| CORE STORY: NO BEES NO APPLES! | |
Most apple cultivars are self-incompatible to some degree. Some set no fruit at all when self-pollinated, others set various proportions of a commercial crop under favourable conditions. Thus there is a need for pollinating transfer agents such as honey bees.
Pollination is, without a doubt, the most critical event in the yearly production cycle of apples. Excessive fruit can be thinned, but after flowering there is no way to put more fruit on to the tree. It has been found that 97% of the insects that visit fruit blossom are honey bees. | | Most apple pollination occurs through cross-pollination; however, some cultivars have been reported to self-pollinate. Most apple cultivars have a gametophytic self incompatibility (GSI) system; however, others are semi compatible, or fully self compatible. The most common insect pollinator of apple is the honey bee.
BASICALLY, APPLE IS BECAUSE OF THE BEE!
Apple trees will bloom over a number of weeks but it is the first 9–10 days that are the most important to set the king blossom. Although there are numerous blossoms on an apple tree, a set of only 5% is sufficient to produce a fair apple crop. | | |
In one orchard trial, three colonies of bees per ha (giving 33 foraging honey bees per 1000 flowers) gave a 32% set and produced 57 kg of fruit.
Another apple orchard of the same age had only one colony per ha (giving 15 foraging honey bees per 1000 flowers) which gave a 15% set and produced 30 kg of fruit. [Src: Agnote DAI/132 Revised August 1999 Doug Somerville Livestock Officer (Apiculture) Goulburn]
National Production Stats 2021/22:
In MY 2021/22, South Africa produced an estimated record apple crop of 1.17 million metric tons.The Western Cape province is the largest apple producing area in South Africa, and together with the Eastern Cape province, accounts for more than 95 percent of the apple production (Src: USDA Report Number: SF2022-0036, Oct 2022).
Small, but growing production areas were established further north mainly in the Free State, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo Provinces.
Six cultivars dominate apple production in South Africa and account for more than 80 percent of area planted, namely, Golden Delicious (20 percent), Royal Gala (17 percent), Pink Lady (13 percent), Granny Smith (13 percent), Fuji (9 percent), and Top Red (9 percent).
Other cultivars that have been growing steadily include Cripps Red and Bigbucks. Background Story:Commercial apple production in South Africa began in the 1880s and exports started a few years later to the United Kingdom. | | | | |
The apple (Malus domestica) tree is one of the most widely cultivated plants in the world with more than 7,500 known cultivars. Most commonly apples are eaten fresh for their sweet soft, yet crisp flesh, while some cultivars are breed more specifically for cooking and making cider.
The tree originated from central Asia where its wild ancestor is still found today. China is by far the largest producer of apples, with approximately 40% of worldwide production in 2008, followed by the USA, Iran and Turkey. | | | | APPLE FARMING LOCAL PRODUCTION | |
The area under apple, pears, and table grape cultivation in South Africa has grown steadily over the past decade, driven by ongoing investments into the deciduous fruit sector on relatively high earnings from export markets.
However, the expansion in apple, pears, and table grape production is expected to alleviate in marketing year (MY) 2022/23, despite the production of record crops in MY 2021/22.
Accelerating farming input costs, higher shipping rates, infrastructure inefficiencies, including electricity supply disruptions, ineffective ports operations, deteriorating road networks and increased competition from other southern hemisphere countries are challenging South Africa’s exports of apple, pears, and table grapes.
As a result, profitability of producers is diminishing, limiting continued investment in the industry.
The area under apple production in South Africa is expected to flatten in MY 2022/23 to 24,950 hectares (ha) or almost 37 million apple trees. Accelerating farming input costs, higher shipping rates and depressed markets are diminishing the profitability of apple producers and limiting continued investment in the industry.
Ongoing shipping delays at the local ports (also see Labor Strikes Could Cripple South African Agricultural Trade) is negatively impacting the quality of fruit to the export markets and ultimately lowering returns to growers.
