INCREASING THE YIELD OF ‘SPADONA’ PEAR (PYRUS COMMUNIS L.) BY APPROPRIATE UTILIZATION OF BEEHIVES

In Israel ‘Spadona’ pear is the main cultivar although its yield is usually low (20-30 ton per ha). This variety exhibits full self-incompatibility, therefore its fruit production depends entirely on cross-pollination. Our assumption was that the main reason for the low yield was low pollination efficiency. Therefore a study was conducted in which different beehive management practices were compared. It was found that increasing the density of colonies from 2.5 colonies per ha, as was recommended previously by the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, to 5.0 colonies per ha at one introduction (10% bloom) did not increase bee activity in the trees nor did it improve fruit set and yield, except in two cases of a small orchard with heavy competition from surrounding flora. However, introducing the colonies sequentially (half at 10% bloom and half at full bloom), with only a regular density of colonies (1.25 and 1.25 per ha respectively), increased the number of bees per tree and their mobility among the rows. This consequently increased fruit set and yield by 50-80%.