Bumblebee for tomato pollination

In September, greenhouse tomatoes in the suburbs of Beijing entered the flowering season, and yellow flowers have bloomed one after another. In the past, this season was the busiest time for vegetable farmers, and they needed to take a brush to pollinate tomato flowers. The number of tomato flowers per mu is between 50, 000 and 100000. Pollination is a tiring and arduous work. Now, the busy vegetable farmers in the greenhouse are gone, replaced by big bumblebees flying among the tomato flowers. It turns out that this is a bumblebee pollination instead of artificial pollination technology popularized by Beijing Plant Protection Station. This technology not only reduces the labor intensity and labor cost of tomato pollination, but also avoids the use of chemical hormones and reduces the amount of chemical pesticides. To improve the quality of tomato and increase the yield of tomato, a small bumblebee successfully solved five major production problems. However, there are still many vegetable farmers who have doubts about the application of this technology, so let's answer your questions.

Do tomatoes have to be pollinated by bumblebees? can they use bees?

Tomato and other tomato fruit crops have a special smell, bees do not like to visit flowers; tomato flowers have long stamens, it is difficult for bees to collect, and the pollination effect is poor, so bees can not be used to pollinate tomatoes. Bumblebee is insensitive to the smell of tomato, has a long kiss and a loud sound, so it is very suitable for pollination of tomato.

Why does bumblebee pollination have better quality and higher yield than artificially pollinated tomatoes?

The disadvantages of artificial pollination: first, artificial pollination is relatively extensive in the choice of pollination period. Generally, tomato begins to pollinate uniformly after flowering. At this time, the maturity of tomato flowers is uneven, and many flowers pollinate too early or too late. It will affect the quality and yield of tomato in the later stage. Second, during artificial pollination, improper control of pollination intensity or hormone concentration will lead to a substantial increase in the abnormal fruit of tomato and a decline in quality. Third, artificial pollination will have some problems such as flower leakage and repeated pollination, which will also affect the quality and yield.

The advantages of bumblebee pollination: bumblebees will choose to collect pollen at the most mature period of pollen, when the pollination period and pollen maturity are the most suitable, and it is cross-pollination, so that the rate of abnormal fruit of pollinated tomato is low, and the nourishing tissue is full. the shape of the fruit is positive, the color change is uniform, and the quality and yield will be obviously high. In addition, there are few cases of missed pollination when using bumblebee pollination, which ensures the pollination rate.

What are the economic benefits of tomato bumblebee pollination?

Cost accounting: the number of artificial pollination of tomato in one mu is about 14 times, each pollination time is half a day, the whole pollination period takes about 7 days, the employment cost is about 120 yuan per day, and the total cost of artificial pollination is about 840 yuan. One box of bumblebee pollination can satisfy tomato pollination in one mu of land, and the price is 400 yuan. In addition, the input of green control technology such as insect control net is about 300 yuan per year. The total cost of bumblebee pollination is about 700 yuan, which is about 140 yuan less than artificial pollination.

Output accounting: the yield of tomato bumblebee pollination is about 20% higher than that of artificial pollination, the yield per mu can be increased by about 1000 kg, and the increase and income is about 3000 yuan. The rate of abnormal fruit is reduced, the quality is improved, the sales price is increased, and the income per mu is increased by about 2000 yuan, so the output is increased by about 5000 yuan.

Due to the decrease of pollination cost and the increase of output, tomato bumblebee pollination has obvious economic benefits, and the economic benefit can be increased by more than 5000 yuan per mu.

Why are bumblebee pollinated tomatoes green and safe?

Because bumblebees are highly sensitive to pesticides, random use of pesticides will lead to bumblebee poisoning, so the use of bumblebees to pollinate tomatoes in the greenhouse must reduce the amount of chemical pesticides and support green pest prevention and control technology. to provide a safe pollination environment for bumblebees. It can be said that bumblebee is the "supervisor" of quality and safety in tomato greenhouse and the "image spokesman" of green safety.

Key points of pollination technique of tomato bumblebee

Suitable season for pollination of ◆ tomato bumblebee

Suitable for spring and late autumn tomato stubble, summer stubble mouth temperature is high, bumblebees can not adapt, the current application technology is not mature.

The number of bumblebees in a box of ◆, the area that can be pollinated and the time for use

The number of bumblebees in a box is 40-60, and the maximum pollination area is about 1.2 mu. After exceeding the area, bumblebees need to be increased. The use time of a box of bumblebees is about 4-6 weeks.

◆ bumblebee entry time

More than 5% of the tomatoes can be put into bumblebees when they bloom, and enter the shed in the evening as far as possible.

The location of ◆ bumblebees in the shed

When the temperature is appropriate in spring and autumn, the bumblebee box can be placed in the middle of the shed or between the border, 0.5-1 meter from the ground. When the summer temperature is high, we should pay attention to shading, put the beehive under the plant crown, but the beehive mouth can not be covered, or above the beehive for shading and cooling. Beehives should not be adjacent to heating facilities and carbon dioxide generators. Beehive mouth facing south, beehive location and placement direction can not be moved at will, so as not to cause death of the beehive.

Suitable temperature and humidity for pollination of ◆ bumblebee

The suitable temperature for bumblebee pollination is 12 ℃-30 ℃, and the suitable humidity is 50% 80%. Timely ventilation in summer and heat preservation in autumn and winter.

How to identify bumblebee pollination by ◆

Bumblebee pollination. Look at the Hickey. When a bear bee visits a tomato flower, it uses its forehead to fix itself to the flower, so it leaves a brown mark (called a "Hickey") on the style, which is the main mark to identify bumblebee pollination. The appearance of brown Hickey in more than 80% of flowers in spring and summer and more than 70% in autumn and winter can be defined as normal flower visits by bees. The kiss mark of bumblebee is very light after pollination, and it is not easy to distinguish. With the extension of time, the area of kiss mark will gradually expand and the color will become darker. 24-36 hours after pollination, the kiss mark is more obvious and easy to observe and identify. Bumblebee can produce good pollination effect with a single flower visit. After 3-5 days of bumblebee pollination, the tomato petals will gradually close and wilt and fall off together with the stigma. It is recommended to check the pollination rate of bumblebees in time after release. When checking pollination rate, newly blooming flowers should not be counted. New flowers can be distinguished by green stigma and yellowish petals. The best time to check pollination rate is one hour before sunset. It should be noted that in bad weather or sudden blooming, the number of pollination is small, the Hickey is less, but generally within a few days the pollination rate will return to normal. Auxiliary observation: from 9 to 11:00 on a sunny day, two bees with powder returned to the nest within 10 minutes, or stood in the aisle to observe. 5 bumblebees visited flowers within 1 minute and pollination was normal.

What measures should be taken to pollinate ◆ bumblebee?