Sentiments of a cranberry grower
If you’ve had a chance to talk to a Koppert representative in the field, at a growers meeting, a trade show, or on the telephone, then you’ve probably heard the reasons that you should be using Koppert bumblebees to raise your bottom line.
• Bumblebees will work in weather in which honeybees will not.
• Bumblebees will visit flowers that do not attract honeybee, or flowers from which honeybees are easily distracted.
• Bumblebees work longer hours.
• Bumblebees sonicate or “buzz pollinate”, a technique that transfers much more pollen per flower visit. • Bumblebees are “central place foragers”, which means bumblebees will forage generally within a few hundred yards of their hive. This means, where you place them is generally where they pollinate.
• Using bumblebees for pollination requires no prior beekeeping experience, since they are relatively maintenance free.
• If it’s right for you, bumblebees can be used in conjunction with honeybees.
• The cost of purchasing bumblebees is comparable to honeybee rental fees. If you have multiple crops that bloom sequentially, bumblebees become even more affordable, since they are yours to use as long as they are active. (up to 2 months at full strength and even longer as activity diminishes)
• The Koppert “QUAD”, which houses your bumblebee hives along with the “bee home” door system, makes chemical applications during the bloom hassle-free.
• With a 12 week lead time, Koppert guarantees delivery within a couple of days of the date you specify.
All these points, along with others, add up to a pollinator that is simple to manage, reliable, and highly effective.
Chris Weidman of City Point Cranberries in Wisconsin agrees. Chris tells Koppert that he originally became interested in bumblebees when he started paying attention to what his local bumblebees where doing out in the bogs. Chris is a big believer that proper pollination is a huge factor that relates directly to the yield and quality of the cranberries he raises. Because of this, Chris said it made sense that City Point Cranberries should give Koppert bumblebees a try. Chris tells us that for the last 3 years that they’ve used bumblebees in conjunction with honeybees that they’ve seen consistently larger yields on the acreage where they’ve placed the bumblebees. Each year Chris uses a few more bumblebees, testing to see if the trend continues. He tells us that 2009 was a good year to use bumblebees in Wisconsin. Chris reported up to double the yield in the bogs where they used bumblebees as opposed to the bogs where only honeybees where placed. Sound unbelievable? Chris says he’ll show you the records. It should be said that increases like these are not always the norm, but these kinds of results are not rare and occur in a variety of crops pollinated by Koppert bumblebees. But Chris tells Koppert that the standard way of pollination, using honeybees, is not something he is ready yet to walk away from. Chris said, “We are not at the point where we would go without honeybees, but we are at the point where we would never go without bumblebees.
So why not try the City Point Cranberries approach, integrate bumblebees into you pollination system and see how they affect your bottom line. By the way, Chris tells us that in 2010 he is doubling his bumblebee order.
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Natural progression
Koppert
Providing state of the art biological control and natural pollination for professional growers around the world.
Afbeelding 1 - Swirskii
Afbeelding 2 - Trianum
