According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture[1] one third of the world’s food supply depends on bee pollination. Proper pollination increases quality, consistency of fruit yield, and reduces crop loss due to misshapen fruit.

This season Bioglobal Ltd has released a controlled release bee attractant product called Polynate. It is designed to bring bees to the target crop and retain their interest so long as the visual attraction, pollen and nectar of the flowers remains.  Polynate is long lived and completely rain resistant.  The blend of attractive natural floral volatiles and components of worker bee pheromones in Polynate work not only on the honey bee but also on a range of native bees.

Polynate will be a useful tool for growers of apples, pears, almonds, avocados, cherries and apricots wherever pollination is the factor limiting yield.

Polynate has been trialled in Packham Pears (Shepparton, VIC) for misshapen fruit. Figure 1 shows that the level of deformed pears per tree was reduced by 21% where 1000 Polynate dispensers per hectare were used.

In 2011 Bioglobal’s work in almonds in California has given very promising results. Fruit set was increased by 29% relative to untreated trees where 1000 dispensers per hectare were used.  Polynate has proven to increase fruit set without additional farm input costs in management and fertiliser.

Further work is in progress in apples, cherries and blueberries in USA. In addition, Bioglobal is working in a number of tropical crops including mangoes, cashews and lychees in some Asian markets.