North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

This may be old info to long-time fruit growers, but I stumbled across 
something last week, that I'm going to try.

I've got a little 'French Pink" pussy willow planted in a wet spot at the 
edge of the yard, that was in full bloom a week or so back, and was 
literally swarming with small bee/wasp type insects - I don't know enough 
to determine if they were Orchard Mason bees or some other non-honeybee 
pollenator types.
Plums, apricots, were in bloom, and a few peach blossoms were open, but 
very few pollenators around them.  Think I'll prune the pussy willow and 
stick some of the cuttings in the ground along the property line near the 
stonefruit section of the orchard.  May be too late for this year, but it 
might help attract/maintain populations in following seasons.


Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY