Bee pollination and fruit set of Coffea arabica and C. canephora (Rubiaceae)
Self-sterile Coffea canephora and self-fertile C. arabica are important cash crops in many tropical countries. We examined the relative importance of insect, wind, and spontaneous self-pollination and the degree of self-fertility of these two coffeespecies in 24 agroforestry coffee fields in Indonesia. In both species, open pollination and cross pollination by hand led to the highest fruit set. Wind pollination (including self-pollination) led to 16 percent lower fruit set than open pollination in C. canephora and to 12.3 percent lower fruit set in C. arabica. Self-pollinated flowers and unmanipulated controls achieved an extremely low fruit set of 10 percent or less in the self-sterile species, and of 60 percent and 48 percent, respectively in the self-fertile species. These results constitute experimental evidence that cross pollination by bees causes a significant increase in fruit set of not only the self-sterile, but also the self-fertile coffee species. The practical implication is that coffee yield may be improved by managingfields for increased flower visitation by bees.
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| Format: | biblioteca |
| Published: |
2003
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| Subjects: | COFFEA, COFFEA ARABICA, COFFEA CANEPHORA, CAFE, RENDIMIENTO DE CULTIVOS, POLINIZACION CRUZADA, FLORES, FRUCTIFICACION, FRUTAS, POLINIZACION LIBRE, POLINIZACION, POLINIZADORES, AUTOPOLINIZACION, SOSTENIBILIDAD, VIENTO, INSECTA, INDONESIA, |
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