Want bigger, faster-growing blueberries? New research shows wild bees are an essential secret ingredient in larger and better blueberry yields – producing plumper, faster-ripening berries.
The study, led by University of Vermont scientists, is the first to successfully reveal that wild bees improve not only blueberry quantities, but also size and other quality factors. It finds that wild bees provide major benefits for berry farmers, including: greater berry size (12%), quantity (12%), size consistency (11%), and earlier harvests – by two and a half days.
“Other studies have explored bees’ effects on blueberry yields, but this is the first to show that pollinators can improve the quality of crops as well,” says Charles Nicholson, who led the study as a PhD student in UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. The study is published in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.
Of the nine berry farms studied across the state of Vermont, the researchers calculated that wild bees could boost production up to 36%, or roughly $136,000 per year, on one mid-sized berry farm alone. On other farms, researchers determined wild bees’ potential benefits to production as roughly 6% on average.
Continue reading at University of Vermont.
Image via University of Vermont.