What pollinates apples, besides bees?
I'd like to plant apple trees -- only a couple -- in my yard.
If I must have honeybees, then I'll look into the details of that. But honeybees, who wander far, are likely to run into insecticides. I live in a city, next to lots of neighbors and even a school. There's no way to prevent them all from using bug-killer.
Thank you!
Ted Shoemaker
I do not have an such an item so i cannot tell you how well they work. However google "Mason Bee house". This may bee what you are looking for. Mason bees do not sting.
You're going to need honeybees. Neither apples nor honeybees are native to North America, so there's no specific pollinator for the apples. Other insects will work the blossoms, so pollination may occur but I would expect the fruiting to be spotty.
Good grief. This kind of response is ridiculous.
Really?? There are bees pollinating plants and crops everywhere. How in the world did Thomas Jefferson manage to pollinate his gorgeous gardens almost 200 years ago? Yes, the bees were brought from Europe, but they adapted with no problem. There are bees, and yes people use pesticides but there are other insects that pollinate as well. Not just honeybees. You can actually hand pollinate also, but not knowing the size of your trees, that may not be possible. Becoming a bee keeper is completely another discipline, and falls into the category of "the more you learn, the more you learn you don't know". My advice would be to just plant the trees and let nature take it's course. Don't overthink it. What zone are you in?
Honey bees are the best and most common pollinator but American native bees also work. Wind pollination is insignificant.
D
You do not need honey bees just for pollination. Just hang a mason bee house in your tree sorta like a bird house.
REALLY!!!! Then pray tell me why orchardists pay beekepers thousands of dollars every blooming season.
Honeybees were first brought here by the pilgrams, by T. Jefferson's time there were thousands of escaped "wild" colonies. If you do a tiny bit of real research you'll find that almost all large fruit farmers at the time og Jefferson were beekeepers as well.
Yes, the bees were brought from Europe, but
Which book did you get your information from? Mine came from the "book of life", I've actually done it. I wouldn't presume to comment had I not.
-snip-
Here's some history on honeybees getting here and spreading. [1621, in VA is what they say with a citation]
Which in fact means they weren't "native". Perhaps you mean invasive?
Whatever you call them, you can't call them "native"
What kind of brain damage am I dealing with here? If they were domesticated, and escaped into the wild, they are ipso facto feral, indigenous (native) or not.
"A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself." - May Sarton, novelist and poet, 1912-1995.
Which was my point exactly, both honeybees (at least the ones typically raised by American & European beekeepers) and apples are from the same continent which IS NOT North America. Being from the same continent they have evolved into a symbiotic relationship. Sure there are other insects that will pollinate to some degree, but none with the efficiency of the honeybee!
I don't know. Why don't you go to a doctor and upload the results of his tests on you.
I've never heard the term used this way, but sure
They may have become part of the ecosystem, but they were never indigenous and still aren't. Do try to learn the difference
I never tried to call them native, and invasive isn't the antonym of native. The antonyms of native would be foreigner, immigrant, imported, or acquired.
Antonyms for invasive would be noninvasive, confined, defensive, and unintrusive.
Thanks for clarifying the situation. It is truly heroic (or stoopid) to engage in a contest where you don't have a tinker's dam of a chance to win.
I'll do this slowly so that even someone as intellectually infirm and challenged as yourself may have a chance of understanding.
As Steve said,"Honeybees were first brought here by the pilgrims, by T. Jefferson's time there were thousands of escaped "wild" colonies."
Now take your hand out of your pants, think really hard, and at the first clause in the sentence that Steve quotes. "Honeybees were first brought here by the pilgrims". What are our interpretations of this clause? That the bees covertly concealed themselves from the members of the ships company, much as in the manner of rats, in order to infest the ship, (or were they just too cheap to buy tickets)? Or, were they the property of one of the ship's passengers? Do you have another alternative? Hmmmm?
That brings us to the second clause, "by T. Jefferson's time there were thousands of escaped "wild" colonies."
Escaped from who, or what, or where? Hmmm? Any ideas?
If they weren't in the "Wild", from where would they have escaped? Hmmmm?
Let me venture the proposal that, "Escaped to the wild" would of necessity imply that they had been domesticated (an antonym of wild;O). What do you think? Hmmmm?
A domesticated species that has reverted to the wild IS THE DEFINITION of feral.
QED
I hope that wasn't too stressful for you. I know that these kinds of things can be difficult for you precambrian types (anencephalic), but you are now on the road to actual thoughts.
Congratulations ;O))
Thanks for the opportunity to practice my pedagogy.
I think it is time for you to run outside and play in the street now.
If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union. They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros.
=
That "you" was all inclusive. I don't remember who started it by calling it Native
But not "native"?
Well as long as you think of yourself as heroic, who am I to challenge you
But feral in no way means "native", does it?
And in case you failed to understand what I wrote, I conceded the fact that some the bees were indeed feral, although I hadn't considered that term in connection with bees
Let us know when you don't need to practice it to get it correct.
See, that's the trouble some of you have with what you consider thinking.
Seems safe enough to post w/o getting into the bee fray.
You should consider the self pollinating varieties:
This may help or you could choose two varieties that are mutually fertile. It doesn't make much difference if there are no bees though.
David
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