YOUR INDUSTRY
Making a buzz in horticulture Tucked away on the outskirts of Waiuku, 40km southwest of Auckland, Zonda Beneficials is buzzing over the increasing potential bumblebees offer the horticulture industry. By Helena O’Neill Company director and project chairperson Roelf Schreuder, independent consultant Dr Jo Stephens, and research assistant and lead researcher Dr Gunjan Gera, are working together on a four-year research project looking into ways to keep bumblebees pollinating for longer. They are also investigating mass breeding programmes for predatory mites. The project has three main objectives: • Improving commercial bumblebee hives • Developing a mass-rearing programme for predatory mite A. limonicus (Limonica), • Improving the existing mass breeding program for predatory mite P. persimilis (Spidex).
It is hoped that the project will also open up reliable options for growers in terms of pollination and predator control. Zonda Beneficials production and research and development manager, Dr Gunjan Gera, says bumblebees are crucial for the pollination of many kinds of produce, especially tomatoes and blueberries. Bumblebees are of increasing interest to growers of other berry fruit too, as well as crops like avocado, kiwifruit and passionfruit. “It’s not a big market in New Zealand,” says Gunjan. “Bumblebees have small colonies in comparison to honey bees.”
The ORCHARDIST : NOVEMBER 2021 15
