Sjemenarstvo, Vol. 16 No. 5, 1999.
Stručni rad
RED CLOVER AND ALFALFA POLLINATION BY HONEYBEES (APIS MELIFERA)
Stevo Halagić
; Bc Institut za oplemenjivanje i proizvodnju bilja d.d., Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Honeybees also participate in opening of red clover and alfalfa flowers. Research results concerning the role of honeybees in pollination and pod formation are very ambiguous. However, recent investigations show that flower pollination could be up to four times higher in the presence of honeybees. Young bees visit and pollinate flowers more intensively. lf honeybees are got used to red clover and alfalfa nectar they will visit the fields more often. Thus, it is recommended to place at flowering a sufficient number of hives (4 – 6 hives per ha) on red clover and alfalfa seed field in order to ensure better fertilization. Bee keepers have to be informed that in favorable climatic conditions for nectar formation honey bees could gather from 3.6 to 4.4 kg of nectar per hive during 10 days. Red clover and alfalfa seed production could be planned in such a way that the flowering time is not overlapping with the flowering time of other more attractive honey crops. It is well known that many factors influence red clover seed yield such as soil quality, fertilization, weather conditions, pests, diseases etc. Nevertheless, it has to be borne in mind that without insects as pollinators in time of flowering there will be no fertilization at all. Strange enough, many research papers written by a number of botanists, entomologists and ecologists intend to show that our domestic honeybee cannot pollinate red clover at all. lt was explained that average tongue length of Central-European honeybee is about 6 mm so that bees can not reach the nectar at the base of very narrow 10 mm-long red clover corolla tube.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
168122
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.6.1999.
Posjeta: 1.555 *