to occupy a share of 39.33% of all the flower visitors to mustard in natural habitat. Pollination behavior in terms of peak activity, flowers handled per unit time, time spent per flower and time spent in search of flowers were studied separately for both pollen and nectar foragers. Pollination efficiency of A. cerana in mustard, measured by means of seed set per flower at defined number of bee visits was 0.41 and 2.44 visits per flower required for optimum seed set. Impact of A. cerana bee pollination on mustard seed production was studied in two different villages for two years. An increase of 20.8% in siliqua/panicle, 9.4% of seeds/siliqua and 17.1% in seed yield were noticed in planned honey bee pollinated mustard with respect to those grown in natural habitats. For assessing the requirement of pollinators to pollinate a one ha area of mustard, flower availability and the flower handling time of both the pollen and nectar forager are taken into consideration. A forager was estimated to pollinate 10,146 flowers a day, but mustard needs 2.44 visits for optimum seed set. Thus, 1,530 bee foragers or 2.2 colonies are needed to effectively pollinate a 1 ha mustard crop at peak flowering. ¿Có mo de efectiva es la abeja melífera asiática, Apis cerana, en polinizar la mostaza, Brassica campestris var. toria? Comportamiento polinizador, eficacia polinizadora, requerimientos polinizadores e impacto de la polinizació n El cultivo de Brassica campestris var. toria (mostaza) es un cultivo atractivo para los insectos por su abundante polen y néctar, por lo que es polinizado por insectos predominantemente. El ratio de visitas por polinizadores, el transporte de polen a los estigmas y el conjunto de semillas son varios factores para valorar la importancia de un polinizador. Se encontró que la abeja melífera asiática, Apis cerana ocupó una proporció n del 39.33% de todos los visitantes de la mostaza en hábitats naturales. Se estudió el comportamiento polinizador en términos de pico de actividad, flores manejadas por unidad de tiempo, el tiempo pasado en cada flor y el tiempo dedicado a buscar flores, tanto para el pecoreo de polen como para el de néctar, por separado. La eficiencia polinizadora de A. cerana en la mostaza, medida en términos de conjunto de semillas por flor fue de entre 0.41 y 2.44 visitas por flor requeridas para el ó ptimo del conjunto de semillas. Se estudió el impacto de la polinizació n de la abeja A. cerana en la producció n de semillas en la mostaza, en dos pueblos diferentes, durante dos años. Se vio un incremento del 20.8% en silicuas / panícula, 9.4% en semillas / silicua, y 17.1% en la producció n de semillas en la mostaza polinizada por la abeja melífera con respecto a la cultivada en hábitats naturales. Para evaluar los requerimientos de polinizadores para polinizar un área de una ha de mostaza, se tienen en consideració n la disponibilidad de flores y el tiempo de manejo de flores tanto para el pecoreo de polen como para el del néctar. Se estimó que un pecoreador poliniza 10,146 flores al día, pero la mostaza necesita 2.44 visitas para tener un conjunto de semillas ó ptimo. Por tanto, se necesitan 1,530 abejas pecoreadoras o 2.2 colonias para polinizar efectivamente una ha de cultivo de mostaza en el pico de floració n.
Effects of stingless bee (Heterotrigona itama)pollination on greenhouse cucumber (Cucumis sativus)
2017
Stingless bee is one of the important pollinators in open field crops as well as in the greenhouse crops. However, the potential use of stingless bees as pollinator for greenhouse cucumber is less documented in Malaysia. In this study, the stingless bees, Heterotrigona itama were placed together with the greenhouse cucumbers, Cucumis sativus in order to investigate the effects of H. itama pollination on greenhouse cucumber. This experiment involved three pollination treatments; namely pollination without stingless bee, hand-cross pollination and pollination by stingless bee, H. itama. Two hives of stingless bees were introduced into the greenhouse at least two days before the cucumber flowers started to bloom. Results showed that the cucumbers pollinated by stingless bee and hand-cross pollination produced heavier, longer and larger cucumbers compared to those produced from pollination without stingless bees. However, in terms of dried weight seed, firmness and colour of cucumbers, ...
Role of pollinators in vegetable seed production
Journal of entomology and zoology studies, 2020
This paper reviews a role of pollinator’s in vegetable seed production and commercial production of large numbers of colonies for the pollination. The pollination phase has a significant impact on final seed yield and quality. The most reliable and efficient form of pollination is through insects. Though butterflies, moths, beetles, thrips, birds play a role in pollination, honey bees are the ideal pollinators. Many insects such as honey bees (Apis mellifera, A. cerana), bumble bees (Bombus haemorrhoidalis, B. terrestris) and flies are the important pollinators which are in commercial use. Low seed yield due to inadequate pollination is often faced as a major problem in vegetable seed production. There is a need to ensure pollination by conserving the pollinators and attracting them towards the crop land. The pollination potential and economic importance of the effect of honeybees on these vegetables is still need to be established.
An On farm trial was conducted at KrishiVigyan Kendra, Vaishali, Bihar to study the impact of planned honeybee pollination on the seed production and quality of Cauliflower seeds as well as pollination behavior of Apis mellifera. More number of bees were found visiting the crop under net house condition (6.05 , 5.35, 5.05 bees/plant at all the three locations of traditionally seed producing Hariharpur, Rajapakar and Chakwaravillages of Vaishali district.Bees in the open conditions were found to spend less time on flower as compared to the net house conditions. Honeybees played an important role in enhancing the seed production of cauliflower at all location under study. Planned honeybee pollination was found to result maximum impact on the seed production seeds/pod in the range of 15.50-19.10 seeds/pod in net pollination as compared to 13.60-17.20 seeds/pod in open condition. Similarly, average 1000 seed wt. in net pollinated condition was 3.30-4.19 gm whereas 3.00-3.97 gm in open field condition, and the yield in net condition was in range 534-637 kg/ha with additional income of 14 to 17 lakh rupees per hectare. INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the basis of the livelihood of over 80 percent of the rural population in Bihar (). However, most of the farmers are marginal or small land-holding families, cultivating less than one hectare of land. The small and marginal farmers of Bihar are increasingly taking up vegetable cultivation to improve their income (). In Vaishali district of Bihar the vegetable based farming system among different category of farmers is most prevalent (). The farmers here traditionally produce seeds of local variety of early cauliflower Brassica oleracea under open field situation.Low seed yield and quality due to inadequate pollination is major problem of cauliflower seed producing farmers. Inadequate pollination in crops is due to several factors and the most important of which includes lack of adequate number and diversity of pollinators. All possible ways of increasing the sustainable productivity and carrying capacity of the farming systems in order to improve the livelihoods of marginal households should be explored (). Amongst several factors attributing to increase productivity, the most important of which include the number of bee pollinators. Research has shown that pollination by honey bees increases fruit set, enhances fruit quality and reduces fruit drop in apple (), peach, plum, citrus, kiwi and strawberry (). Bee pollination does not only increase the fruit set but also reduced fruit drop in apple, peach, plum and citrus (). The experiment conducted AICP on Honeybee