Our bumble bees arrived last week and they are welcome guests on the farm! The bees will be calling Long and Scott Farms their home for the next nine weeks and they are a very important part of growing pickles.
Without proper pollination, pickles can become crooked and deformed, and this results in low yields on the crop. The bees are placed around our fields and we give them some shade and let them go to work. We also use honey bees on the farm and we have to be careful not to put the bumble bees too close to them because they will invade each others hives.
Pickles are a flowering vine plant and a bee has to visit a flower eight times or more to achieve proper pollination. Each acre has over forty thousand plants and each plant can have as many as fifteen flowers. The bees have a lot of work to do! Many insecticides are toxic to bees , so we must maintain a safe and healthy environment for them.
Corn, on the other hand, is a self-pollinating plant. The pollination occurs when the wind blows the tassel, which is on top of the stalk, and the pollen drops to the silk. As you can see, at Long and Scott Farms, our produce is a true work of nature!
Do you have any questions about how plants grow? Please let us hear from you.
Cade Easley
Integrated pest manager
cade@longandcottfarms.com
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