Kiwifruit pollination by wind and insects in Italy

Abstract

The role of wind in kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) C.F. Liang et AR. Ferguson) pollination has been investigated over 3 years at two sites by enclosing single female vines together with a male vine in a cage made of fine shade cloth to keep out insects. Control vines were open-pollinated. Appreciable seed set occurred even when insects were excluded, although wind speed and turbulence were presumably reduced within the cages. Isolated vines set 69% of fruit (98% in the control) with a mean weight of 58 g (98 g in the control). Fruit set and fruit size showed wide fluctuations within both years and locations, thus proving that kiwifruit pollination is largely dependent on the weather at flowering time.

Keywords:

• Actinidia deliciosa
• kiwifruit
• pollination
• fruit set
• fruit size
• wind pollination
• insect pollination
• honey bee pollination