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  • From: "David Langham" <david_langham AT hotmail.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [ocba] FW: [NCSBA-Chapters] [Fwd: Re: [NCSBA] Freeze Impact Upon Tulip PoplarBloom]
  • Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 22:04:14 -0400




From: Webmaster <webmaster AT ncbeekeepers.org>
Reply-To: NCSBA Chapters <ncsba-chapters-list AT rtpnet.org>
To: NCSBA Chapters <ncsba-chapters-list AT rtpnet.org>
Subject: [NCSBA-Chapters] [Fwd: Re: [NCSBA] Freeze Impact Upon Tulip PoplarBloom]
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:46:40 -0400


Forwarded to Chapters List from Dr. Ambrose:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [NCSBA] Freeze Impact Upon Tulip Poplar Bloom
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:18:36 -0400
From: John Ambrose <jtambros AT gw.fis.ncsu.edu>
To: <ncsba-chapters-list AT rtpnet.org>, <ncsba-list AT rtpnet.org>

Charles,
I am sure that the beekeepers will be encouraged by the input from
Dr. Richard Braham regarding the impact of the freeze on our state's
tulip poplar crop. I have the privilege of working with Richard and he
is a very reliable and accurate source of information. I agree with
Richard's evaluation and just wanted to add a little more information
from my personal perspective over the years.
When I first came to NC in 1975, I quickly learned the importance of
the tulip poplar (TP) crop to honey production, particularly in the
Piedmont area. In fact I developed the practice of saying that, "No
matter what else happens that beekeepers in the central part of the
state could always rely on the TP crop". Then in the early or mid
1980's we had a freeze in late April (I think it was April 29th) and
much of the vegetation and the blooms on the poplar actually turned
black. A few weeks can make a big difference in the effect on
different plants.
Based on a number of years of record keeping we had listed the
beginning of tulip poplar bloom as April 25th with a blooming period of
about 29 days. It certainly looked like there would be no TP crop that
year. But there was - it was reduced but TP still made a major
contribution to honey production that year. Tulip poplar is like many
flowering plants in that the blooms develop at different times and even
the late freeze of the 1980's wasn't enough to eliminate the TP honey
crop that year.

Considering that the freeze this year was two weeks earlier than in
the 1980's (fewer buds had opened up to form susceptible blooms), that
many of the TP buds examined by Dr. Braham were still in the tight bud
stage (which is more resistant to cold damage), and that at least 1/2 of
the buds were probably not damaged indicates that we shouldn't give up
on the production of a good TP crop this year. If we also remember,
that the tulip polar blooms are very proficient nectar producers - often
one bloom will produce almost a teaspoon of nectar, then there is still
a lot of potential nectar for the bees to collect. In fact one of the
complaints that I heard from beekeepers in the past was that there
usually weren't enough bees to collect all of the nectar from the tulip
poplar blooms. So unless something else happens to reduce the number of
bees or the remaining number of potential TP blooms, it looks like we
can still have a good year.
John

>>> "Charles Heatherly" <heath7 AT bellsouth.net> 4/13/2007 8:24 PM >>>
You may have seen news this week of the heavy damage to many North
Carolina, apple, peach, pear and berry crops as result of the hard
freeze over the Easter weekend with economic damage estimated at more
than $100 million.

I asked Debbie Hammric of the NC Farm Bureau specifcally about potential
damage to the tulip poplar bloom since that is the largest single source
of our honey flow throughout the state. She in turn, passed the request
on to an expert on the subject, Dr. Richard Braham, of the NCSU
Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources.

Here is his assessment:

" Based upon my cursory examination of poplar trees around campus, I
> estimate that about one-half of the flowers were impacted by cold
> temperatures. The severity of the impact to these flowers is not
> yet clear, however. The remaining one-half are still in relatively
> tight buds, and likely escaped all injury. Owing to the large
> number of flowers produced by poplar trees, I suspect that even the
> loss of one-half of the flowers will have only a moderately low impact
> on the availability of nectar for honey production. My best guess. "

Dr. Richard Braham, NCSU Department of Forestry and
Environmental Resources 4-13-07


That should be encouraging news to most North Carolina Beekeepers.
Charles Heatherly
NCSBA President
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  • [ocba] FW: [NCSBA-Chapters] [Fwd: Re: [NCSBA] Freeze Impact Upon Tulip PoplarBloom], David Langham, 04/17/2007

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