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Flower visiting activity of honeybees on fruit species blooming subsequently
12-16.Views:196In the small demonstration orchard of the College Faculty of Horticulture at Kecskemét the blooming time, the flower density and the honeybee activity was observed at a number of cultivars of 20 flower species during four consecutive years.
Fruit crop species were in flower during 3-4 months altogether. The blooming period of them was classified into five groups as early (almond, apricot, gooseberry), middle early (sweet cherry, red currant, currant-gooseberry, black currant, white currant, peach, plum, sour cherry), middle late (pear, strawberry, apple), late (black elder, quince, medlar, raspberry, blackberry-raspberry) and very late blooming period (blackberry). The blooming period of the members of the groups of early and medium early blooming often coincided partly and the same happened between the medium and the medium late as well as between fruits of late and very late flowering.
The flower density of some fruit species is extremely variable (currant-gooseberry, medlar), while at others it is fairly stable and evenly dense in consecutive years (sour cherry, sweet cherry, strawberry). At other fruit species it is moderately changeable. Some fruit species tended to attract more honeybees than others (plum, apple, quince, medlar) and some of them tended to attract much less (black elder, pear) but most species can be regarded as of medium attractivity.
On the flowers of some fruit species (pear, strawberry, quince) honeybees gathered pollen predominantly. At most fruit species however pollen and nectar gathering behaviour seemed to be gradually changing during the season. Namely most honeybees tended to gather pollen at the flowers of the early blooming fruit species, but on the other hand typical foraging behaviour gradually shifted to nectar gathering at the flowers of fruit species of moderate and late blooming periods.
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Rare macrofungi from Central Börzsöny I. Hungarian occurrence data and habitat preference
45-52.Views:141Mycological investigations have been made since 2001 in all characteristic forest types in Central Börzsöny Mts., North Hungary. Among the near 500 macrolungi species documented 8 protected and 32 rare taxa occurred. Present paper concerns 13 of these taxa: 3 critically endangered, 7 endangered and 3 vulnerable in Hungary. Near the summarisation of the European habitat preference a Hungarian habitat characterisation were made for each species based on all Hungarian documented occurrence data. Majority of the species have similar habitat preference in Hungary to the European one, but some exceptions were noted. Boletus pinophilus is a typical species of deciduous forests with acidic soil, not documented from coniferous stands. Pluteo.v umbrosus prefers undisturbed forest stands with high quantity of dead wood in Hungary and did not occur in parks. Trichoma psammopus fructified in lower altitude in deciduous and mixed forest stands (always connected with Larix). Sonic species were rarer in Hungary, than in other European countries, caused by lack of their original habitats: Boletus pinophilus, 11rclJrclloin concrescens, Tremella encephala, Tricholoma aurantium, Iwo species — Boleros torosus anti Amanita lirielopallescens — were touch common in Hungary than in Europe. Two taxa —Amanita vaginata var. alba, Tremella encephala — are new From Hungary.
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Flower constancy of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) to blooming pear plantations
81-85.Views:245Studies were made on the composition of pollen loads of honeybees captured at the flowers of blooming pear trees in pear plantations. Also the foraging behaviour of honeybees was observed. Overwhelming majority of honeybees visiting the flowers of 13 pear cultivars in 1996 were pollen gatherers (95.6 per cent). Proportion of pure nectar gatherers was as low as some 3.7 per cent and no more than 0.7 per cent performed mixed behaviour. The analysis of pollen loads of bees collected at pear flowers in blooming pear plantations showed that fidelity was as high as 89-90 per cent towards pear, higher than for another fruit species in other studies. Even those plant species that are regarded to be strong competitors of blooming fruit trees in the literature (Taraxacum officinale, Stellaria media, Lamium purpureum) were scarcely represented in the loads. Accordingly, honeybees can be much more important and more effective pollinating agents of pear cultivars than generally believed.
