How to pollinate grapes with bees

Pollination of grapes by bees 

Vineyards occupy vast areas in the world, especially a lot of vineyards in countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, France, Romania, Central Asia, China, Australia, Chile, USA and many other countries. Is it possible to pollinate grapes with bees? What is the effect of bees pollinating grapes? What to consider when bees pollinate grapes.

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Bee pollination of grapes or artificial pollination? 

As a rule, no one takes the bees to the vineyards. It is believed that grapes are wind-pollinated plants and may well do without pollinators. Nevertheless, artificial pollination of grapes is widespread among winegrowers. Because the flowering period of grapes is short, only 7-10 days, and good, high-quality pollination of grapes can be prevented by calm weather, fogs and rains, pollinators, including bees, often ignore grapes due to the fact that others bloom during this period. good honey plants.

For artificial pollination of grapes, growers use down jackets, fan sprayers and a host of other devices.

Especially often it is necessary to carry out artificial pollination on grape varieties that are prone to shedding of the ovary and pea berries, among which are classic grape varieties such as Saperavi, Riesling, Chasselas and many others. In addition, there are grape varieties that need pollination with pollen from another grape variety (Chaush and others). Therefore, we can conclude that artificial pollination entails large labor costs and does not provide effective pollination and cannot replace the pollination of grapes by insects, including honey bees.

Experience of pollination by bees of grapes

Currently, there is information about the pollination of grapes by bees in Moldova, Ukraine, Crimea, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

At one time, experiments were carried out in Transcarpathia on the use of bees for the pollination of grapes.

Pollination by bees was carried out by 2 varieties Nimrang and Muskadel.

The results of the experiments are as follows, Nimrang bushes without pollination by bees had the following results.

Without pollination, 100 berries weighed 166.6 g, and the weight of 1 gronka averaged 180 g.

With artificial pollination, the weight of 100 berries increased to 170.5 g, and the weight of the toast increased to 290.5 g.

In the case of pollination by bees, the weight of 100 berries increased to 185.7 g, and the weight of the toast to 325.1 g.

The results of the experiments carried out on the variety Muskadel showed the following results.

The weight of 100 berries without pollination was 47.2 g, and the weight of the toast was 85 g.

With artificial pollination, the weight of 100 berries was 69 g, and the weight of the toast was 120 g.

When vine bushes were pollinated by bees, the weight of 100 berries was 90 g, and the weight of the toast was 145 g.

Thus, when the grapes were pollinated with the help of bees, the weight of the gronka almost doubled.

How to increase bee attendance of vine flowers

At the same time, to increase the attendance of grape inflorescences by the bees, they were fed flavored sugar syrup. For its preparation, grape inflorescences were immersed in the cooled syrup. For one bee family, two inflorescences of grapes and 200 g of sugar were consumed daily. Families were fed during 10 days of flowering grapes.

Also, experiments on the pollination of grapes by bees were carried out in Kazakhstan. The experiments were carried out on such grape varieties as Saperavi and Nimrang. The number of bees for pollination was 3.1-3.5 bee colonies per 1 hectare of vineyard.

It was noted that in areas where there were no bees and no artificial pollination was carried out, shedding of the ovary, crushing of berries, and low productivity were noted to the greatest extent.

It was especially emphasized that in the inflorescences, which are pollinated by bees, the number of berries was small, but they were large, due to which the yield increased, in some cases by one and a half times.

Thus, the yield of the Saperavi variety, without pollination by bees, was 102.6 centners, and after pollination it was 142.6 centners, that is, 38% more.

In the case of pollination of Nimrang grapes by bees, in the conditions of the South Kazakhstan region, the yield of grapes increased by 48%.

Thus, pollination of grapes by bees contributes to an increase in the yield of grapes. Of no small importance is that after pollination by bees, the shedding of the ovary decreases and the mass of berries increases, so the grapes of table varieties will have a more marketable appearance, which will favorably affect the subsequent sale of grapes.

Features of pollination of grapes by bees

What should a beekeeper and a farmer pay attention to when pollinating grapes by bees?

Of the features of pollination of grapes by bees, the following points can be distinguished.

• Vine flowers produce little nectar, but they produce pollen which bees readily collect, vine flowers have a pleasant scent that attracts bees.
• Bees willingly visit sites, even very remote from the apiary, if they bloom before the rest of the vineyard.
• To attract more bees to the grapes use flavored top dressing. In this case, use Syrup was used at a concentration of 1:1 or 1:2, 200-400 g per bee family, once a day, with the addition of 10 inflorescences per 1 liter of syrup, the inflorescences are added to the cooled syrup.
• The method of protein starvation of bees was used, which forced them to visit vine flowers more often to collect pollen.
• Also, if honey plants bloomed nearby, which attracted bees, along with flavored top dressing, the bees were given a rejecting top dressing, which was a 50% calcium chloride infused on the flowers of plants that most distracted the bees from the grapes. The rejection feed was given simultaneously with the stimulating feed, but in a different feeder.
• It is also important to ensure that during the flowering period of the grapes there are no treatments for diseases and pests, which negatively affects the bees.
• In case it is necessary to cross-pollinate the grapes. In this case, bee training syrup is prepared using the flowers of those grape varieties that need to be pollinated. For example, if it is necessary for cross-pollination of such grape varieties as Chaush and Shasla, then Chaush and Shasla inflorescences are added to the syrup, obtaining a syrup with two smells.
• As a norm, for effective pollination of grapes by bees, it is possible to accept the export of 2-4 bee colonies per hectare of grapes.
• The hives are placed in such a way that the bees fly along the rows and from the bottom up. For a more complete coverage of large vineyards, bee hives can be distributed at separate points around the perimeter of the entire field. Moreover, the vineyards are divided into quarters, and it is possible to drive cars and install beehives, both in the center of the vineyard and along the edges.

Features of the placement of bees near the vineyard

Beekeepers should also take into account a few other things that are not related to the pollination of grapes, but which must be taken into account if their apiary is located next to the vineyard.

Cases have been noted when honeydew develops on grapes, in which case the bees can even stop honey collection from flowering honey plants, and switch to collecting honeydew on grapes.

Bees, as a rule, cannot bite through the skin of grapes themselves, and therefore they are indifferent to the berries. But this is only as long as the skin of the grape is whole. If the grape skin is damaged by wasps, hornets, birds, hail, sudden rain, bees are very willing to visit grapes to collect juice. At the same time, growers note such a feature that the bees take the juice from the damaged berries, and prevent the occurrence of fungal diseases on the tongs. In these cases, it is noted that the gronk remains healthy and whole, and only the peel and seeds from the damaged berry remain. In cases where there are no bees in the vineyard, there have been cases when the disease that appeared on damaged berries spreads to the entire field, which greatly reduces the yield.

These points must be taken into account by beekeepers in order to organize wintering so that honey that is collected from honeydew or grape juice does not remain in the hives. Such honey is not considered natural, it is desirable to pump it out completely and give the bees sugar syrup as winter food.