Vine Crop Pollination Pointers

• With the exception of the all female cucumber varieties, the average ratio of male to female flowers is 10:1 (sometimes it can be as high as 100:1)
• Each female blossom must be visited 15 to 20 times. Fewer visits = lower seed count, resulting in misshapen, smaller and lighter fruit.
• Female blossoms are open for less than one day (usually between 6am and noon)
• Cool temperatures and low light intensity will cause the female flowers to delay opening. They can also cause young fruit to abort.
• Cucurbit flowers don't produce a lot of nectar and they are not a particularly attractive food source to bees - they prefer plants like alfalfa and clover.

• Rule of thumb: stand in the field at about 9am. If you can't hear an audible hum, you need more bees. 
• 1 hive per acre is usually adequate.
• Don't bring the hives in too early - otherwise the bees will get used to travelling further afield for their food and they'll by-pass the crop. Aim to place the hives in the field at first bloom.
• Overhead irrigation will discourage bee foraging. Where possible, irrigate outside of peak pollination hours (ie: after noon)
• Vine crop pollen is not the best food source for bees. Encourage your beekeeper to rotate his hives to more nutritious sources like clover or alfalfa over the course of the summer. Bees fed exclusively on cucurbit pollen have poor overwinter survival rates.