STUDIES ON POLLINATION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE ROLE OF HONEY BEES IN HYBRID SEED PRODUCTION OF COTTON
Loading...
Date
2010-06-10
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Agricultural Sciences GKVK, Bangalore
Abstract
Experiment was conducted at NSP, GKVK, Bangalore to study on
pollination with special reference to the role of honeybees in hybrid seed
production of cotton PKVH5. Cotton flowers were visited by fourteen
species of insect pollinators on both CMS and R line of cotton, all of them
belong to order hymenoptera. The mean relative abundance of honeybees
(A. cerana, A. dorsata, A. florea) constituted 65 to 70 per cent on CMS
and 75 to 78 per cent on R line. Among honeybees, A. florea was most
predominant followed by A. cerana. The peak foraging activity of
honeybees showed a maximum at 13:00 h on adjacent and central rows
of CMS line and at 11:00 h on R line, whereas other pollinators showed
bimodal activity at 9:00h and 17:00h on both the lines. The maximum
floral nectar secretion was recorded at 18:00 h (14.71 μl) and TSS was at
17:00 h (31.33 per cent). As the number of bee visits to CMS flowers
increased, so was the boll set and seed set. In total moves of A. cerana
within and between parental lines, 15.25 per cent accounted for A to R
and 8.75 per cent for R to A visits. In the open pollination of CMS, the
per cent of boll set (82.66 and 80.33), seed yield per plant (82.76 and
74.58 g), number of seeds per boll (20.33 and 17.33), test weight (12.24
and 12.46 g) and seed oil content (16.73 and 15.23 per cent) were
significantly higher in adjacent rows of CMS line than in central ones.
The seed yield per plant was 4.31 per cent more under pollination with
high bee density (8 frame bees) when compared to that with low bee
density (4 frames).
Description
Keywords
null