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Acceptance of artificial nesting sites by pollinating mason bees in commercial fruit plantations (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae: mixed Osmia cornuta and O. rufa population)
43-46.Views:306During a four yeas long experiment a simple bee shelterswas found to be a propermethod to increase the size ofmixed natural populations of the early season Osmia cornuta and O. rufa under practical farm conditions. Instead of the number of pesticide applications the earliness of the flowering of the fruit species in the orchards was found to be themost important factor in the rate of acceptance of reed as nestingmediumby Osmias in the bee shelter. This relationship was negative and highly significant (r = –0.829, p<0.001). This means that much higher acceptance of artificial nestingmedia in bee shelters and consequentlymuch higher population increase of the two early seasonmason bee species can be expected in orchards with early than with late flowering fruit species. Mixed orchards or early flowering orchards surrounded by other orchards falling in bloom later consecutively may also be much favourable to mason bees because they can find continuous food (pollen) supply there for a much longer time during their period of activity than in orchards planted with a single fruit species and being apart from orchards of other fruit species.
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Bee pollination and association of apricot varieties
20-24.Views:256Apricot yields are highly variable according to the season. The variation is caused mainly by the adversities during the critical processes of floral biology, i.e. blooming and fertilisation. On the basis of information concerning blooming time and mutual compatibility relations of apricot varieties a system of securing regular and adequate yields has been developed.
Winter frosts of the continental type are well tolerated by most of the apricots, however, after the end of rest period, flower buds are loosing frost tolerance, 'rapidly.
Being one of the fruit species blooming earliest during the early spring, apricot start to bloom in Hungary around the end of March or early April as a mean of many years, but it also happened, exceptionally that apricot started to bloom at February 20 (at Letenye South Hungary). The early season, exposes the floral organs to frost injuries. As a consequence, apricot orchards on the Great Plain produce low yields in 3 years, intermediate yields in other 3 years out of a ten-year-period.
Moreover, weather conditions during the blooming period are often unfavourable for pollination. Cool, windy and rainy weather prevents the flight of insects and on the other hand, warm spells shorten the blooming process, nectarines and stigmata get dry and the female gametes loose viability before effective pollination occurres.
The fertility of individual cultivars are meeting different obstacles. Apricot cultivars differ greatly in the rate of flowers bearing underdeveloped pistils, which may attain even 60% (e.g. Orangered). New commercial cultivars are often self-incompatible. Local varieties of that type in Hungary are the „óriás" varieties (e.g. Ceglédi óriás, Szegedi mammut), and the new hybrid Ceglédi Piroska. Many of the cultivars are variable in their self-fertility (partially self-fertile): Budapest, Harmat, Korai piros, Mandulakajszi.
Inter-incompatibility is also known in apricots. The „óriás " varieties do not fertilise each other. During the growth of fruits, cool spells (2-4 °C) caused severe fruit shed in Ceglédi óriás.
Apricot flowers produce pollen and nectar at average rates related to other fruit species, thus bees are attracted sufficiently. Bee visits are very variable according to growing site and season. Most of the bees are pollen gatherers but sometimes nectar suckers are in majority. Bee pollination is necessary not only for the self-incompatible varieties but also to enhance the yield of self-fertile varieties.
Taking the blooming and fertility relations of the cultivars into account, plantations should not exceed two rows to a particular self-incompatible varieties, and possibly two different polliniser varieties are suggested to be planted as flanking the block in question.
In commercial plantations 2 to 4 bee colonies per hectare are proposed to move for the whole blooming period.
