Comparison of honey bees (apis mellifera l.) and bumble bees (bombus terrestris) as pollinators for melon (cucumis melo l.) grown in greenhouses

Melon plants absolutely request pollination for fruit setting. Although honey bees (Apis mellifera) are used mainly as pollinators, in protected cultivation of melon plants investigating of the effectiveness of Bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) as an alternative pollinator on the pollination of melon plants and to make comparison between the alternetive and classical pollinators, the honey bees, was aimed in this study. The cultivar Makdimon F, was grown in twin plastichouses in early-spring cultivation period and two different pollinators were used in each of the twin plastichouses. The yields obtained from honey bee and bumble bee pollinated melon plants were similar (6.0 kg/m2). With respect to the fruit quality characteristics; average fruit weight (1166 and 991 g), height (15.42 and 13.60 cm), diameter (15.28 and 12.63 cm) and number of seeds (628 and 579 seeds/fruit) were higher in bumble bee-pollinated fruits than honey bee pollinated ones