Our multidisciplinary team was funded in Fall 2020 by the USDA, to work on this project to improve US blueberry pollination practices. The team includes horticulturalists, entomologists, apiculturalists, plant breeders, economics, and social scientists, and we are advised by a stakeholder advisory board that connects us to agriculture, government agencies, academia, and industry. The project has five main objectives:
- Conduct cost-benefit analyses of different honey bee stocking density and placement strategies to develop recommendations for modern blueberry systems.
- Determine pollination requirements and pollinator attraction across new and existing cultivars.
- Determine how variable weather conditions affect blueberry pollination.
- Develop predictive models of pollination, fruit set, and yield for creation of a Pollination Planner to improve pollination management decisions.
- Deliver information on improved blueberry pollination to the industry.
2021 is our first field season of this project, that runs until Fall 2024. We will continue to update this website with the outputs from the project as they develop.
If you have questions about our research and extension work in blueberry pollination, please contact the project manager Jackie Perkins at albertj9@msu.edu .