North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

We've had fairly normal weather iin eastern Mass., but there were plenty of 
bumblebees out when my apricot bloomed last week. 

Last year I was worried about the apricots, because I didn't see any bees.  
But I had good fruit set, presumably from the flies and what not.  Of 
course, last year all my apricots dropped before reaching full size.  They 
had soft nuts inside, and the ones I cut open seemed to have worms in the 
kernal, which might be related to the fruit dropping.  If anyone has any 
suggestions on what went wrong or how to fix it this year, I'd be very 
grateful.
___
Ginda

...... Original Message .......
On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:47:54 -0500 "William C. Garthright" 
<billg@inebraska.com> wrote:
>
>> For those of you in the areas hit hard last year during the Easter 
freeze, that were then hit with the severe drought, are you seeing any 
honey bees this spring? In years past, my fruit trees are buzzing with 
thousands of them, but this spring, I have not seen a single one. In fact, 
I have not seen much in the way of any pollinating insects, except 
carpenter bees, which don't pollinate well due to their habit of cheating 
by cutting holes in the base of flowers.
>>   
>
>
>I've been very disappointed, so far, at the lack of bees this spring. 
>Even my solitary bees don't seem to be emerging from their tubes (after 
>spending the winter in my refrigerator). Last year, it took them about 
>three days to emerge. This year, it's been two weeks and I'm still 
>seeing little sign of them. I don't know what happened.
>
>All the while my apricot bloomed, I saw only two honey bees and a couple 
>of butterflies on the blossoms. I've got a few solitary bees on my plums 
>now, but not many (and the trees are right beside the bee shelters). I 
>don't see any bees at all around my trees that are blooming elsewhere in 
>the yard. Also, I haven't seen a bumblebee yet, but perhaps they don't 
>emerge until later?
>
>Note that we were hit by the April freeze last year, so there were no 
>flowers anywhere for weeks, but we didn't get the drought. It was bone 
>dry in June and July, but that was pretty normal here. And the rest of 
>the year was a bit wetter than usual.
>
>Bill
>Lincoln, NE (zone 5)
>
>-- 
>There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring 
>a diverse, independent and free media. - Bill Moyers
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