When it comes to pollinators honeybees make up only a small portion of the animals that pollinate our fields and forests. Honeybees are domesticated animals and like any other thing we’ve domesticated we’ve come to depend on it!
There are thousands and thousands of different animals that are responsible for pollinating; bees, butterflies, beetles, wasps, flies, birds, bats, rodents, lizards and man!
Birds and bees do it and nowadays, we do it too. Hand pollination has been around for a long time. When I think of hand pollination, I’m thinking of zucchinis in the garden or maybe orchids in the window. I’m not thinking of entire crops being pollinated by hand like figs and Asian pears. More and more farmers are finding out that Mother Nature can’t keep up with their demands!
The People’s Republic of China is a major pear producer, producing almost 9,000,000 tons in 2005, with at lest 85% coming out of the Province of Sichuan. Sichuan is in the southwestern part of China. There are four fruits mainly grown there now, pears are the most common accounting for over 70%. The other main fruits are apples, cherries and citrus.
Almost all varieties of pears need cross pollination to set fruit in it and this was usually done by insects and wind. Some farmers would graft different varieties onto each other to make natural cross pollination easier. Farmers didn’t put much effort into growing pears until the med-1980s.
In the 80’s China changed from the communal system to the household system. Before, if you didn’t have a good year, then your neighbor who had a good year would make up for it. Now, every household is responsible for its own success or failure! Farmers learned quickly that growing pears was a lot more profitable than growing rice. This is when everyone started looking for ways to increase their yields of pears.
Before the mid-80’s not too many pears were hand pollinated. Only a few farmers did hand pollination although it was known that pollination by hand increased yields significantly.
When the land was parceled out to individual households, some local farmers tried hand pollination and some didn’t which led to very different yields. The clearly different results helped local farmers to really understand the importance of hand pollinating their pears. This encouraged all the local pear growers to start pollinating by hand.
But it still took a few years for many of the local farmers to learn how to pollinate pears by hand. For the first couple of years, many of the farmers pollinating by hand for the first time didn’t have favourable results, mainly because many farmers didn’t understand how to prepare pollen or how and when to pollinate flowers. They had to learn which flowers should be pollinated and when. They learned that the best source of pollen was Yali, a variety of pear that flowers five to seven days before the Jinhuali comes into bloom. Jinhuali is the variety of Asian pear we usually see at the market. One Yali tree can produce enough pollen for about 45 to 55 Jinhuali trees.
The farmer must collect mature flowers, separate the pollen and dry it. The flower must be perfect, not over mature but fully developed just before the anthers (pollen sacks) open. The stamens are brushed off with a toothbrush or two flowers are rubbed together. The stamens and anthers are collected and the rest of the flower is discarded. Then the pollen is separated and dried.
Pollen has to be dried at between 20°C and 25°C and needs be finished in 24 hr or so. This is where most of the first time pear growers went wrong! You see, at temperatures below 20°C the pollen doesn’t dry fast enough and starts to decay, and temperatures above 30°C kills this pollen very fast.
There are three methods that are commonly used for drying pollen. The first and the most common method is a dryer box made with a cardboard box and a 40 to 60 watt light bulb. The next method is very “old school”. The farmer puts the stamens, anthers and pollen in a plastic bag and carries it in a pocket next to his body to regulate the temperature, for about a day. The third method and least common is to use an electric blanket, heating pad or something like that with a thermostat. It’s spread on a table and the stamens, anthers and pollen are placed between sheets of paper on top of the blanket and covered. With all these methods the temperature is checked again and again! Farmers learned that temperature was critical to getting viable pollen.
After drying, stamens and anthers are separated from the pollen. Any anthers that are still closed are opened and the pollen collected. The mixture of pollen and anther filaments is put into small jars.
Some farmers now sell dry pollen and fresh flowers locally. A few growers have been able to export fresh flowers to Japan at 5 yaen (USD $0.75) a kg.
There are a couple of methods used to actually pollinate flowers. The one that is used most often is a pollination stick. A pollination stick is a bamboo stick with some chicken feathers tied to one end. Usually each person has a bottle of pollen and two sticks, one long and one short to reach high and low. Pollination is often done by a husband and wife team, she does the bottom half and he does the top half of each tree. Children are rarely seen pollinating, because they are at school when the flowers need to be pollinated. Pollination is done from 11am to 4pm. Before 11am the day’s flowers are not ready to be pollinated, after 4pm the flower’s receptiveness has passed. The farmer will then hang a bottle of pollen on a branch and touch the pollen with the pollination stick then touch a receptive flower. One person can pollinate 20 to 40 trees a day. One brush of pollen will pollinate about 30 flowers. They will use stools, ladders and even climb up the tree to get to the upper flowers.
Another method is to mix the pollen with a fine powered chalk, 3 parts chalk to 1 part pollen. The pollen chalk mix is put in a cloth bag and tied to the end of a long stick. Then the farmer goes around his pear trees shaking the bag of pollen mix over the flowers. This method is rarely used because farmers think it wastes too much pollen. The pollination stick method is almost exclusively used.
The obvious question is: Why don’t they use honeybees? Beekeeping was common in the region before 1984. In 1985 there was a very large outbreak of pear lice which led to the wide spread over spraying of pesticides, pretty much killing very bug in the province. And they haven’t stop spraying since then. Pears are sprayed at every stage of development; before they flower, after they flower, as they’re setting fruit, they can be sprayed up to twelve times before harvest. The Chinese government has looked into this and recommended to the local pear growers that they only need to spray at certain stages of development but pear farmers are unwilling to risk any portion of their new found success.
Beekeepers will not bring their hives into pear orchards because of the very high risk of bees dieing from pesticides. The next reason, there is no nectar to be collected from pear flowers, only pollen. Beekeepers are in the business of making honey, no nectar no honey.