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Comparison of macrofungi communities anti examination of macrofungi-plant interactions in forest stands in North Hungary
101-103.Views:158Parallel phyto- and mycocoenological investigations have been made since 2001 in all characteristic forest types in Borzsony Mts., North Hungary. The main aim of this work was the examination of similarities between plant and fungal communities, as well as the plant—fungi connections within certain habitats. Among the total 381 macrofungi species documented, 330 occurred in the investigated 7 forest stands. Wood-inhabiting fungal communities of coniferous stands can be separated unambiguously from those of deciduous stands. Communities of deciduous stands can be divided into two subgroups: those fructifying in wet and in semidry stands. The main factors which influence the composition of wood inhabiting fungal communities seem to be, in decreasing order: (1) crown layer composition; and (2) soil properties (probably only humidity). Wood-inhabiting fungal communities do not show any relation with the underwood layer of particular plant associations. Amongst soil inhabiting fungal communities, three groups can be separated: (1) those of coniferous stands and alderwood; (2) those of the two climax stands; and (3) those of the two edaphic deciduous stands. Classification of these communities is similar to classification of plants of underwood layers. Probably both are dependent upon soil properties (humidity and pH) of particular habitats, but the range of mycorrhizal partners is also decisive for macrofungi communities. All investigated stands are under forestry management, with low quantity of dead and infected wood, so forestry management type may have a great influence in composition of both wood and soil saprotrophic fungal communities.
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Nectar production of pear (Pyrus communis L.) cultivars
67-75.Views:299Detailed studies were made on the nectar production of 44, 16 and 18 pear cultivars, respectively, in a cultivar collection of pear during three consecutive years with highly different weather in the blooming. Results clearly show that pear does not necessarily produce small amount of nectar as stated in the world literature. In fact, pear can produce extremely high amount of nectar sometimes much higher than other temperate zone fruit trees species but its nectar production is highly subjected to weather, first of all to air temperature. Low nectar production seems to be more frequent than high one and cold weather can prevent its nectar production at all. On the other hand, results corroborate to the earlier statements on the low sugar concentration of pear nectar. There is a highly significant negative correlation between the amount of nectar produced by pear flowers and its sugar concentration (r = -0.52, n = 291, p< 0.001 for 1996, r = -0.34, n = 197, p< 0.001 for 1998). Sugar concentration in individual flowers may be up, to 40% in exceptional cases but generally it is well below 20%. Very high figures for sugar concentration in pear nectar at the literature seem to be incomprehensible. In contrast of some earlier statement in the literature no real difference could be established in the nectar production of pear cultivars, based on much more measurements than in earlier studies. Very low sugar concentration in pear nectar can explain the fact that the overwhelming majority of honeybees are pollen gatherers at pear trees even in the case of exceptionally high nectar production.
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Fruit set and yield of pear cultivars as affected by reduced bee pollination period
11-16.Views:220Results of our experiments prove that pear is more or less sensitive to the reduced bee pollination period. However, the reaction (or the sensitivity) of cultivars may be different to the reduced bee pollination. Most cultivars produce much less yield under reduced bee pollination or no yield with the exclusion of bees but in the case of some cultivars total exclusion of bees does not prevent the yield formation and what is more sometimes reduced bee pollination can be resulted in somewhat higher yield than open pollination. Typical reaction, however, is a significant yield reduction with reduced bee pollination. Pear seems to be somewhat less sensitive to the partial reduction of bee pollination period than apple or quince. The first half of the flowering period seems to be more important in yield formation because usually higher yield was resulted when pear cultivars received open pollination in the first than in the second half of the blooming period. Based on our experimental results no definite relationship between parthenocarpic capacity of cultivars and the yield under reduced bee pollination can be established. So reduced bee pollination does not seem to contribute the parthenocarpic fruit formation in pear.
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Studies on the insect pollination of fruit tree species and on closely related topics in Hungary: a bibliography of research publications
157-161.Views:165In the past decades fruit production has become more and more intensive and so the interest towards the bee pollination of fruit trees has increased in Hungary. Thus insect pollination research has become more intensive in the eighties and in the nineties. Recently, high density fruit orchards are planted of dwarf trees at more and more farms in Hungary and these need highly controlled growing practices involving insect pollination, too. This is a new challenge of insect pollination research in Hungary. So it seems to be worth to compile a list on research publications having been appeared so far to create a basis to the ongoing new research. Besides papers strictly on the insect pollination of fruit trees publications on some closely related topics, first of all on the nectar production and on other flower characteristics of fruit tree cultivars that directly influence bee activity have also been included on the list.
