By Seth Truscott
Apple growers depend on the honey bee to pollinate their crops, but there’s a delicate, challenging balance between hives, flowers, fruit and weather that can be difficult for even the most skilled growers to navigate.
Now, WSU researchers are helping improve the odds with the development of a precision pollination model and data-driven decision-support tool.
Bees fertilize apples by flying from flower to flower, feeding and distributing pollen. If bees don’t pollinate enough flowers, growers are left with a miniscule crop, but too many bee visits bring the added cost of thinning or removing small, undeveloped fruit.
“The problem for growers is that the more you pollinate, the more you have to thin,” said Vincent Jones, Washington State University entomology professor and director of the WSU Tree Fruit Decision Aid System. “Otherwise, you get tiny apples that can’t be sold.”
Throw in the vagaries of weather, climate and changing apple varieties, and it’s more challenging than ever for growers to achieve perfect pollination.
In a three-year, $303,000 project funded by the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, a team of WSU researchers led by Jones is building a precision pollination model and decision-support tool to help growers efficiently pollinate their orchards.
The new model, being tested now by Northwest growers, will help Washington’s $2.4 billion apple industry be more competitive and sustainable, ultimately ensuring the supply of fruit we love.
“We’re helping growers determine precisely when they need the bees,” Jones said. “They’ll be able to get the right number of hives in place ahead of time, and then pull them out before too many flowers have been pollinated.”
His model incorporates many variables, from honeybee foraging patterns to sun, rain, wind and cloud cover and the flower behavior of the latest apple varieties.
Getting the full picture
Growers thin blossoms or fruit by chemical means, mechanically, or by hand. That can get expensive — upwards of $1,000 per acre by hand — prohibitively so for large orchards.
Jones and his colleagues designed the new model to help growers see when blossoming will occur and predict the quality of bee foraging in their local area. It will help growers decide when to leave the hives in their orchards a bit longer to ensure a good crop, or take them out to cut down on thinning, reducing fuel consumption and use of chemical sprays.
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