Effects of pollination of strawberries grown in plastic greenhouses by honeybees and Bumblebees on the yield and quality of the fruits

The strawberry plastic or glasshouses generally are not heated in the Mediterranean coastal areas of Turkey. Therefore malformed, misshapen fruits are common in especially winter months because of the shortage of pollen and pollination. Honeybees do not work properly in the greenhouses. For this reason Bumblebees are introduced to the experiment. They were used separately or in combination. In the experimental cvs pollen production, viability tests with Triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) and Fluorescein diacetat (FDA), germination percentages with hanging drop method, yield/plant, fruit weight, Total Soluble Solids (TSS), acidity, number of achenes and percentages of regular and misshapen fruits were determined. In this experiment 4 strawberry cvs namely Dorit, Oso Grande, Douglas and Chandler were used. The plastic house was divided into 3 compartments and the bumble and honeybees were put into the first two compartments alone and they were combined in the 3rd compartment. Another plastic house was kept as control where only the insects and bees from outside were allowed to get in. The compartments were separated with a plastic screen material. The experiment was arranged as 'Randomized Complete Blocks' design. In the experiment, 4 replications were used and each replications consisted of 30 plants. It was found that both honey and bumblebees were very useful in early production of strawberries. In this respect, bumblebees were generally more efficient in pollination at cold weather