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Allyl isothiocyanate baited traps to monitor cabbage flea beetles (Phyllotretra spp., Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)
95-99.Views:189A new trapping concept has been proposed based on a volatile compound, allyl isothyocianate, known to be attractant to some of these insects for a long time.
(l) The first question was whether this compound is effectively attractive to all flea beetle species attacking cabbage under our conditions? Field experiments were made at different localities with non-sticky baited traps early and late spring. Eleven Phyllotreta species attacking cabbages were captured at baited traps most of them were first observed at this bait. So the bait has proved to be sufficient for use for trapping purposes effectively.
- Based on these findings a second question arose whether the captured samples reflected the specific composition of natural flea beetle populations at trapping localities? To reply the question field samples were taken at four different kinds of cabbage crops and at a fallow ground in the close vicinity by a manual sampler device suitable to detect the local composition of flea beetles and trapping was made parallel with baited and unbaited traps from early spring to early autumn. No significant differences were found between the specific structures of Phyllotreta assemblages sampled with the different methods applied. This means baited traps reflected the specific composition of local Phyllotreta populations fairly well.
- Thirdly, the most effective trap design was searched for. Some sticky and non-sticky trap designs which had been developed to capture other insects were compared. The tested sticky and funnel trap designs baited with allyl isothiocyanate captured large numbers of flea beetles attacking cabbages. Results showed that non-sticky funnel traps were more effective than sticky delta traps. Accordingly, non-sticky funnel trap designs can advantageously be used and could possibly be recommended in plant protection practice to monitor flea beetles attacking cabbages as their catching capacity is considerably greater than that of the delta type and additionally captured beetles are much cleaner, more intact and consequently their identification is much easier.
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Some flower characters, variety features and environmental effects affecting bee pollination of pear (Pyrus communis L.): a review of the results of latest research
59-66.Views:186Intensive research has been implemented on different aspects of the bee pollination of pear in Hungary in the past decade, extending to the following topics: the effect of the opening sequence of the flowers within the inflorescence of pear cultivars on the effectiveness of bee pollination; the nectar production of flowers of pear cultivars; intensity of honeybee visitation and their foraging behaviour at the flowers of pear cultivars; flower constancy of honeybees to pear plantations; competition by weeds in bloom for bee pollination in flowering pear orchards; and some aspects to the bee pollination strategies of pear plantations (the effect of the limitation of bee pollination period on the set and the yield, possible compensation of frost damage of flowers by bee pollination in pear orchards, the optimal size of single cultivar block in pear plantations). The results of these studies are reviewed in this paper and some important aspects that need further studies are outlined.
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Preliminary studies on propagating natural mason bee (mixed Osmia cornuta and O. rufa) populations in artificial nesting media at the site for fruit orchard pollination
95-101.Views:291Preliminary field management studies were made to increase the population density of native early spring Osmia species (O. cornuta, O. rufa) at fruit tree plantations in Hungary. Initial bee activity around artificial nesting media and the population increase during consecutive years were much smaller at large commercial fruit orchards under intense chemical plant protection than in small mixed fruit plantation with moderate or low pesticide usage. Osmias accepted all the four kinds of tested artificial nesting media (reed, bamboo rods, hardwood blocks and light walling blocks with drilled holes). Reed provided the best nesting conditions so it is suggested to be used in the practice. Calculations showed that under favourable conditions more than 50 to 100 thousand incoming flights (arrivals or landings) occurred in a single day around a single bee shelter and this makes enormous number of possible bee visits at fruit tree flowers. For this reason it is strongly recommended to put simple bee shelters filled with artificial nesting media into fruit orchards. Experiences show that the population sizes of Osmias increase during consecutive years without any specific additional maintenance except providing shelters and nesting media.
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Nectar production and pollination in peach
123-126.Views:429Observations were made at two growing sites, Siófok and Szatymaz, in the years 1998 and 1999, on 16 peach varieties. The production of nectar was measured, the foraging behaviour of bees, fruit set and the effect of exclusion of bee visits for different periods were observed systematically.
