Evaluation of modified pollen dispenser and storage of dehisced pollen for effective pollination in apple

Studies on evaluation of pollen dispenser on the basis of per cent foragers touching the floor of pollen dispenser with front strip of different sizes showed that the higher percentage of foragers (53.67) touched the floor of pollen dispenser with 2 cm height of front strip. The data regarding recovery of pollen from 100 flowers of Red Gold cultivar of apple varied from 28.2 to 34.2 mg with an average of 32.17 mg. Dehisced apple pollen grains can be stored up to 7 months at 4°C with optimum viability. The observations on the time taken to dispense pollen grains from pollen dispenser attached to the hive entrance indicated that A mellifera foragers dispensed 2 g of pollen in 1 to 2 h under open field conditions and in 3 to 4 h under caged conditions.