Almond Orchard

Supplemental Pollination Shows Potential

By Cecilia Parsons Every year in early February, University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) farm advisor Elizabeth Fichtner said, she gets calls from anxious almond growers about using supplemental pollination in their orchards to ensure profitable yields. Challenging WeatherGrowers have concerns about almond pollination, she said, when the extended weather forecasts call for cool, cloudy[…]

Can mechanically-applied pollen either supplement bees, or ensure an almond crop in the event of bee inefficacy or unavailability?

Written by Elizabeth J. Fichtner, Farm Advisor, UCCE Tulare County and Katherine Wilson, Staff Research Associate, UCCE Tulare County Each year during almond bloom, a fraction of growers try artificial pollination as either a supplement to bee pollination or an insurance policy against bee-inefficacy.  Several factors may impact the availability and efficacy of bees as[…]

Kiwi Orchard

Artificial Pollination in Kiwifruit

By Tacconi Gianni and Michelotti Vania Abstract In the last 10 years, kiwifruit vine artificial pollination became a widespread practice useful to increase fruit quality. Kiwifruit size is directly proportional to the number of seeds, i.e., to the number of fertilized ovaries. However, artificial pollination efficiency depends on many parameters such as pollen quality (germinability, humidity,[…]