Production of nectar confirmed earlier data, 9.09 mg per flower in average. There was large variation due to variety and date of observation. Bee visits were relatively abundant. At favourable weather, 1 to 30 visits/flower/day occurred in the average. Artificial hand pollination increased fruit set, substantially. Open pollination yielded superior fruit set than self pollination, without bees. Supplementary bee pollination can be regarded to be beneficial to peach production as well.
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Effect of intensity of bee visitation and the foraging behaviour of honeybees on the fruit set and yield of apple (Malus domestica Borkh.)
31-39.Views:155Based on the results of our experiments, both the relative and the effective intensity of bee visitation were rather different depending on the cultivars as well as the time of the day. While it varied between relatively extreme values (40-80%) in the morning for the varieties examined, there were much smaller differences between the intensity of bee visitation at the afternoon, because the relative bee visitation attained 70-90% at each cultivar. These results showed that the differences arising from intensity of bee visitation of different cultivars should be taken into consideration more carefully in the morning in orchard planning and in estimating the number of honeybee colonies required.
The results showed that the greatest percentage of fruit set and the highest number of viable seeds per fruit were measured on branches of those cultivars that were most frequently visited by pure pollen gatherer bees as well as by bees collecting both nectar and pollen (mixed behaviour). The effect of pure pollen gatherers and of bees with mixed behaviour was highly significant from the statistical point of view on the fruit set and the number of viable seeds per fruit.
Those bees that were sucking nectar only from apple flowers did not proved to be effective pollinators at all. Relationship between their number and the fruit set as well as the number of viable seed per fruit were not significant because the coefficient of correlation was close to nil.
The ratio of side worker nectar gatherers was negatively correlated with the fruit set and the seed content of fruits of apple cultivars examined at both of our experimental sites, at Mosonmagyaróvár and Feketeerdő as well. The presence of side worker nectar gatherers resulted in higher decrease of fruit set and seed content of fruits at Feketeerd6 than at Mosonmagyaróvár, especially in the morning.
The effect of flower visiting intensity by other pollinating insects was found to be fairly variable according to the time of the day. In the morning they had no effect on the fruit set as well as on the seed content of fruits either at Mosonmagyaróvár or at Feketeerdo. However, at the afternoon, when their intensity was greater, the correlation was a bit stronger.
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Pollen morphology of fruit species
49-57.Views:1208Size and surface morphology of pollen has been studied in 87 twit varieties of 10 fruit species during the period of 1990-1995. No preceding work of that type came to our knowledge, yet.
The samples comprised a wide variety of cultivars included male sterile, self-incompatible, partially self-fertile stone fruits, diploid and hexaploid plums, diploid and triploid apples.
The large number of species and varieties facilitated the comparison of items within and between the respective species.
It was stated that the size, shape and surface morphology of pollen is genetically determined and those data, combined with other variety characters, are suitable for the classification and distinction of varieties.
In assessment of pollen size and shape, their moisture content is crucial. The major diameter of the swollen pollen as well as the length and width of the dry grains are characteristic to species and/or to variety.
The width and shape changes largely with moisture content. Large grains are proper to quince, apricot, peach and almond, medium sizes are found in apple, sweet cherry, sour cherry, European plum, whereas small size is typical to Japanese plums.
The low number of varieties studied does not allow conclusions concerning differences within pears, quinces and almonds as species. In the rest of species, valid differences have been registered as between varieties.
Within species, as apple and plum, the effect of ploidy (i.e. number of chromosomes) was expressed in the size of their pollen. In stone fruit species, the correlation between size. of anthers and size of pollen grains was positive.
Genetic relations between the self-fertile sour cherry varieties of the Pándy type (Debreceni bőtermő, Kántorjánosi, Újfehértói fürtös) as well as the self-incompatible apricots of "giant" fruit size are supposed to be analysed by pollen studies but there did not turn out any decisive conclusion, yet. Other characters also should be considered.
The assembly of pollen characters is decisive in the determination of the variety. The ratio of empty pollen grains, the grain size and the density as well as the size of the pits on the surface are best suited to distinguish pollen lots.
