The presence of bees in spring is essential for apple tree fruiting

Spring is the pollination season for apple trees and knowing how to manage the orchard and bees during this period is extremely important because several crops depend on these insects and cross-pollination for effective fruit set and high fruit quality. Apple cultivation, for example, is highly dependent on pollination to achieve fruit set and quality.

Pollination management must be done appropriately. It involves “from choosing the varieties, preparing the planting area, arranging the plants in the orchard and cultural treatments until reaching the flowering time and managing the bees”, explains researcher André Sezerino, from the Epagri Experimental Station in Caçador. . He adds that from the moment the plants begin to flower, bee management should also begin to encourage cross-pollination.

“We recommend at least six stinging bee hives per hectare,” says the researcher. “This introduction must be sequentially, half at the beginning of flowering and half at full flowering”, he adds. The staggered introduction is necessary, explains André, because of floral competition and because apple flowers produce little nectar. “This adoption of technology for the sequential introduction of bees allows a very significant increase in effective fruiting in the Gala and Fuji apple orchards in the mountainous region of Santa Catarina”, he guarantees.

Stingless bees

Using native bees in a complementary way to pollination carried out by apis mellifera is a viable alternative, especially in areas covered by anti-hail screens. “Using 10 to 12 hives per hectare, an increase in yield of up to five tons per hectare is achieved compared to other areas, without hail screens and without stingless bees”, he points out.

The producer must pay attention to the weather conditions at flowering time. Shorter flowerings require more bees for pollination in less time. If there is cold and rain during flowering, especially close to full flowering, it is essential to increase the number of hives per hectare so that bees can visit the flowers and carry out pollination and thus avoid problems with effective fruiting.

Cross pollination

Regarding cross-pollination in apple cultivation, André Sezerino explains: “Cross-pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from one variety to another. In the case of apples, for example, it is the transfer of pollen from the Fuji cultivar to the Gala cultivar, and from Gala to the Fuji cultivar. So this needs to happen because the pollen of the variety itself does not pollinate itself. So, for example, if a grain of Fuji pollen falls on Fuji's own flower, even if it is on different plants, the flower will not be fertilized and that flower will not become fruit. So this cross-pollination needs to occur.”

Therefore, when planting the orchard, it is necessary to think about the arrangement of the plants so that there are always plants of different varieties nearby, so that pollen transfer can occur. This is what is called cross-pollination.