THE EFFECT ON YIELD BY THE BEES VISITS ON RASPBERRY FLOWERS (RUBUS IDEAUS L.) THE SUCCESSIVE RAMIFICATIONS IN INFLORESCENCE

In experiments carried out in the years 1991–1992 on a plantation in the Lublin region it has been confirmed that when honeybees are the main visitors (78–95 %) to raspberry flowers, they play the major role in fruit formation.
The lack of honeybees in plots with isolated flowers did not decrease the amount of fruit developed from 100 flowers, as compared comparison to freely flowers visited by the insects but did cause some fruit deformation.
Many styles in the upper part of the conical receptacle were not pollinated, drupelet number in a single fruit, which was on the average 40 % lower set from the first flowers decrease 20–50 %, whereas in the case of the second flowers in an inflorescence this drop amounted to 10–62 %. Moreover, these fruits often crumbled into individual drupelets after being separated from the receptacle.
As a result the mean annual yield decreased by 1.5 – 4.7 kg per plot (15 m²) depending on the cultivar and the total yield per 1 ha was consequently lower by 26–42 %.

VI International Symposium on Rubus and Ribes

K. Szklanowska, J. Wieniarska

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1993.352.33