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Changes in the population density of the horse-chestnut leafminer, Cameraria ohridella and of its parasitoid community at Hédervár during 7 consecutive years (1998-2004)
65-73.Views:212Studies available up to now usually report changes in populations of Camel-cola ohridella and its parasitoids in a period of 3 years or shorter. Due to the limited duration of investigations, no tendencies of changes could be disclosed and, according to the general idea, the infestation level of the horse-chestnut leafminer and the rates of parasitism do not change significantly. Based on our examinations carried out throughout 7 consecutive years we suggest that the infestation level of C. ohridella is generally decreasing and the rate of parasitism is increasing. A possible adaptation of the parasitoids to this new host is showed on the changes of parasitism. In contradiction with earlier studies, authors assume that a partially stable permanent parasitoid community is being developed around the horse-chestnut leafminer. Proportions of adult moths and parasitoids hatched in the same year of sampling or the next year were determined.
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The effect of the limitation of insect pollination period on the fruit set and yield of quince cultivars (Cydonia oblonga Mill.)
103-108.Views:307The effect of the partial and/or complete limitation of the insect (bee) pollination period was studied in three consecutive years at 6 quince cultivars. Quince is greatly sensitive to the limitation. Complete limitation of insect pollination resulted in no yield and also a partial limitation of the insect pollination period (exclusion of the bees at the first or at the second half of the blooming) depressed the final set and the yield by 60-70% at least or more, sometimes down to no yield. No real correlation was found between the mean mass of fruits and the fruit set. The mass of fruit seems to be rather a character of the cultivars. A loose but significant correlation was established between the intensity of honeybee visitation and the consequent yield of quince. As much as some 4-5 and 8-10 honeybee visits are needed a day on one flower to achieve the required optimal fruit set that has been declared to be 20-25% for quince in the literature. These are extremely high bee visitation figures, accordingly, no doubt the commercial quince plantations require much higher number of honeybee colonies than other temperate zone fruit tree species to supplementary pollination
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Comparison of honeybee behaviour in blooming fruit plantations
147-151.Views:303Field observations were made on the fl ower visiting behaviour of honeybee foragers in commercial fruit plantations of apricot, Japanese plums, sour cherry, apple and pear. The number of inspected cultivars was 18. The intensity of fl ower visiting by honey bees was markedly different when data of different fruit species are compared. Most intense bee activity was registered on the Japanese plums, somewhat less on apricots, the intensity diminished signifi cantly with apples and pears. Our data presented on the honeybee visitation of Japanese plums can be regarded as new fi nding because no information has been available so far on the relative attractiveness of this fruit species compared to European fruit tree species. Japanese plums were somewhat more attractive to honeybees than apricot and much more attractive than sour cherry, apple and pear. The behaviour of honeybees as visiting the blooming trees displayed specifi c differences according to the fruit species (apricot, sour cherry, pear), which coincide largely with earlier results. It is notable that the fl ower visiting behaviour of honeybees on Japanese plums has been found to be fairly similar to the same on European plums.
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A review of the bee pollination research on temperate zone crop plants in the past decade: results and the need of further studies
7-23.Views:151Intense research was made on the pollination of cultivated crop plants in the temperate zone region during the past decade. Some 400 publications appeared on the subject and some additional 150 papers on the effect of pesticides to the most important pollinating insects, the honeybee and the wild bees. Progress of knowledge is discussed in this paper based on the most important publications. Most new results relate to field crops and deciduous fruit species and much less to field vegetables and small fruits. Great effort was taken to improve insect pollination of crops grown under cover. All these are connected to the utilization of the honeybee as a pollinating agent and much less to native or managed wild bees. However, a number of questions arose partly from the results of latest pollination research and partly from practical experiences in commercial plant production. These indicate several research tasks to understand and to solve the problems possibly in the near future. The questions concentrate on the effectiveness of bee visits in the pollination of individual crop plants and their different cultivars and on the reliable estimate of the overall amount of bees as well as on the control of bee density during the flowering periods of crops for optimal, controlled pollination in the changing environment of agricultural crop production.
