Veronica Yurchak, Vegetable Specialist, UMD; vjohnso4@umd.edu The importance of pollinators in Maryland agriculture Bees, along with a handful of other insect pollinators, play a critical role in Maryland agriculture, ensuring fruit set in dozens of fruit and vegetable crops. Honeybee… Continue Reading
Gordon Johnson, Extension Vegetable & Fruit Specialist; gcjohn@udel.edu Honeybees A female watermelon flower will need around 500-1000 pollen grains to be fertilized effectively. This will require a minimum of 8 visits by a honeybee for seeded watermelons. In seedless watermelon… Continue Reading
Gordon Johnson, Extension Vegetable & Fruit Specialist; gcjohn@udel.edu Strawberry Strawberries are aggregate fruits. They have multiple ovules per receptacle where the fruit is formed. The strawberry receptacle may have up to 500 ovules per berry. You will see these as… Continue Reading
Jerry Brust, IPM Vegetable Specialist, University of Maryland; jbrust@umd.edu Over the last month I have received reports from high tunnel (HT) growers that were seeing flower abscission due to poor pollination in their tomatoes (Fig. 1). Some of these reports… Continue Reading
Gordon Johnson, Extension Vegetable & Fruit Specialist; gcjohn@udel.edu The first watermelons will be planted at the end of April across the region. Markets for early watermelons are normally the strongest so early planting is often more profitable. However, fruit set… Continue Reading