The persistent problems at the ports, specifically the port of Cape Town, where most of the fruit is exported from, remain the single biggest risk and threat to the export orientated deciduous fruit industry of South Africa.
UK remains the largest market for South African apple exports accounting for 15 percent of the total exports. The UK is followed by Bangladesh (7 percent), Nigeria (7 percent), United Arab Emirates (7 percent), and Malaysia (5 percent).
For other local break down of cultivars and trees with production data see the following source link: https://www.freshplaza.com/europe/article/9515656/a-look-at-the-south-african-apple-and-pear-season/
| | | | | | Unfortunately, apple flowers are not as attractive to honey bees as several other crops. Pear flowers and the flowers of oil seed rape and several weed species prove much more attractive. [NIAB]
If the introduction is before a significant number of flowers have opened, the bees will forage for better pollen and nectar sources and become habituated (exhibit what is called ‘flower constancy’) to another more attractive crop nearby. It can then prove difficult to encourage the bees back into the orchard. Czech studies have indicated that honey bees tend to prefer apple trees with abundant blossoms. Introduce hive bees to orchards only when 15 to 20% of the flowers are open Avoiding competition with other flowering crops and weeds ‘Strength’ of the bee colonies are important Certain varieties of apple with specific floral anatomy (e.g. the ‘Delicious’ variety) the honey bees ‘sidework’ the flowers and fail to deposit pollen on the stigmas. Bumblebees, which are not indigenous to South Africa perform better as pollinators in this case.
"Significant influence on fruit set and seed"
Recent experiments in Hungary have shown that the intensity of bee visits to an orchard can have a significant influence on fruit numbers set and the seed numbers in the fruits (Benedek and Nyéki, 1997).
| | It has been shown that cropping of fruit trees diminishes the further they are located from suitable pollinators, even when bees are present (Free, 1962). The explanation for this is that bees have limited foraging areas, they are attracted to other nearby plant species and they tend to work down one row of trees rather than across rows. In ideal conditions, one strong hive of bees (>15,000) should be capable of pollinating all the flowers open on a hectare of apples in one day. In less than ideal conditions, two to three hives per hectare, 60,000 to 80,000 bees, may be necessary. Wind pollination is likely to have only a small contribution to apple fruit set. Bumble bees [not native to RSA] and some other wild bees forage at slightly lower temperatures than honey bees and may prove better in pollen transfer between flowers in poor weather conditions. The colour of the blossom is also very important. Honey bees show a strong fidelity to forage on the one coloured blossom, either non-white or white ornamental crab-apple polliniser flowers. Thus, pollinisers planted within the orchard must display the same colour blossom as the main, commercial cultivar blossom to be pollinated. [src: Pollination of apples by honey bees Agnote DAI/132 Revised August 1999 Doug Somerville Livestock Officer (Apiculture) Goulburn] Environmental factors have a direct bearing on the amount of nectar secreted. It has also been found that nectar is the most concentrated in old flowers about to wither, but nectar concentration fluctuates widely in accordance with the relative humidity throughout the day. The number of honey bees that visit the blossom has been directly correlated with the amount and concentration of nectar produced. When pollinating, a heavier stocking rate is necessary to saturate the area with bees to pollinate the fruit blossom and stocking rates of 2–3 hives/ha are necessary. With such a high stocking rate bees are unlikely to store any surplus of honey. Hence compensation from growers is necessary to offset costs and warrant the service. [Src: Agnote DAI/132 Revised August 1999 Doug Somerville Livestock Officer (Apiculture) Goulburn]
| | Potential Extra Yield Formula
Apples: fruit set with and without honey bees (Langridge and Jenkins 1970) RESEARCH SHOWED THE FOLLOWING:
Fruit set/ per tree: OPEN TREES = 1862 Vs CAGED TREES = 51 Yield/ per tree (kg): OPEN TREES = 125kg Vs CAGED TREES = 8.6kg
Crop Yield Formula
Grower gets up to 73% increase in Fruit Set using honeybee colonies Beekeeper may be paid up to R1100 x 3 hives over a few weeks = +/- R3000/ha
APPLE POLLINATION RESEARCHMr Suraj Chauhan is a small-scale orchard farmer from the Rohru region of Shimla District. He publicised his results and influenced others to use the technology.
