Orchard 'P' Trial Data
Trials were set up on 4 Eastern Bay of Plenty Hayward orchards during the 2015/2016 growing season. Within each trial 100 flowers of each treatment were tagged and were collected and weighed just prior to harvest. Seed counts for these fruit are underway with the help of Zespri endorsed methodology.
Orchard Features
Orchard 'P' had excellent bee activity (up to 20 bees per bay), with 8 hives per hectare. It has strip males with a moderate quantity of males flowers but there was also PSA bud rot in the males, causing aborted flowers/fruitlets in all trial treatments.
Two different trials were run in different parts of this orchard. One at a high rate of pollen (300g per hectare) applied twice; and then a low rate of 120g per hectare with 3 pollen applications by PollenSmart. Pollen was applied by the PollenSmart during period of 90-99% flowering.
Results
The 3 light applications produced the best results, with exportable fruit numbers the same as the flowers pollinated by 'perfect pollination' (male flower rubbed onto female flower) with 88% of the 100 samples producing exportable fruit, and the weight of the PollenSmart fruit being slightly ahead of the 'perfect pollination' at 134.1g. The bees only samples produced 47% exportable fruit weighing on average 112.8g.
