IPB University Lecturers Use Bees to Pollinate Strawberry

Trubus.id (http://Trubus.id) - Nadzirum Mubin, a lecturer at IPB University from the Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, uses bees for pollination in strawberry plantations. He invites strawberry farmers to pollinate with bees.

According to him, strawberry fruit is an aggregate fruit that is formed from the swollen part of the flower receptacle. On the surface of the strawberry fruit, there are much true fruit or achene with one ovule each. In achene which contains fertilized ovules it produces the hormone auxin which triggers receptacle development.

"In order to produce strawberries with a perfect shape, each achene must be fertilized. The fruit will experience an imperfect shape (malformation) if there is some unfertilized achene. Therefore, low pollination rates are the main cause of fruit malformations, "said Nadzirum during a visit to the strawberry garden in the border between Bogor and Sukabumi, recently.

Pollination of strawberries can occur through a combination of gravity and wind, but the success rate of pollination rarely exceeds 60 percent. The low success of natural pollination occurs because the position of the stamen (male reproductive organs) is lower than the stigma (female reproductive organs), and the stigma acceptance or receptive period takes place earlier. That is, before the anthers of the same flower are ready to release pollen (pollen).

Some researchers report that the malformation rate of strawberries in the absence of pollinating insects is not more than 50 percent.

It is known that many insects help in the pollination process such as Apis sp. Bees, Tetragonula laeviceps stingless bees, wasps, Syrpidae flies and so on. There are about 108 species that help in the pollination process. However, from some of these insects, bees are superior to other insects because the bees colonize, in one colony there are nearly 1000-10,000 individuals.

"According to research, an effective pollinating insect is one that is high in abundance, actively moves from flower to flower (high visiting rate), and is able to transfer a lot of pollen to the stigma. And bees are the best solution when you want to use them as pollinators in a greenhouse to pollinate strawberry flowers, "he concluded.

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