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The effect of the limitation of insect pollination period on the fruit set and yield of temperate-zone fruit tree species
90-95.Views:223The duration of effective bee pollination period was limited by caging flowering branches for shorter or longer time in blooming fruit trees in a number of experiments during the past decades. In the case of self-sterile fruit species and cultivars (apples, pears, quinces, some plums, some sour cherries) even partial limitation of the effective duration of bee pollination period significantly reduced the fruit set and the yield. In the case of self-fertile apricots the effect of the total and also the influence of partial limitation of bee pollination period was the same as in the case of the mentioned self-sterile fruits. On the other hand, in the case of another self-fertile fruits (some plums, some sour cherries), the effect of partial limitation of bee pollination period was usually small, but complete (or incomplete but strong) limitation of be pollination usually resulted in a strong reduction of yield. This means that not only self-sterile but also self-fertile fruits clearly depend on insect (bee) pollination. This is because pollen dehiscence of anthers and the receptive period of stigmas do not overlap in time within the individual flowers. Stigmas in self-fertile trees, therefore, need pollen carried by bees from another flowers of the same tree (or compatible pollen from another trees). Accordingly, additional bee pollination (moving bee colonies to the orchards in flower) is needed to all kinds of temperate-zone fruit tree species when bee visitation of plantations is not abundant enough for some reasons.
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Flower characters and self-fertilization capacity in relation to the bee pollination at sour cherry cultivars
121-132.Views:211Detailed studies and comparisons were carried out on those flower characters of sour cherry cultivars that may affect bee pollination of flowers. Flower characters of sour cherry are fairly similar to other temperate zone fruit tree species. Their relatively small flowers distinguish the Cigánymeggy-types of cultivars from the flowers of tart cherries cultivars that are conspicuously larger, almost as large as the sweet cherry flowers. The relative position of flower organs was much more variable according to the season than according to the cultivars. So the differences were rather the consequences of seasonal effects than of variety features of sour cherry cultivars. As far as individual cultivars are concerned differences in the nectar production and the sugar concentration are revealed rather between groups of cultivars than between individual cultivars. The pollen production of flowers was extremely changeable in consecutive years. Most honeybees collected nectar at sour cherry flowers; pure pollen gatherers and mixed behaviour bees were half as frequent but differences among the behaviour of honeybees according to cultivars cannot be stated. The fidelity of honeybees to sour cherry is less expressed than to some other fruit tree species. Accordingly, it is very strongly suggested to take the competitive effect other plant species (weeds) flowering in and around the orchard carefully into account when organizing additional bee pollination in sour cherry plantations. Several sour cherry cultivars possess more or less self-fertilization capacity but this is greatly changeable according to the season. It has been proved that self-sterile sour cherry cultivars are sensitive even on the partial restriction of the effective time of bee pollination and it is to be stressed too that even in the case of partly self-fruitful cultivars bee pollination is also vital in yield formation because medium or strong restriction of the effective bee pollination period is of a definite negative effect on their fruit set and yield. In years with unfavourable weather the yield can dramatically be reduced sometimes down to nil. However, very high fruit set is also unfavourable because a negative correlation was detected between the final set and the mean mass of fruits.
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Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) visitation at the flowers of quince cultivars (Cydonia oblonga Mill.)
