What are the key technical points for placing bees in orchards in spring?

Spring is a very important season in orchard management, and it is also the season when all things grow; during this period, fruit trees grow very quickly. If fruit trees are to be pollinated and their yield increased, some bees are released to play a role in increasing the fruit-setting rate. So what are the key technical points for placing bees in orchards in spring?

I. Key technical points for placing bees in orchards in spring

By placing bees, fertilization can be promoted and the fruit-setting rate of flowers can be significantly increased. Because fertilization is good, the fruit forms more seeds, which is beneficial for the fruit to develop evenly and become larger.

Generally, in orchards, 500-600 horned mason bees (Osmia cornifrons) per hm2 and 3,000-5,000 honeybees per hm2 are released. This technique is suitable for tree species with entomophilous flowers; it has no effect when used on wind-pollinated tree species such as walnut and Chinese chestnut.

1. Honeybee release pollination technique

Releasing bees can replace artificial pollination, increasing yield by 38.9%-66.0% compared with natural fruit setting, and it saves labor, is less troublesome and lowers production costs. At present, countries around the world mainly use honeybees as the pollinating bee species. To make honeybees collect pollen with greater specificity, fruit honey can first be used to feed the bee colony, or pollen from the fruit trees can be soaked in water and sprayed on the bee colony, or pollen from the fruit trees that need pollination can be placed at the entrance of the hive; this can train and improve the specificity of honeybee pollen collection. Hives should be placed in a spacious, high, dry place facing the sun and sheltered from the wind, making it convenient for honeybees to enter and leave and improving pollination collection efficiency.

2. Mason bee pollination

The release time is generally 5 days before the central flowers open. Place the bee cocoons in a wide, flat small paper box with multiple holes 0.7 cm in diameter pierced around the sides for the bees to crawl out. Spread a layer of bee cocoons flat inside the box, then place the paper box in the bee nest. The bee cocoons can also be placed in reed tubes or paper tubes 5-6 cm long and open at both ends, with 1 bee cocoon per tube, and placed in the bee nest together with the bee tubes.

After the bee cocoons are placed in the field, the mason bees successively bite through the cocoon shells and emerge from the nest, finishing emergence in about 8 days. If you want to shorten the time for mason bees to emerge from the cocoons, you can take the bee cocoons out of low-temperature storage in advance, keep them at room temperature for 2-3 days, and then place them in the field. If the mason bees have already broken out of the cocoons, release them in the evening to reduce the loss of mason bees. Generally, the release amount is 60-150 bee cocoons per mu. For young orchards at the early fruiting stage, orchards with low fruit-setting rates in past years, and off years, release 100-150 bee cocoons. For orchards with higher fruit-setting rates in past years or orchards in on years, release 60-120 bee cocoons per mu.

II. Precautions for orchard management in spring

1. Pay attention to topdressing and watering. After the soil thaws, quick-acting nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers should be applied, and watering of the entire hole as well as loosening the soil to preserve moisture should be carried out. Topdressing and watering meet the needs of fruit trees for physiological activities such as shoot growth, leaf expansion and flowering.

2. Pay attention to scraping off old coarse bark from the tree body. Old coarse bark on the tree body is the overwintering habitat of many pathogens and insect eggs. Scraping off the old coarse bark before germination and burning it in a centralized manner can eliminate large numbers of overwintering pests, reduce the base number of pests and diseases, and achieve twice the result with half the effort in pest and disease control. Even more attention should be paid to scraping and treating rot disease; after scraping, promptly apply agents such as thiophanate-methyl, hymexazol and methyl thiophanate?

3. Pay attention to using chemicals to clean the orchard. Two key points must be grasped in chemical orchard cleaning. The first is to grasp the suitable application period. The second is to select suitable high-efficiency, low-toxicity chemical varieties.