Fairchild Need Both Honey Bees, Pollinator Trees

Item Type Article

Authors Moffett, Joseph O.; Rodney, D. Ross

Publisher College of Agriculture, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ)

Journal Progressive Agriculture in Arizona

Rights Copyright © Arizona Board of Regents. The University of Arizona.

Download date 26/09/2021 10:05:54

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/300326 Fairchild Tangerines Need Both Honey Bees Pollinator Trees

/l; yçïr, by Joseph O. Moffett

and D. Ross Rodney* .., *

Introduction This study was undertaken to de- termine the pollination requirements of Fairchild tangerines.Furr (1964 ) developed this hybrid by crossing '41F"'46.,..' . "r Orlando and tan- .x- . gerine.Krezdorn and Robinson (1958) found that Orlando ng have a greatly increased yield when . cross -pollinated. The other parent of 4r, the Fairchild , Clementine Fig. 1. - This Fairchild tangerine tree is caged with an Orlando tangelo. A colony of ( Algerian)tangerine,needscross - honey bees is located between the trees.Other Fairchild trees were caged both to pollination to produce a normal yield include and exclude honey bees. Table 1.Yield of from Fairchild tangerine trees exposed to( Oppenheimer, 1948 and Van Horn different pollination at University of Arizona Yuma Mesaand Todd, 1954). Therefore, Reuther et al. (1967) suggests that provisions Branch Experiment Station. be made for cross -pollination of this Yield (lb.) from new hybrid until the facts can be learned about its pollination require- Trees caged ments. Repli- Trees caged with honey bees cation to exclude Trees caged Field + Orlando No. honey bees with honey bees trees tangelo 1969 Material and Methods 1 o Not tested 6 16 2 o 11 23 The orchard used in the two-year 3 o o 8 study (1969 -70) of pollination is lo- 4 <1 36 15 cated at the University of Arizona Avg. /tree 0 13 16 1970 ° Joseph O. Moffettis Entomologist with the Entomology Research Divisionof the 5 Not tested 25 47 23 Agricultural Research Service, 6 o 55 U.S. Depart - ,. 28 ment of Agriculture, and D. Ross Rodney is 7 10 75 56 Horticulturist with the Agricultural 8 11 92 Experi- 25 ment Station and Departmentof Horticul- Avg. /tree 12 67 33 ture, University of Arizona.

6 Yuma Mesa Branch Experiment Sta- tion where 99% of the insect cross - pollination of is done by honey es Apis melli f era L.( Moffett and dney 1971 ). The Orlando tangelos Vand Fairchild tangerines, both on various rootstocks, were interplanted in 16 rows of 12 trees per row in March,1966. Immediately to the south were 11 rows of Red Blush ; the other three sides were adjacent to or near several other citrus cultivars including Marsh grapefruit, Lisbon , Valencia , Ham- lin orange, and Clementine tangerine. Then in 1969, four of the Fairchild tangerine trees were caged individ- ually to exclude honey bees during the blooming period.Also each of a second group of four trees was caged with both a colony of honey bees and an Orlando tangelo tree.The cages were placed over the trees immedi- ately before flowering and removed at the end of the flowering in both years.In addition, four trees were left uncaged and thus exposed to the normal population of honey bees and to the citrus cultivars. The weight of Fig. 2. - This Fairchild tangerine tree was not caged.Several other citrus cultivars were nearby, and a moderately heavy population of honey bees was present to provide the fruit harvested from each tree in cross- pollination. 1969 was recorded ( Table 1). In 1970, the test was similar excepthad a slightly smaller( not signifi- level.Then, since more seeds per that four trees were caged with a cant )yield( 53 )pounds than thefruit indicate good pollination, the ony of honey bees, instead of being trees receiving the combined treat-pollen of Orlando tangelo may be ed so bees were excluded.Also ment.( The overall yield increasedpartly incompatible with Fairchild the weight of the harvest and numberfrom 1969 to 1970 because of thetangerine. of seeds per 10 fruit were recorded fornormal growth of the young trees.) each tree ( Tables 1 and 2). In 1970, fruit from trees caged with Conclusions A t test was used to compare eachhoney bees only had an average 2.2 GrowersofFairchildtangerines treatmentdirectlywithallotherseeds per fruit ( total 67 ), significant-should interplant pollinator trees at treatments.The data are shown inly fewer (5% level) than fruit fromproper intervalsintheir orchards. Tables 1 and 2. trees exposed to bees + tangelo ( 6.0They should also be sure that the seeds per fruit; total of 240). Also, population of honey bees is adequate Results and Discussion trees exposed to natural cross- polli-to provide good pollination. The dataforallreplicatesarenation had significantly more seeds Citrus cultivars other than Orlando shown in Tables 1 and 2.In 1969,per fruit( 21.5; total of 861) thantangelos may be better pollinators of the four trees caged to exclude beesboth other groups of trees at the 1%Fairchild tangerines. produced only one fruit; those caged with bees + Orlando tangelo pro- duced a total of 62 pounds of fruit,Table 2.Number of seeds in 10 fruit of Fairchild tangerines ex- which was a significantly better yield posed to different pollination practices at University of at the 1% level of confidence.Also, Arizona Yuma Mesa Branch Experiment Station. 1970. in 1970, the trees caged with bees and no pollinator tree produced only No. of seeds in fruit from one -third as much fruit ( 46) pounds as the trees caged with a pollinator Trees caged tree + bees (132) pounds so the Repli- Trees caged with honey bees combined treatment again gave a sig- cation Field with + an Orlando No. trees honey bees tangelo tree nificantly better yield(1 % level). The uncaged trees produced twice as 1 215 25 91 much fruit( 269) pounds astrees 2 198 No fruit set 63 3 222 10 51 caged with Orlando tangelo + bees 4 226 32 35 (significantly better at 5% level) in Avg. /No. ":?0, but in 1969, the uncaged trees seeds /fruit 22.5 2.2 6.0

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