95-102.Views:185Studies were made on the bee visitation of 6 quince cultivars and on the foraging behaviour of honeybees at quince flowers for 3 consecutive years. The bee visitation was highly intense because both the plantation and its surrounding was overpopulated by honeybee colonies. Some 5.5 bee visits were counted in average at 50 opening quince flowers in 10 minutes and some 9.7 flowers were visited of the 50 ones observed meanwhile. This equals some 7 bee visits per flower per day per in good weather. Bee visitation, however, was variable and it was greatly different in the three consecutive years with fairly favourable weather. Some cultivars tended to be more and others less visited by honeybees than the others but these differences were not consequent at each occasion. No consequent relationship between the weather and the bee visitation of quince trees could be recognised. It was concluded that .other factors were responsible for the variable nature of the bee activity at quince. Most honeybees tended to collect pollen (51.6% in average for the 3 years) and usually much less gathered for nectar only (19.9%), and the rest of them were mixed behaviour foragers gathering for both (28.5%). There were some slight differences in the foraging behaviour of honeybees at some cultivars but these differences were not always consequent in consecutive years. Also the nectar production of flowers failed to affect the bee visitation and the foraging behaviour of honeybees definitely. For the variable nature of bee visitation and bee behaviour at quince flowers, supplementary pollination is needed to achieve as high set of fruits as high is required to a good crop at quince (at least 20-25% because the flower density is low of this fruit tree species). Since the intensity of bee visitation at the flowers is the only reliable estimate of the necessity of supplementary bee pollination further research is needed to explore the relationship between the number of honeybee visits and the consequent fruit set at quince.
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Susceptibility of European pear cultivars to Venturia pirina Aderh. infection at a variety collection in Hungary
41-47.Views:293Field sensitivity of 271 European pear genotypes were evaluated in a large variety collection of pear in Hungary during a nine years survey. Substantial differences were detected in the rate of pear scab infection of leaves and fruits. Some 18 per cent of the inspected genotypes remained completely free of infection even in the years with weather favouring to the disease. On the other hand, 78 % of the inspected genotypes were infected in some or more extent. The rate of infection was generally higher on leaves than on fruits. 18.6 % of the genotypes inspected were tolerant to leaf infection and their majority (81.1 %) were tolerant to fruit infection. Some one fi fth of the genotypes (19.7 %) were highly susceptible to leaf infection but only minor rate of them (2.2 %) were highly susceptible to fruit infection. There were 44 genotypes that could be regarded as tolerant to pear scab leaf and fruit infection under fi eld conditions. Some of these genotypes may be suitable to commercial pear growing with highly reduced chemical control against pear but their yield capacity and fruit quality should be evaluated.
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The effect of the fruit set on the mean mass of sour cherry fruits
17-19.Views:279Experiments were conducted with four sour cherry cultivars three of that were self-fertile and one was self-sterile. Different levels of fruit set were obtained by limiting, the bee pollination period. The limitation of the duration of the effective bee pollination period definitely affected the fruit set of all the four cvs. The mass of individual fruits seemed to be related to the final set but this relationship has not find to be definitely expressed statistically at that moderate level of maximum fruit sets (10-14 per cent at the maximum) we obtained in the experiments. For this reason, further research is needed to explore that level of fruit set that can notably reduce the fruit size (mass) to an undesirable extent.
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The effect of spring frosts on the nectar production and the bee visitation of fruit trees
86-89.Views:229Fruit tree species suffered very strong spring frosts in 1997 in Hungary. This caused partial or total damages at buds and flowers depending on site and time of blooming. It was demonstrated at a number of experiments that frost and cold weather also strongly affected the nectar production of surviving flowers. No or very little amount of nectar was measured in flowers first of all of early blooming fruit tree species (apricot) but also of pear and apple in some places. In spite of this fact intensive honeybee visitation was detected in the flowers of fruit trees that suffered partial frost damage only at those sites where honeybee colonies were placed in or at the experimental plantations and the lack of sufficient amount of nectar did not affected bee behaviour seriously on fruit flowers. This means that bad nectar production failed to affect bee visitation of fruit trees definitely. The reason for this was the fact that not only fruit trees but another early bee plants (wild plants, too) suffered frost damage. Accordingly, in lack of forage bees intensively searched for food at blooming fruit trees with some living flowers. Consequently, there was an acceptable yield at those plantations where bud and flower damage was not complete. Accordingly, intensive bee visitation (that is moving additional bee colonies to overpopulate fruit orchards with honeybees) can be an effective tool to decrease or eliminate the detrimental effect of spring frost on the yield of fruit trees where bud or fruit damage is not too high.