From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
To: NAFEX List <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] Update on everything blooming at once
Date: Fri, 07 May 2010 08:47:39 -0500
A few weeks ago, I expressed some worry about pollination here, since
all of my fruit trees pretty well bloomed at once (and so did ornamental
trees all around me). It's been an unusual spring for us. And I just
haven't been seeing many bees at all.*
But it looks like I didn't need to worry. Most of my trees seem to have
set fruit pretty well. I'm still not sure about the peaches. And I must
make an exception for the Dapple Dandy and (especially) Flavor Supreme
pluots, but I'm pretty sure that they're just naturally shy bearers.
(Certainly, the Flavor Grenade pluot is again loaded with fruit.)
But from what I can tell right now, everything blooming at once hasn't
been a problem. I just thought people here might be interested in that.
*PS. I've had a terrible time trying to get blue orchard (or mason) bees
established here. I keep buying bees and trying it again, but without
any luck. But I've had native leaf-cutter bees colonize my nesting
tubes, until I must have had 100 tubes or more full of bees at the end
of last year.
These bees emerge later than the blue orchard bees, so they're not as
useful in pollinating my early-blooming fruit trees. But I was still
glad to have them. So I was disappointed to discover that NONE of these
apparently survived the winter. I didn't have room in my refrigerator,
so I kept them in my unheated, detached garage, and they all died.
It's been frustrating. But despite all this - and despite not seeing
many bees of any kind this spring - I still seem to have gotten pretty
good pollination. As I say, I'm not sure about the peaches yet, but I
really can't complain about anything else.
--
An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to
stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that
would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from
oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that
will reach to himself. - Thomas Paine
[NAFEX] Update on everything blooming at once,
William C. Garthright, 05/07/2010