Do do do
Indoor Gardener June 2008
There are thousands and thousands of different animals that are responsible for pollinating; bees, butterflies, beetles, wasps, flies, birds, bats, rodents, lizards and man!
Birds and bees do it and nowadays, we do it too. Hand pollination has been around for a long time. When I think of hand pollination, I’m thinking of zucchinis in the garden or maybe orchids in the window. I’m not thinking of entire crops being pollinated by hand like figs and Asian pears. More and more farmers are finding out that Mother Nature can’t keep up with their demands!
The People’s Republic of China is a major pear producer, producing almost 9,000,000 tons in 2005, with at lest 85% coming out of the Province of Sichuan. Sichuan is in the southwestern part of China. There are four fruits mainly grown there now, pears are the most common accounting for over 70%. The other main fruits are apples, cherries and citrus.
Almost all varieties of pears need cross pollination to set fruit in it and this was usually done by insects and wind. Some farmers would graft different varieties onto each other to make natural cross pollination easier. Farmers didn’t put much effort into growing pears until the med-1980s.
In the 80’s China changed from the communal system to the household system. Before, if you didn’t have a good year, then your neighbor who had a good year would make up for it. Now, every household is responsible for its own success or failure! Farmers learned quickly that growing pears was a lot more profitable than growing rice. This is when everyone started looking for ways to increase their yields of pears.
Before the mid-80’s not too many pears were hand pollinated. Only a few farmers did hand pollination although it was known that pollination by hand increased yields significantly.
When the land was parceled out to individual households, some local farmers tried hand pollination and some didn’t which led to very different yields. The clearly different results helped local farmers to really understand the importance of hand pollinating their pears. This encouraged all the local pear growers to start pollinating by hand.
But it still took a few years for many of the local farmers to learn how to pollinate pears by hand. For the first couple of years, many of the farmers pollinating by hand for the first time didn’t have favourable results, mainly because many farmers didn’t understand how to prepare pollen or how and when to pollinate flowers. They had to learn which flowers should be pollinated and when. They learned that the best source of pollen was Yali, a variety of pear that flowers five to seven days before the Jinhuali comes into bloom. Jinhuali is the variety of Asian pear we usually see at the market. One Yali tree can produce enough pollen for about 45 to 55 Jinhuali trees.
The farmer must collect mature flowers, separate the pollen and dry it. The flower must be perfect, not over mature but fully developed just before the anthers (pollen sacks) open. The stamens are brushed off with a toothbrush or two flowers are rubbed together. The stamens and anthers are collected and the rest of the flower is discarded. Then the pollen is separated and dried.
Pollen has to be dried at between 20°C and 25°C and needs be finished in 24 hr or so. This is where most of the first time pear growers went wrong! You see, at temperatures below 20°C the pollen doesn’t dry fast enough and starts to decay, and temperatures above 30°C kills this pollen very fast.
There are three methods that are commonly used for drying pollen. The first and the most common method is a dryer box made with a cardboard box and a 40 to 60 watt light bulb. The next method is very “old school”. The farmer puts the stamens, anthers and pollen in a plastic bag and carries it in a pocket next to his body to regulate the temperature, for about a day. The third method and least common is to use an electric blanket, heating pad or something like that with a thermostat. It’s spread on a table and the stamens, anthers and pollen are placed between sheets of paper on top of the blanket and covered. With all these methods the temperature is checked again and again! Farmers learned that temperature was critical to getting viable pollen.
After drying, stamens and anthers are separated from the pollen. Any anthers that are still closed are opened and the pollen collected. The mixture of pollen and anther filaments is put into small jars.
Some farmers now sell dry pollen and fresh flowers locally. A few growers have been able to export fresh flowers to Japan at 5 yaen (USD $0.75) a kg.
There are a couple of methods used to actually pollinate flowers. The one that is used most often is a pollination stick. A pollination stick is a bamboo stick with some chicken feathers tied to one end. Usually each person has a bottle of pollen and two sticks, one long and one short to reach high and low. Pollination is often done by a husband and wife team, she does the bottom half and he does the top half of each tree. Children are rarely seen pollinating, because they are at school when the flowers need to be pollinated. Pollination is done from 11am to 4pm. Before 11am the day’s flowers are not ready to be pollinated, after 4pm the flower’s receptiveness has passed. The farmer will then hang a bottle of pollen on a branch and touch the pollen with the pollination stick then touch a receptive flower. One person can pollinate 20 to 40 trees a day. One brush of pollen will pollinate about 30 flowers. They will use stools, ladders and even climb up the tree to get to the upper flowers.
Another method is to mix the pollen with a fine powered chalk, 3 parts chalk to 1 part pollen. The pollen chalk mix is put in a cloth bag and tied to the end of a long stick. Then the farmer goes around his pear trees shaking the bag of pollen mix over the flowers. This method is rarely used because farmers think it wastes too much pollen. The pollination stick method is almost exclusively used.
The obvious question is: Why don’t they use honeybees? Beekeeping was common in the region before 1984. In 1985 there was a very large outbreak of pear lice which led to the wide spread over spraying of pesticides, pretty much killing very bug in the province. And they haven’t stop spraying since then. Pears are sprayed at every stage of development; before they flower, after they flower, as they’re setting fruit, they can be sprayed up to twelve times before harvest. The Chinese government has looked into this and recommended to the local pear growers that they only need to spray at certain stages of development but pear farmers are unwilling to risk any portion of their new found success.
Beekeepers will not bring their hives into pear orchards because of the very high risk of bees dieing from pesticides. The next reason, there is no nectar to be collected from pear flowers, only pollen. Beekeepers are in the business of making honey, no nectar no honey.
Do do do
Indoor Gardener June 2008