[Pollinator] [beemonitoring] Re: pollination improves strawberry shelf life

Wed Dec 4 10:51:39 PST 2013

Thanks!

We don't have a biochemist working with us, but since my culinary
preferences are similar to yours, we may have to work on that!

Lisa

On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 1:44 PM, Peter Bernhardt <bernhap2 at slu.edu> wrote:

> Very interesting, Lisa and good. luck on this upcoming experiment.  It's
> very appropriate you are conducting it in Virginia.  Presumably the wild
> species (and co-parent of today's supermarket strawberries) was first
> collected in Virginia.   Fragaria virginiana is the ancestral co-parent of
> all supermarket strawberries with F. chiloensis.
>
> Will you have a biochemist comparing sugars and fragrances in your ripe
> strawberries?  The only thing I don't care for at all in the last Abstract
> was the unhappy news that bee-pollinated strawberries produced fruit with
> lower sugar levels.  Now, does anyone really, really, really want to eat
> odorless, stiff and less sweet strawberries just because they were
> bee-pollinated?  We've all been to restaurants or buffets in which they are
> the color of glistening rubies but they're "tough" and insipid.
>
> Peter
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Lisa Horth <lisahorth at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Peter and all others interested.....
>>
>> We may be able to answer that very soon. We based a recently funded
>> grant, in-part, on the selfing vs insect pollinated data for strawberries.
>> This spring we will use mason bees to pollinate (hopefully!) strawberries
>> on farms in VA. The farmers typically use honey bees, so we hope to have
>> comparative data to answer this question by fall.
>>
>> Lisa Horth
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 1:18 PM, Peter Bernhardt <bernhap2 at slu.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear David:
>>>
>>> Thanks for finding this paper.  One of the next papers of the
>>> Bernhardt/Meier lab  will address fieldwork on bee-pollination of
>>> Cypripedium montanum (Oregon) but, at one of our sites, the orchids bloomed
>>> at the same time as two, extensive populations of native strawberry
>>> varieties.  The orchid and the strawberry flowers shared pollinators in the
>>> families Andrenidae and Halictidae.
>>>
>>> Considering the physical size of strawberry flowers one wonders whether
>>> cross-pollinated fruit set in domesticated strawberries would be higher
>>> when pollinated by small, native bees or by commercial honeybees?  Do
>>> honeybees carrying pollen "hit" the tiny stigmas in each flower as often
>>> and as thoroughly as tiny, solitary bees?
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 11:10 AM, David Inouye <inouye at umd.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>>  Klatt, B. K., et al. (2014). "Bee pollination improves crop quality,
>>>> shelf life and commercial value." *Proceedings of the Royal Society B:
>>>> Biological Sciences* *281*(1775).
>>>>
>>>>          Pollination improves the yield of most crop species and
>>>> contributes to one-third of global crop production, but comprehensive
>>>> benefits including crop quality are still unknown. Hence, pollination is
>>>> underestimated by international policies, which is particularly alarming in
>>>> times of agricultural intensification and diminishing pollination services.
>>>> In this study, exclusion experiments with strawberries showed bee
>>>> pollination to improve fruit quality, quantity and market value compared
>>>> with wind and self-pollination. Bee-pollinated fruits were heavier, had
>>>> less malformations and reached higher commercial grades. They had increased
>>>> redness and reduced sugar and were firmer, thus improving the commercially
>>>> important shelf life. Longer shelf life reduced fruit loss by at least 11%.
>>>> This is accounting for 0.32 billion US$ of the 1.44 billion US$ provided by
>>>> bee pollination to the total value of 2.90 billion US$ made with strawberry
>>>> selling in the European Union 2009. The fruit quality and yield effects are
>>>> driven by the pollination-mediated production of hormonal growth
>>>> regulators, which occur in several pollination-dependent crops. Thus, our
>>>> comprehensive findings should be transferable to a wide range of crops and
>>>> demonstrate bee pollination to be a hitherto underestimated but vital and
>>>> economically important determinant of fruit quality.
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Lisa Horth, PhD
>> Associate Professor
>> Dept of Biological Science
>> Old Dominion University
>> Norfolk, VA 23529
>>
>
>

-- 
Lisa Horth, PhD
Associate Professor
Dept of Biological Science
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529
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