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Bee pollination benefits for vegetables
Extract from Bulletin 4298: Honeybee pollination
The data in this report on the number of beehives required for each hectare of crop are estimates based on experience of researchers in Australia and overseas. The recommended numbers vary greatly and are due to differences between variety requirements, localities and the influence of local feral bee populations on pollination. Therefore, the reader will often be presented with more than one recommendation for a given number of hives per hectare.
Beekeeper trucks can get bogged in these crops because of soil moisture conditions. If requested by beekeepers, growers should have tractors available for assistance.
Select the name of a vegetable crop to go to information about it.
Artichoke
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Globe: Cynara scolymus, C. cardunculus
Jerusalem: Helianthus tuberosus
Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Hives per hectare:
2 to 3.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- 30 per cent of crop production can be attributed to the activity of honeybees (C. scolymus).
- C. cardunculus is an important honey source (Argentina).
Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis)
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Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Male plants should be planted within 1.5 m of female plants for seed production.
Hives per hectare:
5; 1 to 2.
Honey production:
Light medium amber, acid taste.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- 90 per cent of crop production can be attributed to the activity of honeybees.
- 6.2 g of seed in cage excluding insects. 775 g of seed produced with a 30-hive apiary nearby (USA).
Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica)
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Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Grown as an export crop in Carnarvon.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- 100 per cent of crop production can be attributed to the activity of honeybees.
Brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera)
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Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- 30 per cent of crop production can be attributed to the activity of honeybees.
- Honeybee cross-pollination resulting in hybrid seed production is imperative to maintain high quality Brussels sprout production.
- Honeybees can discriminate between Brussels sprout cultivars based on plant height and flower colour, suggesting optimal cross-pollination between inbred lines should be with plants of similar height and flower colour.
Cabbage (also Chinese cabbage)(Brassica oleracea var. capitata)
Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
B. chinensis/pekinensis: Chinese cabbage grown mainly for export.
Pollination fee:
$35 per hive in Tasmania in 1989.
Nectar production:
Average sugar content per flower is 1.1 to 1.7 mg.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- 30 per cent of crop production can be attributed to the activity of honeybees.
- Increased seed yield, on average, was 17.2 and 18.2 times (no bees versus bees) (China).
- 96 per cent of flowers set seed for B. pekinensis.
- Apis species increased seed yields in B. pekinensis (Nepal).
- 85 to 100 per cent of pollinators were honeybees (USSR).
- Pollination increased the seed crop of cabbage by 300 per cent (USSR).
Carrots (Daucus carota, D. glochidiatus)
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Hives per hectare:
7 to 8 for seed production, 8 bees per sq m.
Pollination fee:
$27 per hive in Tasmania in 1989.
Nectar production:
Important source of nectar. Quantity of nectar produced between two seed lines can differ, resulting in low pollen transfer. The sugar percentage in nectar ranges from 32 to 55 per cent.
Honey production:
Honey is light amber.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- 9 per cent pollination by honeybees.
- 90 per cent pollinated by flies.
- Seed yields with plants caged with honeybees were 864 kg/ha. Open plots gave 673 kg/ha whilst caged plants excluding all insects gave 112 kg/ha (USA).
- The development of male sterile lines and the exploitation of hybrid vigour has made cross-pollination essential for seed production.
- Honeybees are the principal pollinator of carrot seed crops, especially of cytoplasmic male-sterile carrots.
Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis)
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Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production. All B. oleracea flowers secrete nectar freely.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- Apis species are important pollinators (India).
Celery (Apium graveolens)
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Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Hives per hectare:
Eggplant (Solanum melongena)
Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Hives per hectare:
2 to 3.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- 56 per cent increase in fruit set.
Gourds (Lagenaria spp. (siceraria))
Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Hives per hectare:
Maize (sweet corn) (Zea mays)
Flowering:
July to Sept. and Feb. to March (Ord River).
Pollen production:
About 1.64 mg per flower. One bee requires 8 to 10 flowers for a pollen load. The pollen yield per tassel was 1.07 g or
21.5 kg/ha. Pollen contained 21 per cent protein. No nectar; wind-pollinated.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- Not known.
- Honeybees will use pollen if no other pollen available.
Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)
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Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Hives per hectare:
A high density is recommended.
Peas (field peas, split peas) (Pisum sativum)
50 plants per sq m. Production per hectare has ranged from 0.66 to 0.88 tonnes/ha (1987 to 1992, ABS).
Flowering:
Mid-August. Harvest in October.
Pollination fee:
$35 per hive in 1992.
Pollination caution:
Farmers normally spray an insecticide about halfway into the season.
Honey production:
Nil.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- Not known.
- Beekeeper, Mr J. Silcock, has placed honeybees into 12 ha crops. He has observed that the variety Dundale produced twice as much as another variety when honeybees were placed near the crops. He has to rely on York gum in the same area for a honey and pollen source for the bees.
- Research by Department of Agriculture shows the percentage of pea pollen of the total pollen intake from hives near a pea crop was 57 per cent for sample 1 and 86 per cent for sample 2 (Silcock's hives). Honeybees are therefore attracted to the crop and by inference, cross-pollination of pea flowers must occur.
Radish (Raphanus sativus)
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Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Hives per hectare:
5 or higher.
Nectar production:
Average sugar content per flower was 0.68 to 0.98 mg.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- Honeybees are the most important pollinators.
- 22 per cent increase in seed yield (USSR).
- Honeybees are 77 to 94 per cent pollinators of radish (USSR).
- Pollination increased seed crop by 22 per cent.
Squash (Cucurbita maxima)
Flowering:
Monoecious. Honeybees forage squash flowers most intensively in the morning, particularly between 8 am. and 9 am.
Hives per hectare:
2 to 12.
Nectar production:
Honeybees visited squash flowers for nectar only.
Honey production:
51 to 100 kg/ha.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- Five times more fruit than caged plots.
- Yield in an open plot decreased with distance (15 to 195 m) from apiary.
- Yield was 60 baskets per hectare with no colonies and 70 baskets per hectare using 7.5 hives per hectare.
- Honeybee-pollinated squash average weight was 47 to 57 kg, whilst other unspecified methods gave 25 to 30 kg average weight (USSR).
- Fruit set rates and size increased with multiple bee visits.
Swede (Brassica napus var. napobrassica)
Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatus)
Nectar production:
High.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- Natural cross-pollination is by honeybees.
Turnip (Brassica rapa var. rapa)
Can be honeybee-pollinated, mainly for seed production.
Hives per hectare:
2.5; 17.
Review of bee pollination benefits:
- Seed yield was three times greater with bees than in bee-excluded plots (USSR).
- 60 per cent of visitors to flowers were honeybees.