North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kristine Naess <kristine.naess@lesbuissons.qc.ca>]

Apparently you're right- honey bees prefer a whole lot of things to kiwi 
flowers:

www.apimondia.org/apiacta/slovenia/en/gardi.pdf

Maybe if you slip some kiwi pollen into your neighbors hives!


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alan Haigh 
  To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 5:08 PM
  Subject: [NAFEX] Bees Don't Like my Kiwis


  So much in the kiwi literature expounds on the necessity of nearby male
  plants for reliable cropping, but I can't help but wonder if this isn't a
  misunderstanding of the pollination issues with this fruit.


  I have plenty of male argutas in the mix but watching closely the last
  couple of years I notice that my various native pollinators are not very
  interested in cold hardy kiwis (actinidia arguta).


  The funny thing is that it's supposed to be pears that the buzzers avoid but
  those blossoms are well tended in my orchard and others I manage.


  I don't know if it's because there are more attractive flowers during  kiwis
  bloom time or what- certainly the multi-flora roses are drawing huge crowds
  as did the blackberry blossoms. I can't really eliminate the competition to
  find out (although I'm at constant warfare with the multiflora)  but almost
  everything else is getting some action.  The kiwis seem to be the
  wallflowers that no one wants to dance with.


  Of course, my heroic carpenter bees make a little effort, maybe in the
  spirit of keeping the plain girl at the dance from being depressed, but I
  suspect this will be another year of very light fruit set. It has been many
  years since there's been a bumper crop.


  I can prune the plants for tremendous floral display (and they are pretty
  and very aromatic flowers, especially on the Rosanna that hangs over the
  entrance of my house) and I can make the flowers easy to find, by pruning
  away interfering shoots, but I can't make the bees come.   The good news is
  that I’m not crazy about kiwis anyway and their main function is to hide
  things on my property I don’t want to see.
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