Adequate honey bee density reduces the need for artificial pollination methods in a highly pollinator‐dependent crop

Abstract

Pollinator visits to flowers are essential for maximising yield and fruit quality in many economically important crops, including kiwifruit. However, a lack of clear pollination management guidelines, such as visitation frequency thresholds, hinders the opportunity to determine when corrective actions, particularly artificial pollination, should be applied to prevent kiwifruit production loss. To fill this knowledge gap, we estimated pollination deficits in kiwifruit orchards managed under different honey bee densities, with and without artificial pollination. We found that a visitation frequency of approximately 1 honey bee visits flower−1 h−1 maximises fruit set with no detectable additive effect of artificial pollination. Conversely, fruit weight was more demanding as approximately 2.5 visits flower−1 h−1 were needed to reduce quality-related deficits to near zero. Artificial pollination could aid to increase fruit weight but only under low honey bee densities. These findings highlight the importance of managing pollinator densities to meet flower visitation demands for maximising fruit set and quality and to decide when to apply artificial pollination for optimising kiwifruit production.