Every year he provides good quality colonies to apple orchardists. In 2019 he rented 1,800 honey bee colonies earning him up to INR800,000 (US$11,200; €10,340). Orchardists that rented Mr Suraj’s colonies and pollen dispenser in their orchards with low polliniser proportion reported good fruit set.
Mr Jayant Attreta, resident of New Seri Village, Shimla recorded a 73% increase in fruit set compared to 2018.[src: Bees for Development Journal 134 WEBSITE FINAL 02-03-20, Authors: Sharma, Harish/ Thakur, Priyanka/Sharma, Ruchi/ Prashad, Hema Published 2021/11/24]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Further Study Findings: Yield & Apple Weight ImpactedSharma et al. (2012) found that fruit set in honeybee-pollinated orchards was 42.32%, while in control apple orchards it was 27.98%.
The data on fruit yield in honeybee-pollinated and control apple orchards (Table 10) show that in the year 2014 the average apple yield per tree in control apple orchards was 40.6 kg, while in honeybee-pollinated orchards it was 57.6 kg.
Similarly, in 2015 the average apple yield per tree in control apple orchards was 99.3 kg, while the average apple yield in honeybee-pollinated orchards was 146.9 kg. This means that pollination by honeybees enhanced the apple yield by 41.9% in 2014 and by 47.9% in 2015.
The findings also suggest that the apple yield in honeybee-pollinated orchards was significantly higher than the apple yield in control orchards in each research site in 2014 and 2015; the findings are significant at 95% level of confidence. Significant 21%-35% Increase in Apple WeightIn 2014 the average weight of randomly selected apples in honeybee-pollinated orchards was 192.6 g per fruit, while the average weight per fruit in control orchards was 158.5 g. The results also suggested that the weight of apples in honeybee-pollinated orchards was 21.4% more than the weight of apple in control orchards. Similarly, in the year 2015 the average weight of randomly selected apples in honeybee-pollinated apple orchards was 189.1 g per fruit, while the average weight of apple fruit in control orchards was 149.5 g per fruit. The results also suggested that the weight of apples in honeybee-pollinated orchards was 35% greater than the weight of apple in control orchards. Statistical analysis suggested that the results are significant at 99% level of confidence. Use of honeybees for pollination has also shown a positive impact on the quality of apple, i.e., weight, shape and colour. The average weight of 100 randomly selected fruits (apples) from honeybee-pollinated apple orchards was 19.3 kg, while in control apple orchards the average weight of apple was 15.9 kg.* This means that as a result of honeybee pollination services, the weight of apple increased by 21.4%. Similarly, the average number of well-formed fruit in honeybee-pollinated apple orchards is 21.1% higher than in control apple orchards.* Finally, the average number of bright coloured apples in honeybee-pollinated orchards is 10.2% higher than in control orchards. The action research repeated in 2015 also yielded similar results.* Partap, U., Hussain, S., Hussain, E., Inayatullah, M., Gurung, M.B., Muhammad, I., Shah, G.M. (2017) Honeybee pollination and apple yields in Chitral, Pakistan. ICIMOD Working Paper 2017/19. Kathmandu: ICIMOD Notes to Consider For Pollination Providers:Bees forage in rows so placement is vitally strategic regarding pollination. Only place hives after initial flowering has begun for a few days Competitive crops are more attractive to bees Pollinisers should be the same colour of flower to avoid mismatching Pesticides are ALWAYS a RISK regardless of what the labels claim Bee activity is very limited below temperatures of 13oC, with activity increasing up to around 19oC, above which activity tends to remain at a relatively high level.*
[Src: Pollination Aware report (RIRDC Pub. No. 10/081) which are based on ABS (2008) Agricultural Commodities Small Area Data, Australia 2005-06] | | |
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