Coldest Spring On Record

It’s now official.  There has not been this much snow on the Canadian prairies this late in 114 years.  And furthermore, it is the coldest spring on record here.  What will that mean for haskap plants, fruit bearing, etc.?  It’s really a valuable opportunity for haskap growers to pay special attention to these and other factors regarding haskap production.  One factor will be the effect on pollination/pollinators.  Growers should pay special attention to the types of insects carrying out the bulk of this work.  Here are a couple recent articles on the demise/decimation of honeybee colonies in particular:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/06/national-beekeeper-of-year-darren-cox_n_3029773.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=europe-set-to-vote-on-pesticide-ban-to-save-honeybees

Haskap Pollination

Haskap Canada member, Hamish Graham, has been considering how to produce better pollination success in his haskap crop.  Two pollination studies have recently been published: (1) Honey Bees Make Poor Substitutes For Wild Pollinators, and (2) Farming For Bees

The new provincial entomologist, Cory Sheffield will be working to identify wild pollinators in Saskatchewan.  Current work is being done by individual Haskap Canada members to identify and nurture native pollinators for better pollination success.

Links:

http://earthsky.org/earth/honey-bees-make-poor-substitutes-for-wild-pollinators

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/farming_for_bees_guidelines_xerces_society.pdf